JT Criticised for Delayed 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Network on Jersey

The Treasury Minister for Jersey (Channel Islands), Senator Philip Ozouf, has criticised local telecoms operator JT Global (Jersey Telecom) for allowing an issue with one of its subcontractors to allegedly slow the progress of their new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISP network.

The £41.5m Gigabit Isles initiative aims to deploy the new service to 42,000 local island homes and businesses within the next 3 years (completion in 2016). The project also extends to Guernsey where JT aims to “pass and connect over 5,000 homes and businesses in due course“.

Back in September 2012 JT confirmed that its new network had passed 15,000 homes (with 1,000 subscribers) and installation work was understood to have commenced for a further 8,000 premises. We note how JT originally predicted that 3,505 homes would sign-up within the first year of its project.

However, according to the BBC, JT has so far only managed to sign-up 1,737 homes. But this must be put in context because the operator managed to pass 26,115 homes by 31st December 2012 (well above its original target). Still, uptake clearly remains low, which in fairness is not unexpected (the wider UK market has a similar issue).

Senator Philip Ozouf said:

“Clearly there has been an issue with the subcontractor, and that is commanding the attention of the board, and I have met JT three times in the last week in resolution of this issue and I expect them to resolve it. But the project must be delivered, it must be delivered within the budget and I want an acceleration of connections and I am pressing JT to achieve that.”

No politician or ISP can force homes to connect to a new broadband service, especially when many may already be happy with their existing and cheaper but still slower ADSL2+ based packages. Similarly JT’s CEO, Graeme Millar, notes that its actual network roll-out appears to be on-target and in fact they’ve managed to pass considerably more homes than expected for this stage.