Exa Networks to Supply West Sussex’s Gigabit FTTP Network

Bradford-based UK ISP Exa Networks has been chosen by Cityfibre to supply businesses and education sites over their new Gigabit capable “full fibre” broadband and Ethernet network in West Sussex, which is being built with support from the Government’s £190m Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) fund.

The goal of this deployment is to provide new end-to-end Dark Fibre networks in 9 urban areas through a multi-year lease agreement (here). The contract with Cityfibre is thus based on a 4 year framework agreement (over a 30 year Indefeasible Rights of Use), with a total lifetime value of £52.7m.

Under the deal Cityfibre will construct a new full fibre network to 152 council sites in Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Worthing. The initial contract value of this first phase call-off under the framework is £5.7m. Construction is expected to begin in August 2018 and the first connections could go live during early 2019.

As usual the operator will need an ISP partner to help sell services over the network and today we learn that Exa Networks has been chosen. The provider will also be working alongside local partners in Sussex, such as JSPC Computer Services.

Mark Cowgill, co-Founder and Director of Exa Networks, said:

“Exa is delighted to be expanding our DarkLight service into West Sussex.

It is an area in which we have worked very closely with our accredited partner, JSPC, for the past six years, and we have all been working very hard to bring our multi-gigabit service to the area. This will make a huge difference to schools and businesses throughout the county.”

Margot James, UK Minister for Digital, said:

“Our programme will deliver a tremendous boost to broadband speeds for the councils of West Sussex as part of our £190m full-fibre challenge fund. Initiatives like these are transforming the digital landscape of the UK, helping us to build a Britain that is fit for the future.”

Exa Networks added that they already provide internet connectivity to over 180 schools in the area and it is expected that a large number of these will be able to switch over to the new technology within the next year. The network build will also enable a much larger number of businesses to take advantage of the scheme and become gigabit enabled.

The ISP recently announced that their Dark Light fibre technology for businesses can deliver data speeds of 10,000Mbps+ (10Gbps). All of this work could also help to put West Sussex in a good position for a residential FTTH rollout further down the line, which is something that Cityfibre and Vodafone are doing in other cities (here).