Fibre broadband access for a quarter of homes by year end
A QUARTER of island homes will have access to fibre broadband by the end of this year, as the Guernsey Fibre project nears the end of its first 12 months.
The £35.5m initiative started with test installations and a pilot at the end of last year and since then it has gradually scaled up.
‘We’re now at full speed with the programme from the build perspective,’ said Sure CEO Justin Bellinger.
By the end of next year he expected half of the island to be covered.
Sure is involved with the installation of the network infrastructure through the Guernsey Fibre project and is working with a number of local firms, which are undertaking installs as well as Sure staff.
‘We’ve got a main partner and seven or eight smaller partners that have all managed to scale up by one or two people,’ said Mr Bellinger.
About 700 homes a month are being reached with the fibre network and are then invited to connect. So far installations are running at 17 a day.
After fibre is made available in an area all of the island’s broadband providers – Airtel Vodafone, JT and Sure – will offer home owners in the area access to broadband speeds ranging from 30 Megabits per second up to 1 Gigabit per second.
Customers who currently cannot get more than 20Mbps because of their location should find that they can switch to 30 without additional cost, since installation of the core hardware is free and funded as part of the project.
The monthly charge will be down to their particular internet service provider.
Anyone who does not take up the offer to switch will be contacted once an area has been up and running for a year or so to set a time for engineers to come and change their connection over.
‘By the end of 2026 we will not have a copper network. It will all be fibre,’ said Mr Bellinger.
While the top speed offered at the moment is 1Gbps, the existing hardware is capable of reaching 10Gbps.
Sure already had some 500km of fibre installed in the island even before the project started and Mr Bellinger said that in order to minimise disruption it has worked closely with other utilities to capitalise on any roadworks.
That has sometimes led to it installing the infrastructure when the opportunity arises before contacting property owners to see if they want to upgrade.
About 30% of Guernsey still relies on overhead phone lines and these are also being swapped out for fibre.
Sure’s connection goal page 2
