{"id":15753,"date":"2018-03-22T08:28:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=15753"},"modified":"2018-03-22T08:32:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:32:45","slug":"wightfibre-begin-rollout-of-1gbps-home-broadband-on-isle-of-wight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/03\/wightfibre-begin-rollout-of-1gbps-home-broadband-on-isle-of-wight.html","title":{"rendered":"WightFibre Begin Rollout of 1Gbps Home Broadband on Isle of Wight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The joint \u00a335m project between cable ISP WightFibre<\/a> and Infracapital, which aims to deploy a new Gigabit capable ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH<\/a>) broadband network to cover 53000 of the 61000 homes on the Isle of Wight (Hampshire, UK) by the end of 2022, has begun.<\/p>\n

At present WightFibre<\/a> already offers broadband download speeds of up to 152Mbps via their existing cable (DOCSIS<\/a>) hybrid fibre coax network, although they’ve been conducting trials of a Gigabit (1000Mbps+) capable network using FTTH<\/a>\/P technology since 2016 (here<\/a>) and at the end of 2017 the operator finally announced their Gigabit Island<\/strong> plans (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Last year’s announcement revealed that the operator intended to begin their rollout during mid-2018 and they would aim to reach “all the main towns and villages on the island<\/em>” by early 2021.<\/p>\n

Preliminary WightFibre<\/a> Rollout Plan<\/strong><\/span>
\nPhase 1 \u2013 Cowes, Netport Upgrade 2018-19
\nPhase 2 \u2013 Ryde, Bambridge, Nettlestone 2019
\nPhase 3 \u2013 Sandown, Shanklin 2019-20
\nPhase 4 \u2013 Ventnor 2020
\nPhase 5 \u2013 West Wight [To Be Confirmed]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The main thrust of their deployment is still set to begin this summer, although today WightFibre has announced that the official roll-out phase will begin with a pilot deployment in Gurnard Pines<\/strong>, which will be followed by the Staplers<\/strong> area of Newport. All of this will involve the laying of fibre optic cable to around 400 homes<\/strong> during April and May 2018.<\/p>\n

John Irvine, Wightfibre CEO, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The WightFibre Gigabit Island project is a major undertaking which requires some very specialist knowledge \u2013 knowledge of the latest civil engineering cable laying technology and of current fibre-optic networking technologies \u2013 essential in order to truly future-proof our network. We have been really fortunate to find much of this knowledge and expertise right here on the island<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The operator has also announced several new appointments to support their strategy (pictured above) including Island-born construction industry veteran Steve Cooper (Director to oversee the rollout) and he will be supported by David Winfield, who joins as the new Programme Director.<\/p>\n

On top of that the operator has also appointed a new Operations Director in the shape of Simon Poole and a new Business Development Director called Richard Reis. Pretty much all of the appointments have a lot of experience in the telecoms and IT sectors.<\/p>\n

The new network will certainly give Openreach<\/a>’s (BT<\/a>) fairly recent ‘up to’ 80Mbps FTTC (VDSL2<\/a>) network on the island a run for its money, which was built with support from state aid (here<\/a>). WightFibre has always held strong objections to this.<\/p>\n

Finally, here’s a video of last year’s “Gigabit Island<\/em>” announcement for anybody who may be interested.<\/p>\n