Openreach set to launch 100Gbps UK Ethernet Backhaul Direct product

Sources have revealed that national network operator Openreach (BT) are preparing to launch a new 100G variant of their wholesale Ethernet Backhaul Direct (EBD) product before the end of this month (tentative). The service is designed for broadband ISPs and other network operators who need to move massive amounts of data efficiently across the UK (between Openreach’s nodes).

The “nodes” we’re talking about above are usually aligned to parent handover exchanges (OHPs) for Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / SOGEA) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines etc. But at present the existing EBD product can only connect a provider’s equipment between Openreach handover points across its national infrastructure network at up to 10G speeds per connection, while the new variety should be able to do 100G.

The move forms part of Openreach’s wider shift into 100G and faster territory (examples here, here and here). This is necessary to help supply businesses and network operators with enough capacity to feed modern multi-gigabit connections and support rising customer data demands.

The new product variant(s) should become available to order 28 working days after it’s officially announced, although initially the EBD structures able to fully support such speeds may only be available across a big part of Scotland and N.Ireland, as well as a chunk of the South West (Cornwall) and South East (Kent).

Openreach has confirmed to ISPreview that the above reflects a focus on more remote areas of the UK on EBD structures that are underpinned by the Ciena 6500 optical platform, although officially they say that the launch will be notified within the quarter.

“The EBD 100G development comes off the back of wider investment in the EBD platform across selected areas of the UK to bolster our network resilience. This will see us offer EBD over resilient sub-sea routes for the first time between Orkney and Shetland,” said a spokesperson for Openreach. This investment has already seen them refresh their hardware in the Southeast of England, extending to the Isles of Scilly.

At present we don’t know how much Openreach plan to charge for this, although history tends to suggest that it’ll be cheaper than trying to harness 10 x 10G links to reach the same level of capacity (10G EBD connections are quite expensive).