Nextgenaccess Get £22m for 10Gbps Bristol to Newport Fibre Link

Some 4,000 small businesses in South Wales and South West England could benefit after network builder Nextgenaccess secured an investment of £22m from the UK Government backed National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF), which among bigger plans will also build a new 80km fibre optic link between Bristol and Newport.

The NDIF is a commercial fund that is supported by the Government’s £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF). Both are focused on supporting the construction of alternative “full fibre” (FTTP/H) style broadband ISP and Ethernet networks. NDIF is being managed by the Amber Infrastructure Group (Amber), which is an infrastructure specialist.

At present Nextgenaccess has already built more than 100 Points of Presence (PoPs) in 10 different UK local authority areas, which has enabled small businesses in “otherwise underserved areas” to connect directly via their wholesale Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network at speeds of up to 10Gbps.

Meanwhile the new investment of £22m will aim to extend this and help the operator to target 1,000km of new high capacity fibre routes across the UK by the end of 2020, starting with an 80km route connecting the City of Bristol to Europe’s largest data centre located in Newport (Wales), including a 4km connection across the Severn Bridge.

Mark Weller, MD of Nextgenaccess Ltd, said:

“NDIF’s investment will allow us to accelerate scale deployment of our independent ultrafast network across the UK, particularly to underserved areas where we can provide small businesses with unique access to truly next generation full-fibre broadband at a proven lower cost than traditional telecoms operators.”

Khalid Naqib, Senior Investment Director of Amber Infrastructure, said:

“Widescale FTTP and 5G rollout will make increasing demands on the capacity of the UK’s existing network infrastructure. Deploying wholesale access fibre quickly and effectively is key to bringing forward the next generation of connectivity for homes and businesses. With the backing of NDIF as a long-term, responsible partner, NGA will help to future-proof the UK’s fibre infrastructure and accelerate the ambitious transition to a gigabit future.”

The link is being developed in partnership with data centre operator, Next Generation Data (NGD), and as part of the deal NDIF will also acquire a substantial minority shareholding in Nextgenaccess.