Virgin Media FTTP Via Fujitsu Fibre Network

[Ignitionnet]

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/broa...rural-britain/

Fujitsu has joined forces with Cisco and UK ISPs Virgin Media and TalkTalk in a bid to bring superfast broadband to rural areas of the UK.

The majority of the network will use Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology and Fujitsu said it will offer both 1Gbps upload and download speeds with the potential to go to 10Gbps and beyond in the future.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4...usinesses.html

A new collaboration between Fujitsu, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco plans to deliver next-generation broadband to 5 million homes and businesses in rural areas of the UK. Fujitsu will create an open-access wholesale network which will be underpinned by Cisco technology, and will deliver fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband capable of 1Gbps (both upstream and downstream) from day one. Virgin Media and TalkTalk have agreed to use the network to help expand their next-generation broadband offerings.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadban...or-rural-areas

The network will offer fibre to the premise (FTTP), not just to the cabinet, in the "majority" of areas, Fujitsu said. Areas that do get FTTP will get 1Gbit/sec "from day one" - and be able to go up to 10Gbits/sec in the future, Fujitsu said.

[haydnwalker]

Thats pretty good news...if it all pans out the way it should...

[weesteev]

All PR I'm afraid, the PIA agreement hasn't even been completed yet... considering Talk Talk and VM were both signatories on a letter of complaint about the initial pricing of PIA I would suggest it will be a good few years before anything on this scale

[Ignitionnet]

VM aren't building the network, they've agreed to purchase wholesale services on it. PIA rates are Fujitsu's problem and their fight on this one.

You're dead right PR is a big driver behind the announcement, they are trying to get their hands on some of the BDUK funding. In addition this is to put some pressure on Ofcom to force PIA rates lower.

Some well clustered rural areas are actually cheaper to enable for FTTP than urban areas due to less complicated civils within the home, less MDUs, easier access to homes, etc.

[chris6273]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Some well clustered rural areas are actually cheaper to enable for FTTP than urban areas due to less complicated civils within the home, less MDUs, easier access to homes, etc.

But they don't want you to know that though, do they?

The news of this Rural Fibre network is really getting me excited

I hope we get a list soon!

[weesteev]

Until the PIA deal and its pricing is resolved then we wont hear a thing. This may well be paper talk from Ftel, the same way Google talked about Fibre distribution in the states and 3 years later they have just announced the first city to be passed with no set roll-out dates.

Fujitsu look like they are trying to branch out from their current work flows due to the recent loss of large contracts with BT, building and wholesaling a Fibre network is one way to generate revenue. I wouldn't be excited by this at all, until words are put into action and the first hole is dug...

[Rattus]

As someone looking to move out of town, from a 50mb cable connection to what is billed as a 2mb ADSL with expected 1mb speed (ugg), clearly this is a good development.

However the cynic in me says in reality it'll never happen. Government grant or not, they simply won't be doing most rural homes. There will be a few token villages done, but individual houses/farms etc have no chance.

[craigj2k12]

ah well, luckily for me, I live in the city!!!!

1gb symmetrical will do me nicely

You won't get 1Gb symmetrical in whichever city you live in. Fujitsu is proposing to build a rural network, not an urban one.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by Chris

You won't get 1Gb symmetrical in whichever city you live in. Fujitsu is proposing to build a rural network, not an urban one.

should have read it properly

i might cancel my web hosting, get myself a place in the country and set up a web hosting company!!

[weesteev]

And its also unlikely that you will see anything like GB symmetrical whenever this system launches... if it ever does.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by weesteev

And its also unlikely that you will see anything like GB symmetrical whenever this system launches... if it ever does.

it says 1gb symmetrical from day 1, with the potential to be upgraded to 10gb and beyond

The network might be capable of that, but it would be up to he ISPs utilising the network to decide the speed of the products they offer.

I can't see either Virgin or TalkTalk offering gigabit speeds if at any point they need to route traffic onto core networks that aren't able to offer that speed to an individual consumer. Furthermore it might make their marketing strategies more difficult - at present VM is happily bragging that it has the fastest broadband as it can offer 50 or 100Mb on its own cable network. I can't see it wanting to upstage itself by making far faster speeds available to a small minority of effectively off-net customers.

It's important to see this week's announcement for what it is - a headline-grabbing stunt designed to try to secure as much public funding as possible for the project.

[weesteev]

Originally Posted by Chris

The network might be capable of that, but it would be up to he ISPs utilising the network to decide the speed of the products they offer.

I can't see either Virgin or TalkTalk offering gigabit speeds if at any point they need to route traffic onto core networks that aren't able to offer that speed to an individual consumer. Furthermore it might make their marketing strategies more difficult - at present VM is happily bragging that it has the fastest broadband as it can offer 50 or 100Mb on its own cable network. I can't see it wanting to upstage itself by making far faster speeds available to a small minority of effectively off-net customers.

It's important to see this week's announcement for what it is - a headline-grabbing stunt designed to try to secure as much public funding as possible for the project.

Also, if Virgin did start to use a wholesale network, its unlikely they would offer a 2 tier service where people on FTTH would get faster service. Its likely that existing service would be delivered by RFoG and all customers regardless of Docsis 3 or FTTH would get the same product.

[DABhand]

Interesting that we need the Japanese to "fix" our broadband out from the dark ages and into the present.

Sweden and Japan must be doing something right if it is able to have a stable and excellent broadband service :P Hopefully other providers will learn from them :P