GibFibreSpeed ISP Bringing 500Mbps FTTH Broadband to Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar, which sits on the southern end of Spain’s Iberian Peninsula in the warm Mediterranean sea, looks set to benefit from even faster broadband after a new ISP called GibFibreSpeed began promising local Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) connections with speeds of up to 500Mbps (Megabits per second).

At present most consumer broadband services in Gibraltar tend to be delivered by the more familiar ADSL2+ and VDSL2 (FTTC) style connections like the UK mainland, which is served via Internet and phone providers like Sapphire or Gibtelecom etc. Pricing can also be quite expensive, at least it is when compared with the rest of the United Kingdom.

But GibFibreSpeed (trading under A.J. Sheriff Electrical Ltd.), which claims to be an offshoot of the Sheriff group of companies based in Gibraltar that began over 80 years ago in 1927, wants to do something new with the British overseas territory. ISPreview.co.uk notes that the ISP appears to be rolling out both Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) services that can deliver speeds of up to 500Mbps. Both approaches take a fibre optic cable all the way to the building, although FTTB may then use the buildings existing copper or coax cable while FTTH is pure fibre.

At this stage the details are a little thin and GibFibreSpeed’s website only appears to have gone live a few weeks ago, although the ISP informs that “more information will be available soon” (e.g. coverage data). However the provider has already revealed a range of packages and there’s also a basic availability checker, which suggests that some areas can already get the FTTB service and FTTH looks set to follow in 2015.

Otherwise the packages start at £15 per month for a basic 10Mbps (2Mbps upload) connection (plus a one-off installation fee of £40), which doesn’t require phone line rental on top of that price and includes an unlimited usage allowance. Apparently the FTTH product comes with a ZTE GPON modem and the FTTB service uses an EoC modem from KingType.

After that it’s noted that there are various faster speed packages, such as a 20Mbps (5Mbps upload) option for £25 per month (currently reduced to £12.50), a 50Mbps (10Mbps upload) package for £50 per month (currently £25) and the top option offers 100Mbps (20Mbps upload) for £75 per month (currently £37.50). Consumers willing to pay more can also build their own service with speeds going up to 500Mbps (symmetrical), which is certain not to be cheap.

Locals are currently being asked to register their interest in the service by selecting the package they want and pre-registering to receive it, although availability remains somewhat of a question mark. In the future there’s also talk of voice (VoIP) and TV (IPTV) services being introduced.