Posted: 23rd Dec, 2010 By: MarkJ

A new
fibre optic cable has helped the
Castle Quay (
St. Helier Waterfront) development on the UK
Channel Island of
Jersey gain access to superfast broadband ISP speeds of up to
1Gbps (1024Mbps). The work is part of
Jersey Telecom's (JT Group)
five year strategy, which was first announced in November 2010 (
here).
The first residents are already moving into their new homes, although initially they will only have access to the service on a
trial basis. It’s been installed under the
Gigabit Isles initiative, which seeks to make superfast speeds widely accessible to residential customers in Jersey.
Graeme Millar, CEO of JT Group, said:
"Launching our 1Gb fibre optic broadband connection at Castle Quay is a real landmark both for the JT Group and for Jersey as a whole. It means the world’s fastest broadband speed, with the possible exception only of Japan, is now available to residents of this development.
Broadband is already changing the way we live our lives, and I think that change is only likely to become more significant in the future – making Gigabit speeds available to more and more customers is a key part of our strategy in order to allow the Island to fully benefit from all the internet has to offer."
Over the next 5 years, Jersey Telecom aims to gradually
replace its existing copper cable network with fibre, at a likely cost of around
£40m. JT recently launched its new 'up to' 20Mbps broadband service over that same copper network, although at a standard cost of £49.99 per month (+£50 connection charge) it isn't exactly cheap.
JT's new copper based 20Mbps service, which is quite a few years' behind similar mainland developments, should be available to more than
25% of Island households by the end 2010.