CityFibre UK Expand 1Gbps FTTH Network in Bournemouth to Businesses

CityFibre has announced that its 1000Mbps capable fibre optic (FTTH/P) network in the south coast town of Bournemouth (England) will now been made available to local businesses, which mirrors a similar launch in the city of York earlier this year.

The Bournemouth network was originally constructed by the i3 Group UK and aimed to connect thousands of local homes, although it eventually ran into a mix of serious financial (here) and construction problems (here). The project was eventually taken over by CityFibre, which fixed-up the network (it now passes 21,000 homes) and then refocused to concentrate its efforts upon the development of a new 10Gbps fibre platform in York.

CityFibre have now returned to Bournemouth and announced the launch of a new Leased Line service, which claims to provide “the ultimate in enterprise-grade connectivity – a dedicated symmetrical Gigabit-speed internet service“. Un-contended access and guaranteed bandwidth have also been added alongside a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Rob Hamlin, Head of Business Development at CityFibre, said:

“Following its successful launch in York, we are delighted to extend our Internet Leased Line services to businesses in Bournemouth, to enable them to benefit from the most advanced connectivity available in the world. With this service, customers are able to employ more efficient working methods, such as cloud-computing, advanced teleconferencing, real-time communications and voice over IP (VoIP), and transfer huge files and data in seconds. These services transform workplaces, increasing employee efficiency and job satisfaction.

CityFibre has invested heavily in the town of Bournemouth to transform it into a ‘Gigabit Town’. We are working closely with Bournemouth Borough Council to deliver the connectivity it needs to provide services to the town as efficiently as possible and we look forward to continuing to support the local economy through involvement and sponsorship of local events, such as the Bournemouth Air Festival 2013 and the Silicon Beach 2013 conference.”

At present local homes are served by CityFibre’s sibling ISP called Gigler, which will now be extending its service to businesses located within reach of their network. But at the time of writing Gigler’s website still only appeared to be advertising a range of residential packages.

It’s not known precisely how many HOME customers Gigler has managed to attract but some information suggests that the figure is in the low hundreds. This is not so surprising when you consider that both Virgin Media’s cable and BT’s fibre optic (FTTC/P) based services are also present in the town.