JT Win World Communication Award for FTTH Rollout on Jersey

The state-owned ISP JT (Jersey Telecom), which has deployed a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISP network to cover the English Channel Island of Jersey, has won the “The Best Network Transformation Award” for their roll-out as part of the World Communication Awards 2019 event.

Over 550 telecom companies, representing more than 35 countries, took part in the WCA 2019 event, which took place in the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, in London, on Wednesday 30th October 2019. Several other UK operators were also short-listed across various different categories for the event, including Vodafone, Cityfibre, Gigaclear, BT, TalkTalk, Hyperoptic and O2, although none of them managed to secure a win.

Apparently the judges praised the speed at which every broadband user in Jersey had been directly connected to “full fibre” broadband and at no extra cost to users, although JT does enjoy somewhat of a privileged position in the local market. The judges also hailed the social-inclusivity of the network (i.e. opening the door to new digital possibilities) and providing the capacity for the Island’s business community to grow.

Graeme Millar, CEO of JT, said:

“The Gigabit Project involved laying over 3,000 km of individual fibre-optic cable to over 45,000 homes and businesses providing access, (regardless of means) to the whole island. This has transformed businesses and created new revenue streams, catching the interest of multi-national companies to relocate projects to Jersey. This means there are new jobs and training opportunities in exciting roles, including Fintech, Medtech, e-gaming and cloud-computing, all bringing further diversity to Jersey’s economy.

Outside the business world, full fibre has paved the way for many community projects, not least in education where students are benefiting from new ways of learning. Householders are also embracing the opportunity to go ‘smart’. Homes in Jersey now have an average of 23 devices directly connected to the internet.”

As we recall the deployment cost around £40m and roughly half of that came from the States of Jersey via a freeze on dividend payments. JT itself laid over 3,000km of individual fibre optic cable to “almost” 40,000 homes and 5,000 businesses on the island. All of this was completed by the middle of 2018 and after around 6 years of work.