FTTH Broadband ISP toob Harnesses ADTRAN Kit for UK Rollout

Portsmouth-based ISP toob, which is being supported by an investment of £75m (here) and aims to cover 100,000 UK premises with their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network by the end of 2021, has reached a deal to use ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 (TA5000) series of Multi-Service Access Nodes (MSAN).

The TA5000 series supports a wide range of connectivity solutions, although in this case we suspect that toob are most interested in its 10Gbps XGS-PON/NG-PON2 capabilities. Under this deal ADTRAN will provide the ISP with full turnkey support that includes the delivery, installation and commissioning of toob’s core, transport and access network.

No doubt one of the first location to benefit from this will be the provider’s rollout across the south coast port city of Southampton (Hampshire), which is said to have started in September but despite all the talk we’ve yet to see much solid evidence of this on the ground (here); earlier engineering surveys notwithstanding.

Nick Parbutt, toob CEO, said:

“The UK’s digital infrastructure is uncompetitive at present with only 8% of premises being able to access a full fibre connection. At toob we are committed to bringing the benefits of full fibre to all sectors of society in the communities in which we operate.

We are executing quickly to pass 100,000 premises by the end of 2021 on our way to passing more than 1 million premises over the next decade. ADTRAN has matched our ambitious pace with delivering our network into Southampton in a matter of months, and I look forward to developing a stronger partnership over the coming years.”

We should add that rival cable ISP Virgin Media recently went live with their own 1Gbps service using DOCSIS 3.1 technology right across the city (here) and they’ve made no secret of their desire to keep alternative network ISPs, like toob, “out of our city.”