Virgin Media O2 Business Completes Dark Fibre Network in Swansea Bay City Region
Broadband ISP Virgin Media O2 Business (VMO2) has completed the Dark Fibre Network East project as part of the Swansea Bay City Region project (Digital Infrastructure Programme), which is said to have delivered a secure fibre network linking 36 public-sector sites (e.g. council offices, NHS, doctors, schools etc.) through 46 connections in Llanelli, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot.
The deployment contract was officially announced for VMO2 Business back in September 2024 and originally due to complete by December 2025, reflecting a total investment of £1,354,698 under the Swansea Bay City Deal. Suffice to say that it only took slightly longer than planned to reach formal completion.
Just some of the “partners” connected through the project include the Welsh Ambulance Service University Trust, Swansea Bay University Health Board, Hywel Dda University Health Board, Carmarthenshire County Council, Swansea Council, Neath Port Talbot Council, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and Swansea University.
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All of those should now benefit from faster and more secure connectivity, including cloud systems and new ways of working. The network also improves resilience, helping critical services stay connected and continue operating during disruptions.
Martin McFadyen, Director of Public Sector at VMO2 Business, said:
“This project has been a fantastic success and will strengthen public-sector services for years to come. We’re proud to have been the delivery partner and look forward to continuing our strong working relationships across the Swansea Bay City Region.”
As part of the social value commitments under this contract, “ultrafast broadband” is also supposed to be provided free of charge for 5 years at a total of 16 community organisations. In the past we’ve seen how similar anchor tenancy models can also result in such networks being opened up for use by commercial network expansions too, although this would require additional private investment.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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the title seems a bit misleading, as though it’s being built to be dark
No the title is accurate. VMO2 have built a network that they will not be putting any of their own traffic on. Therefore the network is “Dark” to VMO2. That’s what Dark Fibre is.