The first organisations in Bristol have been connected to a 10Gbps fibre to the premise (FTTP) network in the south west city.
Bristol Network is run by a partnership comprising Net Support UK and ITS Technology Group, which was awarded a 20 year licence to build and operate city-wide FTTP infrastructure using council-owned ducts.
Bristol City Council issued the licence in the hope of strengthening its ambition to become a smart city and attract more creative and digital companies to the area.
At present, the network consists of 75km of duct infrastructure, of which 58km is unused, and there are plans to extend this to more than 180km.
“The network is quickly being utilised by the type of businesses and organisations that Bristol is so proud of,” explained Roy Shelton, CEO of ITS Technology Group. “We have worked hard with our local partners to design and roll out the network to areas which continue to be underserved and starved of robust ultrafast broadband.
“Working in partnership with Bristol City Council and our partners the network will continue to evolve to be the largest and only council supported network in Bristol. The network will also form the basis for further digital inclusion and innovative solutions to be deployed via our wider global technology partners.”
One of the wholesale partners, Spectrum Internet, has now connected Yogscast and Spike Island, two local digital companies, to the infrastructure.
“We have a number of business customers in Bristol with high bandwidth requirements due to the nature of their work,” said Jonathan Griffin, head of sales at Spectrum Internet. “In the case of Yogscast, they also had tight timescales to meet which we could only achieve by using The Bristol Network.
“The pricing structure is straight forward and it is easy for us to upgrade any of our customers’ circuits up to 10Gbps capacity if needed. The Bristol Network has been designed specifically for this era of digital growth.”
CityFibre, a rival FTTP operator, is building a 1Gbps network in Bristol and has partnered with local ISP Triangle Networks.
What do you know about fibre broadband? Try our quiz!
Tesla retreats from pioneering gigacasting manufacturing process, amid cost cutting and challenges at EV giant
No skynet please. After the US, UK and France pledge human only control of nuclear…
Microsoft's AI investments continue in south east Asia, after investments in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, as…
New chapter for LastPass as it becomes an independent company to focus on cybersecurity, after…
US FCC seeks to ban Chinese telecom firms at centre of national security concerns from…
Two updates to Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude sees arrival of a new business-focused plan, as…