Business ISP Commsworld Plan Full Fibre Network in Newcastle

Scotland-based UK business ISP Commsworld – supported by NE1 Ltd – has announced that they intend to build a new “full fibre” and broadband network around the central NE1 postcode area within the city of Newcastle (Tyne and Wear), which will be focused upon catering for the demands of both local businesses and public sector sites.

The announcement notes that Commsworld has also delivered “similar projects in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, where businesses have regularly been able to access connection speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second. Organisations also have the capability to dial up to 10 gigabits per second for larger events.”

However part of their deployment in Edinburgh and Glasgow harnessed Cityfibre’s Dark Fibre network(s) and this leads us to wonder whether their roll-out in Newcastle is really part of Cityfibre’s deployment, which is also intending to cover almost the entire city with FTTP under via their £2.5bn rollout (here). Nevertheless Cityfibre is not mentioned in their announcement.

Apparently the new deployment will be demand-led and firms that express an interest may thus be reached sooner than those that don’t. “Those that sign up are also more likely to be within easy reach of the network, with close proximity offering the potential of reduced costs,” said Commsworld. Briefing sessions on the new plan are due to be held on Tuesday 3rd December at 8am and 3.30pm.

Bruce Strang, MD of Commsworld, said:

“We’re always looking for new ways to improve networks for businesses across the UK.

Therefore we’re greatly excited to be working with NE1 Ltd to run information sessions to brief businesses on the new connectivity potential that awaits public and private sector clients in Newcastle.

An important part of what we’re doing in Newcastle is working with organisations like NE1 Ltd to map out the best route for infrastructure which will benefit the business community in the city.”

Bruce added that Commsworld plans to start work in Newcastle “as soon we can” and they want customers to be “up and running on the network within the next 12 months.” The new network will also act as the anchor for subsequent expansion throughout the region, enabling businesses in the wider area to access “full fibre” connectivity in the near future.

Earlier this year the ISP said that they aimed to light up over 2,000 km+ of fibre optic cable in a figure of eight around the UK (one of the largest privately funded long distance Optical Core Networks in the country). At present the provider’s network, which includes 10,000km of metro dark fibre and 2000km+ of long distance fibre, passes through 25 UK towns and cities via 82 Points of Presence (PoPs), 52 exchanges, 26 data centres and they have 130Gbps of peering and transit capacity (1.6Tbps of core optical capacity and 25Tbps of on-net edge port capacity).