Sky and TalkTalk Launch UFO Site to Showcase 1000Mbps Fibre Broadband

Internet providers Sky Broadband and TalkTalk have launched a new website called Ultra Fibre Optic (UFO), which appears designed to showcase the forthcoming commercial launch of their new 1000Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) network for residents in the city of York (England).

As a quick recap, Sky and TT joined forces with urban fibre optic developer Cityfibre last year to roll-out a 1000Mbps capable FTTH service to homes across York (here) and two further cities (the other two have yet to be confirmed). The network would harness Cityfibre’s existing 10Gbps capable and 103km long fibre optic ring network in the city (The York Core).

Each ISP is known to have contributed £5m to the first phase, which will cover 20,000 premises and that leaves roughly 60,000 left to be completed at a later date (more investment will be required). According to the latest status update from TalkTalk (here), some 1,200 of the 20,000 premises required for phase 1 are already within reach of the network and the first customers should go live during the Autumn 2015 window.

At present Sky Broadband and TalkTalk together already serve approximately 45% of all broadband customers in York and so they’re in a good position to sell the advantages of the new service, with speculation mounting that existing subscribers in related areas might also benefit from a free or automatic upgrade to the new ultrafast connectivity.

But for the time being the new website merely acts as more of an advertising platform, which adds very little in the way of new information (except perhaps for some slightly irritating auto-play sound effects). The website does at least offer a pre-registration system and coverage checker, although right now the coverage is so limited that you’re unlikely to see a “service available” response (give it a few more months). Sadly there are also no details about packages or pricing.

Separately TalkTalk claims that the build costs are so far proving to be in line with their target of under £500 per home passed, which is impressively low for an pure urban fibre optic deployment. At this level the ISP believes that it could eventually bring the network to around 10 million UK homes, albeit requiring a strong uptake of 30%-40%. But that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon as such a network would take many years to build and consume a huge investment.

One thing to be aware of here is that some of the most frustrating, time consuming and difficult parts of any FTTH build come when you have to physical start connecting properties. At this point costs can rise due to the complexities of such work and that may yet test the £500 feasibility benchmark.