Commsworld Agree £22m Full Fibre Upgrade for Northumberland UK

Business broadband ISP Commsworld has signed yet another agreement with Northumberland County Council in England, which is worth £22m and will see them replace the council’s ageing Wide Area Network (WAN) with modern full-fibre infrastructure. Local businesses and homes could also see improved connectivity.

The agreement, which follows closely behind last year’s contract to roll out a new gigabit-capable full fibre network to connect 110 schools in the county (here), will see Commsworld deliver 262km of new fibre infrastructure to help “transform connectivity” to nearly 150 council sites.

On top of that, the announcement states that the new network “will also enable access to more than 120,000 residential and business properties” across the county to Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines, many of whom are said to have “never enjoyed access to a gigabit-capable fibre networks before“.

The fibre infrastructure will also be linked to Commsworld’s latest Optical Core Network (OCN), a next generation network in which it invested £10m, built specifically to boost security and resilience of digital infrastructure to organisations the length and breadth of the UK.

However, Commsworld does not itself serve residential premises, thus it is perhaps more accurate to say that the new full fibre network could help to support other consumer ISPs in doing this by providing wholesale access to the infrastructure in towns and rural areas, often at a reduced cost (most likely requiring further commercial investment). The OCN will thus act as the ‘spine’ from which wholesale fibre broadband providers can branch out into those locations.

Glen Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council, said:

“This long-term approach marks a new and historic way forward for the council and its positive impact cannot be underestimated. We are one of the first rural counties in England to focus on changing the lives of our communities by not only providing the infrastructure to give them ground-breaking access to full-fibre broadband, but future-proofing the system so it can adapt and grow according to the needs of everyone who lives and works in Northumberland.

Above all, it will directly tackle digital exclusion, especially for those in our rural areas. Equality of access is vital if we want to improve the lives of all our citizens. Providing access to significantly enhanced internet connections will go a very long way to bridging this digital divide and benefit all our schoolchildren, parents and families, as well as our businesses and organisations.”

Bruce Strang, COO of Commsworld, said:

“Commsworld welcomes securing this contract to replace Northumberland’s WAN network. This is our first major contract of this kind in England, having similarly delivered massively enhanced infrastructure to local authorities in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders.

We are looking forward to bringing the full, transformative benefits of our Optical Core Network to Northumberland. Through the network, and working with our partners – including forward-thinking local fibre providers such as Alncom – we can provide a step change in connectivity and resiliency right across the county, bringing huge benefits to all those who live, learn and work there. I have no doubt that the digital infrastructure we provide will benefit the whole of Northumberland.”

The full NCC741 Wide Area Network Replacement Project and its framework agreement can be found here. The Commsworld migration plan is built on a two-stage approach, with both stages running in parallel. This will involve creating an interim service utilising all Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) services, whilst at the same time, building and migrating the service onto the dark fibre digital infrastructure, which is not only focused on reaching the listed council sites, but also every school in the county. 

The contract will also see Commsworld work in partnership with the iNorthumberland team at the council, Community Action Northumberland and the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) to tackle digital poverty, alongside digital skills and confidence within the communities of Northumberland.

However, the announcement makes no mention of how long this will all take to complete.

UPDATE 6th March 2023

The council wants to make extra clear that the installation itself won’t take 20 years, but that Commsworld will be facilitating the service for that length of time.