Jersey Telecom (JT) has announced that the first 24 homes have been connected up to its 3 month trial of superfast fibre optic broadband ( FTTH ) ISP services on the Channel Island of Jersey and 500 more are set to follow over the next two weeks.

The trials, which are taking place around La Rocque, Fauvic and La Moye, are open to customer of all broadband ISPs (i.e. those on Jersey) and form part of JT's wider five year and £40m Gigabit Isles strategy. Internet download speeds of up to 100Mbps are generally available, although "some homes" will be given access to the ultimate 1Gbps (1024Mbps) option.

It's worth pointing out that JT's trial was originally due to start on 3rd January 2012, although it appears to have suffered roughly a month's delay. This isn't unusual for such a major project.


Under the present plan JT aims to extend their fibre optic network to every home and business on the Island by 2016. The final commercial service is expected to be offered to Islanders "in the near future", which means later this year. Meanwhile the first triallist are reporting real-world speeds of between 50-84Mbps, which is a darn sight better than the 3-4Mbps they had before.