First 50 homes in Bournemouth on fibre network

[*sloman*]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3...e-network.html

Bournemouth has trumped both BT and Virgin Media with the roll-out of full fibre to the home services by the i3 Group. ISPreview spotted the news that the group has now connected its first 50 homes to its fibre network, further detail is available via a press release on the Fibrecity website.

While BT at Ebbsfleet is talking of 100Mbps speeds and Virgin Media is suggested that 100 to 150Mbps is possible via its DOCSIS 3.0 network, i3 are already providing 140Mbps of connectivity. Two fibres are installed to each home, one dedicated to community TV, health and other council services running at 40Mbps. The second fibre is for use by paid for services such as IPTV, telephony and broadband access at 100Mbps (this is a symmetric speed, i.e. both downstream and upstream are 100Mbps). The release does not give any detail on the actual broadband service that is available, which hopefully the firm will add to its website soon, as for many homeowners this information will be very important.

One of the potential reasons for the lack of information is that these initial homes are being seen as a showcase and are given free access. Their aim is to ramp roll-out up to be doing 2000 homes per week and even more as they add additional cities.

---------- Post added at 12:52 ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 ----------

Any one in Bournemouth one of the lucky 50?

[FibrecityBmouth]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I have not posted in quite a while! Actually was about to post the press release above but sloman kindly beat me to it!

The reason I have not posted lately is that I do not have a lot of concrete details to pass on to you regarding service providers and the like. Hopefully the press release that has been posted will be featured in the local newspapers in the next week or so and will include pictures of the installs so that you will be able to see what kind of work is being done.

The feedback from the first installations has been very positive so things are looking good. Obviously you will be able to make your own mind up once you have seen it for yourselves! I am unable to give out too many details on the installations as I am sure you can appreciate, but hopefully someone who posts here will be one of the homes installed and can fill in some gaps for now!

Although it may be the same as I have already said, an announcement should be coming very shortly on the service provider/s as talks are still ongoing at the moment. Things have changed slightly including some interesting news with regards to a 40Mbps connection solely for the council to use as well as the 100Mbps line for services. These details are in the full press release which can be found at the link below:

http://fibrecity.eu/latest-news.htm

The new website is still in development as the marketing team were not happy with a lot of the new design so that should be coming shortly as well. Keep your suggestions coming for things you would like to see and I will get this passed on when the web design team come in for the meeting to discuss the changes.

Take a look at the full press release at the website and if you have any further questions and thoughts let me know. I will be on here for the rest of the afternoon and tomorrow so I will try and answer as many questions as possible today and tomorrow.

Regards

Paul

[popper]

hi paul, are you employed by FC ,perhaps in sales, tech,or management of Fibrecity and/or H2O Networks , if so i have some random questions regarding this true 1/1 ratio 100Mbit/s upload and download rate in the UK to your average end users/consumers.

1: do you route and allow Multicast protocol packets on the FC WAN all the way to and from the end users CPE modems sat on their desks, or are you also filtering the multicast protocol as most of the UKs consumer ISPs do today for no good reason?

the reason i ask is end users can then easly VLC multicast their/others video podcast/community created content directly to other end users on the Fibrecity network, or just finally being able to take part in the long standing BBC trials of Multicast streaming BBC video/audio content and saving vast amounts of bandwidth long term etc.

2: do you have Co-location sites internal to the Fibrecity WAN were your FS users can then rent for a small add-on charge per month ,real and virtual web server and large HD space for storage and streaming of said community HD/SD AVC video content ,freely installing any apps they require there to do such inovative things etc if they are so inclined.

3: if so, or not as the case may be, can an end user (at no extra cost to them) also use their 100Mbit upload allocation bandwidth for housing and running their own webserver/storage and feeding that multicast (and antiquated Unicast if they must) into the Fibrecity WAN for other FS end users to then see and use, FC users might even want to setup their own web facing Multicast tunnels /end points running on their 100Mbit/s upstreams so that outside users can then Multicast tunnel into them and use it.

4: do you ,or have you considered setting up and running a virtual Fibrecity UK server service were an outside end user such as a virgin Media or BT customer might rent (for a low UK consumer rated price, so as to undercut the US and non Uk based vendors and even Uk vendors prices and make it viable for the average end users to purchase and use remotely) said virtual servers on your internal Fibrecity WAN and remote VNC into them securely.

remote VNCing into a Fibrecity 1/1 ratio 100Mbit secure server service with say 10 gigbyte+ HD storage from the VM connection could be a very good way to bypass the VM STM at peak hours as you could cache all your bandwidth use on the Fibrecity service, and retreave your large data/binarys later after VM STM is over for instance, taking money from VM higher tiers and placing it in Fibrecity's hands instead for those that dont have direct access to FTTP/H yet such as the NW manchester airport/wythenshawe etc.

questions that need asking and direct answers given and required for any ISP/web vendor that has direct access to end users dataflows in todays market.

do you/Fibrecity STM for any reason,now or in the future, if so,what are these reasons?

do you/Fibrecity DPI your end users connections for any reason, if so what are these, full disclosure is required

do you/Fibrecity intercept,collect,process or store any end users dataflows,and/or make derivative works from any of this data, if so, what, and why, also do you sell or intend to sell in the future any of this collected data to 3rd partys, etc

[FibrecityBmouth]

Hi Popper,

Great questions! I would love to say I could answer them myself but I cannot I am afraid.

I will certainly pass these on for you though and post the answers as soon as possible.

