TfW Ffeibr’s railway full fibre network connects four Gower College campuses

The not‑for‑profit network operator TfW Ffeibr (TfW Fibre), which is an arm’s-length initiative owned by Transport for Wales (TfW) and thus the Welsh Government, has just used their railway based full fibre broadband and Ethernet network to connect Gower College campuses through the development of a new Dark Fibre network loop.

Back in 2024 TfW Ffeibr announced that they had built a new full fibre network alongside several local railways and were offering access to help serve local communities (here). This occurred along the South Wales Metro, partly while carrying out huge infrastructure changes to electrify the railway line in the South Wales Valleys.

In partnership with ARO Technologies, the new network has now been extended to connect four of the Gower College’s key sites – Gorseinon, Tycoch, Sketty Hall Business School and Llwyn-y-Bryn. The new digital backbone this has delivered will serve 10,000 students and 850 staff members, while protecting approximately 100 servers housing everything from student records to digital learning sites.

“By choosing ffeibr’s dark fibre solution over costly cloud migration options, the College gained total control over its network alongside vital built-in resilience. The multi network path helps the college maintain connectivity even in the event of a fault,” said the announcement.

Guy Reiffer, Managing Director of ffeibr, said:

“Gower College Swansea needed guaranteed resilience, so we showed them the routes.

Dark fibre gives organisations full control over their capacity and their future, and it’s a model we want to bring to more Welsh colleges, universities, public bodies and businesses.

For those who don’t need their own fibre, our gigabit services offer fast, dependable connectivity backed by the same engineering standards.”