
Neos Networks, which until recently operated a 20,000km+ long fibre network via over 350 related Points of Presence (PoPs) across the UK, has today announced that they’ve unbundled a further 201 exchanges on their network and aim to have 550 exchanges on-net by the end of the year.
As a result of all this a total of 409 exchanges have now been unbundled, growing the telco’s network to 24,480km (rising to over 30,000km by the end of 2021), with each exchange set to deliver “resilient” capacities of 100Gbps (Gigabits per second).
The fibre network that Neos supplies is used to serve the enterprise and public sector, as well as wholesalers, network operators, and UK broadband ISPs that need to boost their capacity for customers (i.e. as opposed to building their own backhaul capacity solutions at a greater cost).
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Colin Sempill, CEO of Neos Networks, said:
“As the government looks to achieve better fibre connectivity across the country, projects such as our edge expansion rollout are critical in helping organisations make this a reality.
We’ve been regularly keeping the market updated with our progress in terms of the number of exchanges unbundled and are delighted to announce this further 197, especially as we’ve been able to complete these on schedule despite the testing environment of the pandemic. Showing our continued commitment to support customers with best in class connectivity.”
Developments like this might not seem so interesting on the consumer side of things but, by providing all of this extra fibre and capacity via so many new sites, Neos are helping to support the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable broadband networks across the United Kingdom.
What are the 201 exchanges, and what are the exchanges they hope to complete in the rest of the year?
I’d like to know that too!
How many of these 550 unbundled BT Exhanges will be affected by BTs Exchange closures?
I think that map shows many of the issues with fibre rollout. My town is slap bang in the middle of one of those links. I’ve even seen NEOS vans in the area working on something out on the towns bypass (where the fibre must run) but we’ve not got a node so unlikely a altnet are going to move in (and therefore openreach are in no rush).
It may help to think of Dark Fibre as being like an 8 lane motorway, while reaching homes is more akin to building small lanes and side streets. But you still need somebody willing to build those lanes and streets in order to progress the coverage.