I am employed by Fibrecity, I work mainly with customer data and marketing at the moment as well as data protection. I don't think one title would cover my role at the moment, probably Data Controller comes closest.

[fnkysknky]

Originally Posted by popper

hi paul, are you employed by FC ,perhaps in sales, tech,or management of Fibrecity and/or H2O Networks , if so i have some random questions regarding this true 1/1 ratio 100Mbit/s upload and download rate in the UK to your average end users/consumers.

1: do you route and allow Multicast protocol packets on the FC WAN all the way to and from the end users CPE modems sat on their desks, or are you also filtering the multicast protocol as most of the UKs consumer ISPs do today for no good reason?

the reason i ask is end users can then easly VLC multicast their/others video podcast/community created content directly to other end users on the Fibrecity network, or just finally being able to take part in the long standing BBC trials of Multicast streaming BBC video/audio content and saving vast amounts of bandwidth long term etc.

2: do you have Co-location sites internal to the Fibrecity WAN were your FS users can then rent for a small add-on charge per month ,real and virtual web server and large HD space for storage and streaming of said community HD/SD AVC video content ,freely installing any apps they require there to do such inovative things etc if they are so inclined.

3: if so, or not as the case may be, can an end user (at no extra cost to them) also use their 100Mbit upload allocation bandwidth for housing and running their own webserver/storage and feeding that multicast (and antiquated Unicast if they must) into the Fibrecity WAN for other FS end users to then see and use, FC users might even want to setup their own web facing Multicast tunnels /end points running on their 100Mbit/s upstreams so that outside users can then Multicast tunnel into them and use it.

4: do you ,or have you considered setting up and running a virtual Fibrecity UK server service were an outside end user such as a virgin Media or BT customer might rent (for a low UK consumer rated price, so as to undercut the US and non Uk based vendors and even Uk vendors prices and make it viable for the average end users to purchase and use remotely) said virtual servers on your internal Fibrecity WAN and remote VNC into them securely.

remote VNCing into a Fibrecity 1/1 ratio 100Mbit secure server service with say 10 gigbyte+ HD storage from the VM connection could be a very good way to bypass the VM STM at peak hours as you could cache all your bandwidth use on the Fibrecity service, and retreave your large data/binarys later after VM STM is over for instance, taking money from VM higher tiers and placing it in Fibrecity's hands instead for those that dont have direct access to FTTP/H yet such as the NW manchester airport/wythenshawe etc.

questions that need asking and direct answers given and required for any ISP/web vendor that has direct access to end users dataflows in todays market.

do you/Fibrecity STM for any reason,now or in the future, if so,what are these reasons?

do you/Fibrecity DPI your end users connections for any reason, if so what are these, full disclosure is required

do you/Fibrecity intercept,collect,process or store any end users dataflows,and/or make derivative works from any of this data, if so, what, and why, also do you sell or intend to sell in the future any of this collected data to 3rd partys, etc

As I understand it (happy to be corrected) they are just building a dark fibre network. There's no mention of FC/H2O having anything to do with managing/running the switching and routing of the network i.e layer 2 and above.

[Smilie]

Hi
as the press release says its connected but are the services actually running??
also still no prices available??

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Smilie

Hi
as the press release says its connected but are the services actually running??
also still no prices available??

As mentioned above that's because i3 / H2O do not sell to the public. They are building the fibre network for other operators to offer their services down. I am sure that when ready they will have a list of operators who have signed up in Bournemouth.

I do have a question though, I see that 2 fibres are going into each home, does this mean that the service uses dedicated fibres to each home rather than being a PON / Passive Optical Network?

[FibrecityBmouth]

Hi Guys,

Broadbandings has hit the nail on the head, as soon as everything has been finalised with the service providers we will make these details available. I will also post the details on here as soon as I get them and am given permission to make them public!

I have asked our network planner your second question and he has advised that the service will be a PON. I am not to familiar with the difference being honest with you but that is the answer I was given.

Regards

Paul

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by FibrecityBmouth

Hi Guys,

Broadbandings has hit the nail on the head, as soon as everything has been finalised with the service providers we will make these details available. I will also post the details on here as soon as I get them and am given permission to make them public!

I have asked our network planner your second question and he has advised that the service will be a PON. I am not to familiar with the difference being honest with you but that is the answer I was given.

Regards

Paul

Cheers Paul.

Difference is that on PON you have a fibre going from your 'headend' which has a high powered laser fired into it, that fibre is then split 32 or 64 ways using a passive splitter so you have a single laser from your headend powering 32 or 64 homes.

The other way is one home, one fibre, right from headend. Upside of that approach is no sharing of the bandwidth but it's a bit more expensive to deploy.

Cheers.

[Pierre]

As far as I can tell this is not particularly news.


The situation in Bournemouth is the same as it was 6-7 weeks ago.

Until the ISPs are anounced as to who will actually be offering the broadband service then nobody is connected to anything.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Pierre

As far as I can tell this is not particularly news.


The situation in Bournemouth is the same as it was 6-7 weeks ago.

Until the ISPs are anounced as to who will actually be offering the broadband service then nobody is connected to anything.

I dunno they will have a nice new ONT on the wall

Bit worrying that after all this there's still no retail partner though, strikes that the main point of the fibre was the council services which are no doubt subsidising and the commercial bods forgot to sign someone up to actually provide the 100Mbit on the other bit of string

EDIT: Actually if i3 are only providing the fibre who are they to tell ISPs that they must supply 100Mbit symmetrical? Just a thought there as well, for all the hype there's no guarantee at all.