At the end of last year we revealed that a new UK ISP called Cambridge Fibre was preparing to deploy a multi-Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network for homes and businesses in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (here). The provider now appears to have begun their rollout and launched packages.
We still know very little about this provider, although the details published last year suggested that they aspired to build an unlimited 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service for around 1,400 homes and a “hyperfast” 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network for businesses during 2018 (a 100Gbps Leased Line solution is also mooted). The network would use a mix of PON, GPON and XGS-PON fibre technologies.
Since then the operator has finally launched its own website and their first packages. The initial network deployment will also be focused on parts of the main city of Cambridge and the nearby cathedral city of Ely, although exact details on the coverage plan and deployment time-scale remain elusive.
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John McEleney, co-Founder of Cambridge Fibre, said (Cambridge Network):
“High-speed Internet connections are only as good as the networks they rely on. Existing broadband services in Cambridge and Ely, even those claiming to be “fibre” broadband, are still built on the outdated copper cabling, which is why so many people experience slow and lagging connections despite upgrading their packages.
When companies offer fibre broadband, it is only installed up to the local street cabinet, and not directly into the home or business. These local connections, or last mile delivery, rely on the aging copper networks and this is the Achilles’ heel: the further broadband travels on copper the slower the speed, whereas fibre delivers the same gigabit speed if it is 20 metres or 20 kilometres.
The massive jump in speed and reliability, which Cambridge Fibre is delivering, can only be achieved by building a completely new network.”
In fairness Virgin Media’s 350Mbps capable Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network has significant coverage in Cambridge and with the future DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade we could see this being boosted to 1Gbps. Meanwhile Openreach (BT) have been deploying a fair bit of 330Mbps G.fast in the city (most of their modern coverage is still done via slower FTTC / VDSL2 lines) and a little FTTP can also be found in a few spots.
As we recall Cambridge Fibre will look to harness Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles (PIA – Physical Infrastructure Access) in order to help grow their network. If all goes well then we could see them expanding out further into the East Anglia region, possibly followed by other parts of the East Midlands and even London.
In the meantime the ISP has begun offering three primary home packages and three for businesses, although one disadvantage compared to other “full fibre” (FTTP/H) ISPs is that they don’t appear to be symmetrical in speed. The ISP has also teamed up with Vonage to offer a VoIP phone service for an additional £8.50 inc. VAT per month.
Home Basic
Download: 500Mbps
Upload: 10MbpsPrice: £32 per month
Home Plus
Download: 900Mbps
Upload: 20MbpsPrice: £38 per month
Home Premium
Download: 900Mbps
Upload: 40MbpsPrice: £48 per month
The price point of £38 for their Gigabit (900Mbps average) package would make this one of the cheapest such ISPs on the UK market, although those upload speeds do distract a bit from that. Nevertheless John McEleney is a man with plenty of experience in the industry and the ISP has wasted no time in both joining the ISPA and an Ofcom approved ADR provider (Ombudsman Services), which gives us some confidence that this little start-up is going in the right direction.
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