Wildanet Pick Xantaro to Support Cornwall UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout

Rural broadband ISP Wildanet, which is building a new full fibre (FTTP) network across South West England, has chosen network solutions provider Xantaro and Nokia to help support their deployments in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with Street Cabinet and Exchange Solutions etc.

The provider, which originally started life as a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband provider in the same area, is estimated to have already extended their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover around 30,000 premises (here) – short of the 50k target they originally set for the end of 2023.

In January 2023 the operator also secured the £36m state aid fuelled Project Gigabit broadband contract to cover more than 19,250 premises in Cornwall (here), which was followed in April 2024 by a £41.2m contract to connect 16,800 premises across the rest of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (here). Both are designed to complement their existing commercial build.

Xantaro has now been chosen to source, build and install all necessary communications cabinets and exchange solutions for the project, further “increasing the speed and efficiency of the build“. Xantaro will also be providing professional services to Wildanet, to “ensure a professionally configured network with minimal disruption.”

Stephen Kingdom, CTO of Fixed Networks at Xantaro, said:

“Xantaro is delighted to have been selected by Wildanet to construct one of the UK’s most resilient, high-capacity, and future-proof networks. Drawing on our extensive experience with altnets across the UK and our longstanding partnership with Nokia, we are pleased to be delivering cutting-edge cabinet technology and professional services to Wildanet. Together, we will accelerate the deployment of fibre and essential connectivity to underserved communities.”

Xantaro’s fully integrated cabinet and exchange solutions will apparently be delivered to site a fully tested, pre-built and configured solution, incorporating the Nokia OLT, VIAVI centralised OTDR test head, Out of Band (OOB) Management solution, iLOQ features and more.

The OOB management solution means the cabinet can be fully controlled and managed prior to any backhaul solution being deployed, enabling PON ports to be managed and ODN build to progress smoothly. Xantaro will further support Wildanet with the deployment of the Nokia network management solutions.

Customers of Wildanet’s service typically pay from £29 per month to receive a 200Mbps (40Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with free installation, which rises to £69 if you want their top 900Mbps (200Mbps upload) package. The provider also offers a Social Tariff for those on state benefits, which gives you 50Mbps (20Mbps upload) speeds for just £19 per month on a 12-month contract.