The Welsh Government’s Superfast Cymru project has today been highlighted after BTOpenreach’s engineers deployed more than 16km of overhead and 20km of underground fibre optic cable in order to roll-out their 330Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) connectivity into the remote rural community of Dinas Mawddwy in Gwynedd.
According to the press release, the 16km of overhead fibre represents a distance that has not been achieved before anywhere in the United Kingdom and as a result “Dinas Mawddwy residents will now have access to some of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK“.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t forget all those independent ISPs that are rolling out 1000Mbps FTTP/H/B connections to rural and some urban areas and often without public funding, which probably have more claim to the “fastest” consumer speeds crown.
Julie James, Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology, said:
“This is excellent news for the residents and businesses of Dinas Mawddwy and shows the lengths the Superfast Cymru programme is going so people can enjoy the benefits of fast fibre broadband.
The sheer distance of the overhead fibre to reach the village is an achievement which hasn’t been realised before throughout the UK and shows our commitment to connect rural communities in Wales.
Bringing superfast speeds to Dinas Mawddwy is a symbol of how ambitious the Superfast Cymru programme is and by Spring 2016 we aim to reach 96% of properties meaning people will have access to faster internet speeds quicker than the rest of the UK.
We are committed to seeing Wales become a truly digital nation and the Superfast Cymru scheme is vital in making that vision a reality.”
Mind you we’ve seen quite a lot of FTTP being deployed out to rural areas by BTOpenreach over the past 6 months, including a fair few locations in Wales (here). The press release reiterates this by stating that some of the other locations in Wales to have benefited from FTTP technology include Llanengan, Mold, Connahs Quay, Morriston and Gorseinon.
Unfortunately FTTP deployments are still in the minority, with BT’s dominant and slower hybrid-fibre ‘up to’ 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) service continuing to do most of the leg work.
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