Spectrum Internet Builds Community FTTP Broadband in Shirenewton

Residents of a well sized rural village in Monmouthshire (Wales) called Shirenewton could soon be able to benefit from a superfast fibre optic connection via Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, which is being rolled out by Cardiff-based ISP Spectrum Internet.

The village, which interestingly is also listed for inclusion under the wider Superfast Cymru project with BT after September 2015 (here), has recently seen some fresh activity via contractors for Spectrum Internet moving in with 25mm wide micro-trenching equipment to lay new fibre optic cables.

Officially the ISP isn’t yet ready to tell us much about the development, although they appear to be doing some interesting / similar things with several communities in Wales and they aren’t worried about the rival BDUK plans because their FTTP approach is generally superior to the slower hybrid-fibre (FTTC) solution that dominates the BDUK scheme (unless BT suddenly decides to stick FTTP into Shirenewton as well).

Separately it also appears as if much of the ISPs FTTP work is taking place in areas that suffer from a lot of nasty Exchange Only Lines (EOL). Meanwhile a quick check of Spectrum’s website reveals that two separate sites have now been setup for related projects – Super Fast Monmouthshire and Super Fast Gower.

The Monmouthshire site references a mix of 75Mbps capable FTTC and superfast wireless solutions for locations served by either the Wolvesnewton, Shirenewton or Tintern exchanges (aka – the BiGDiG area), such as Devauden and Penallt that may also be able to benefit from the Welsh Government’s Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant funding for use in sub-2Mbps areas.

Elsewhere the Gower site is more familiar because it covers some similar work that we’ve reported on before (here), which has already benefitted Horton, Oxwich, Port Eynon, Llanrhidian, Middleton and Rhossili.

Clearly the FTTP side to all this is something new and represents a big progression from Spectrum Internet’s prior Sub-Loop Unbundled (SLU) FTTC approach, although for now the ISP isn’t yet willing to say precisely what they’re doing or have planned for the future, but we should know more soon.

One other interesting aspect of all this is the growing tendency for alternative network (altnet) ISPs to shun rival BT deployments through BDUK and instead go it alone, which is something that B4RN has also done in part(s) of Lancashire.