New UK Full Fibre Broadband ISP Zzoomm Begins Network Testing

New ISP Zzoomm, which was launched earlier this year by Gigaclear’s founder and hopes to cover 1 million homes with 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband tech by the end of 2024 (here), has said that they’ve “assembled and powered up” a full end-to-end test of their new access network ahead of its roll-out.

Last month the provider, which is being supported by an initial investment of £1m from CEO Matthew Hare, confirmed that they intended to use ADTRAN‘s next generation XGS-PON solution and equipment to deliver a 10Gbps capable “full fibre” service to any homes and businesses they cover (here).

At present the test bed they’ve built is merely designed to “simulate” their future network and is said to look like a “cabinet full of cream boxes and flashing lights,” although it does include internet connectivity, a 100Gbps core and edge connectivity and multiple XGS-PON Optical Line Terminations (OLT). Not to mention lots of Zzoomm’s yellow fibre optic cabling.

The test bed also has customer Optical Network Terminals (ONT) and broadband routers, to help replicate the set-up in a typical household. Like most new networks the ISP will use this to help validate their service management, provisioning, operations and network monitoring approach before building the real thing.

Zzoomm Statement

Zzoomm will be testing different software loads to ensure that the network runs reliably and importantly, the test bed will be used to introduce software and hardware failures to ensure that the resilience designed into the network delivers continuous service to customers. Our network won’t just be fast, it will be dependable too.

Getting the network testing underway is another big step towards bringing fast full fibre to homes and businesses across the UK. Get ready. Zzoomm’s coming!

The provider eventually intends to target the more commercially viable and lucrative urban areas, specifically smaller cities (e.g. Hastings, Amersham, Weymouth and Huntingdon) and the suburbs of larger cities (e.g. London and Birmingham). Under the current plan they expect their first deployments to take place sometime this summer 2019 and they’re busy trying to secure some solid investment partners in order to support the wider roll-out.