AllPointsFibre Launch New UK Aquila Wholesale Full Fibre Network

Alternative broadband operator All Points Fibre Networks (APFN) will today formally launch its new Aquila wholesale platform into the wider UK market, which aims to make it simpler and easier for UK ISPs and resellers to gain access to Openreach, BTWholesale, CityFibre and APFN’s combined full fibre (FTTP) network footprints (c. 19 million premises).

Using a “no code / low code” approach, APFN claims it can help ISPs launch additional services, products and add infrastructure coverage “faster than any other wholesaler“. But only the internet providers can really judge the reality of this, and it remains unclear whether what they’re offering is as cost competitive as some of the other wholesale platforms out there.

“If CSPs want to serve premises on a national scale, they must currently use complex, fragmented systems with plenty of legacy technology. These systems have been built by multiple suppliers over the years, using older, copper-focused processes, systems and infrastructure which results in contention issues and often don’t interconnect properly. That makes the process complex, inefficient and results in poor customer experience,” said APFN.

By comparison, Aquila claims that comms providers can “unlock tens of millions of premises through a single relationship within 1 week via the aquila self-serve portal, or 6 weeks via its set of APIs. There is no Minimum Volume Commitment for CSPs to use aquila“. But it should be said that wholesale platforms are not immovable objects and more established providers are modernising their approaches too. On the other hand, Aquila does seem to offer much more than core connectivity solutions.

Summary of Aquila’s Connectivity and Service Offerings

➤ Symmetric and asymmetric Layer 3 FTTP (Business and Consumer grade)

➤ Ethernet services

➤ Static IP

➤ CPE (Customer-Premises Equipment) logistics (incl configuration, forward and reverse hardware logistics, decommissioning, repair and WEEE disposal)

➤ Telemetry reporting: CSPs see what we see – full transparency data and insights as a service.

➤ Professional service

➤ Service management portal

In the above case, Layer 3 (L3) is for providers who want a managed solution (L3 services come with fully routed connectivity), but there are also Layer 2 (L2) services for those who want full control (i.e. routing, IP addressing, and network management).

In addition, APFN informs ISPreview that they’ve built a brand-new core and edge network around all this. The aquila core network design features a figure-of-eight national backbone that they say “eliminates single points of failure” and provides connectivity to each of their locally enabled partner exchange buildings.

Speaking of which, APFN has partnered with Juniper Networks to install their latest carrier-grade routing equipment. This features 400Gbps NNI (Network-to-Network Interface) connections and 100Gbps as the lowest speed interface (aquila says they’re a “10Gbps-free zone“). The platform also employs edge-to-edge encryption.

Ronan Kelly, APFN Managing Director, said:

“aquila is built to transform wholesale fibre connectivity, making national full-fibre access simple, scalable, and efficient. By consolidating the UK’s largest full-fibre networks into one seamless platform, we’re enabling CSPs to grow faster and serve more customers—without the traditional complexity.

Wholesale fibre access has needed a modern, transparent, and scalable alternative for a long time. With aquila and APFN’s robust network architecture, CSPs gain total control over their services, ensuring a faster, smarter, and more flexible approach to full-fibre delivery.”

As above, it’s very hard for us to judge different wholesale platforms, although this does sound like an interesting set of solutions. At the end of the day, the proof will be in the adoption. But we should point out that other providers, such as Zen Internet and PXC (formerly TalkTalk Wholesale), are also playing at the wholesale and network aggregation game.