Cornwall UK ISP Wildanet Pilot Carbon Saving FTTP Broadband Build Process

Rural broadband ISP Wildanet, which is deploying a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon (England), has joined forces with build contractor Dynamic Fibre to help pilot a new cable-laying process that could “dramatically reduce the carbon footprint” of their deployment.

The operator, which originally started life as a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband provider in the same area, has more recently been deploying gigabit-capable full fibre lines – both commercially and via public investment – and is estimated to have so far covered around 30,000 premises (Ready for Service).

However, anything that can make the civil engineering side of this work less wasteful is always a positive, which is where Dynamic Fibre comes in. The street works firm has secured approval from Cornwall Council highways to use a sustainable trench excavation and reinstatement process – known as SMR (Structural Material for Reinstatement) – which recycles dug material back into excavations, after mixing it with a special binder.

The result is minimal excavated material being sent to landfill; less use of quarried aggregates; a halving of lorry movements; and 50% less asphalt needed to finish the top layer of footways. Wildanet claims the “environmental benefits are significant“, with each kilometre of trenching using the SMR technique saving an estimated:

• 153 tonnes of excavated material going to landfill
• 153 tonnes of quarried aggregate
• 32 tonnes of asphalt
• 20 fewer HGV lorry movements

Julie-anne Sunderland, Wildanet, said:

“Wildanet’s mission is to transform internet connectivity for rural and hard-to-reach communities in Cornwall, through the roll-out of the latest generation gigabit-enabled fibre to the premises, and to do so in the most sustainable way possible.

As a certified B Corp, we’re committed to building sustainability into the heart of everything we do. We are delighted to be working with Dynamic Fibre on the introduction of SMR into street works in Cornwall. We hope that by supporting this initiative we will not only improve the sustainability of our own network build but encourage and enable the adoption of more sustainable practices by other organisations and contractors across the county.”

According to John McGrath, Dynamic Fibre’s UK Operations Director, the company has so far carried out an initial 22km of installations for Wildanet, which is said to be the equivalent of 440 lorry movements saved (i.e. a considerable reduction in the environmental footprint of the network roll-out). Naturally, there’s a video of all this: