The Japanese multinational computer hardware and IT services company, Fujitsu, has revealed plans to work alongside several major UK ISPs, including Virgin Media , TalkTalk and network developer Cisco, on the development and delivery of a new superfast fibre optic broadband network that could reach 5 Million homes in rural areas and act as a vital alternative to BT Openreach's national platform.

The news is likely to surprise BT, which recently shrugged off related concern that access to its own Telegraph Poles and Cable Ducts (Physical Infrastructure Access) had been set too high (here). BT then accused several rivals, which included Virgin Media , TalkTalk , Geo , Vtesse Networks and Fujitsu, of spending "more time talking about this process than actually working on it".


Today's move by Virgin Media , TalkTalk , Cisco and Fujitsu would appear to be their reply. According to the details that we've received, the Fujitsu Open Access Wholesale Network will be underpinned by Cisco’s technology.

Meanwhile Virgin Media and TalkTalk will access wholesale products via this network in order to retail next generation services to customers in remote parts of the UK. The network will also be open to other ISPs on wholesale terms.

Fujitsu certainly has some experience with building 100Mbps+ capable Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) broadband networks, though they haven't always gone quite to plan (Dundee example). However, the new collaboration promises to transform rural broadband in the UK in a number of important ways.

The Fujitsu Open Access Wholesale Network

* In the vast majority of areas, Fujitsu will run fibre optic cabling directly to the home (FTTH), rather than to the local street cabinet. As a result, the Fujitsu network will be one gigabit (1Gbps) symmetric capable from day one with potential to go to 10Gbps and beyond.

* Fujitsu’s network will be truly open access to all ISPs offering the end customer an unrivalled choice of services over a single physical network connection.

* Deployment across a wide range of underground and overhead infrastructure means that the Fujitsu network architecture is entirely independent of existing street cabinets. This model enables public investment to be targeted in areas where broadband provision is poorest.

* The collaboration will actively support the involvement of local community broadband groups, enabling dynamic and flexible solutions in rural communities for the first time.

* Superfast upload and download speeds can enable entertainment, remote healthcare, education and future government services without the need to travel. This future-proof infrastructure will shrink distances and will bring to rural Britain the services that the rest of the UK can enjoy today.

Fujitsu crucially claims that their plan relies upon Ofcom being able to successfully impose its regulatory remedy upon BT Openreach, which would give the ISPs crucial access to BT's underground ducts and telegraph poles on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms.





The whole project sounds very promising but still lacks crucial details, such a timescale, coverage information and a specific financial commitment. At the very least this move should place a significant amount of added pressure upon Ofcom and the government to ensure that BT is forced to lowers its prices. For its part, BT claims that its trial costs are already lower than most of its European rivals. The battle lines have been drawn.

UPDATE 12:41pm

It's been noted that Fujitsu could spend up to £2bn on building the network, with a sizeable chunk potentially coming from the governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office (budget of £830m by 2017).

UPDATE 14th April 2011

More details coming in. Fujitsu aims to have its first retail customer in 2012, with 5 million being reached in 3-5 years. That takes us up to about 2016.

Separately a lot of sites have been touting the top FTTH speed figure of 1Gbps, which is perhaps a bit misleading. Having a capability and actually offering that speed as a normal part of any home service (i.e. not "boosts") are two very different things. That's why we mentioned 100Mbps instead.