Aylesbury Vale Broadband Prep 1Gbps FTTH for Rural Buckinghamshire

The Aylesbury Vale Broadband project in rural Buckinghamshire (England) has confirmed that it hopes to launch a 1Gbps package on their Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) network by December 2017 and that they could expand into neighbouring counties.

At present the £700,000 publicly funded deployment, which is reaching an ever growing number of local villages (Hoggeston, Granborough, North Marston, Swanbourne etc.), only offers a selection of broadband packages between 30Mbps to 300Mbps. Mind you we suspect that 1Gbps might be quite expensive, given that their 300Mbps service costs £135 a month.

Now a new application for Code Powers (this helps to simplify the planning process by reducing the number of licenses needed for civil works) from Ofcom has revealed that AVB’s network already “passes” 2,000 homes. On top of that they have an aspiration to expand their coverage into the neighbouring counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes and Hertfordshire.

Code Powers Statement

[AVB] has explained that its ultra-fast fibre network went live in November 2015 and; since then, it has deployed over 50 kms of ducting and installed fibre in a number of rural villages in Buckinghamshire. Its current network already passes approximately 2,000 homes, and it has explained that, if it is granted Code powers, it intends to have its ducting and fibre installed in at least another three rural villages by the end of July 2017, with another seven targeted by the end of this year.

It has also explained that, if Code powers were granted to it, it is highly likely that it will in the future expand its fibre network into the neighbouring counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes and Hertfordshire.

As usual Ofcom has proposed to grant the code powers and opened a public consultation, which tends to be waved through quite quickly. However we’d suggest taking the claims about large scale network expansion with a pinch of salt because such applications often set out an operator’s most aspirational vision, which may or may not be achieved in the future.

AVB also said that their network is focused on areas “not covered by the Connected Counties (BDUK) programme, and that it is highly unlikely that any other competing operators would deploy a full fibre network to these areas,” although they have recently run into a few areas where Gigaclear also intends to deploy (here).