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100Mbps broadband rollout starts
Wednesday 15 October 2008 15:16:18 by Andrew Ferguson

ISPreview.co.uk has spotted the news that the fibre rollout for the H2O Fibre to the Home service has started in Bournemouth, specifically the BH10 and BH11 postcode areas.

Once H2O have installed their fibre, linking the homes in an area to their network we should start to hear details of the various broadband products that providers will run across the network. To ensure a good take up of the service a good range of speeds and prices will be needed, so that both the casual broadband user, and those using broadband as their sole source of entertainment will buy into the product.

So while the UK may look to be behind other countries, changes are taking place and while for a few years it may mean you need to live in the right part of the UK, that will be little different to other countries that have access to pure fibre (FTTH) and hybrid fibre (FTTC) next generation broadband products already.

[ Topic: Broadband | 22 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by cyberdoyle over 4 years ago
at last, it starts...
... about time too.
small comfort that we are in the same boat as most of europe, we should be leading the way not lagging behind. Light the fibre, everywhere, if we build the houses the people will come. Power to the people
chris

Posted by CARPETBURN over 4 years ago
Best of luck to H20 the product deserves a good take up and deserves to be a success, well done to them for having the balls and developing and finally rolling the service out... At the time there were many doubters i say to all them now in childish fashion....... HA

Posted by bosie over 4 years ago
go Bournemouth!

Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 4 years ago
Um, they're deploying several forms of new tech for this cyberdoyle. It's not a drag and drop soloution as you seem to imply...

Posted by ElBobbo over 4 years ago
Like what, Dawn?

Posted by c_j_ over 4 years ago
CB, afaict the service hasn't even got any confirmed ISPs lined up yet never mind gone live yet and yet you're counting your chickens? I wish them every success, but so far the track record of alternatives to DSL (or cable) isn't brilliant.

The other point of note in the ISPreview item is that H2O say "a Micro Trench of 20mm wide and 60-150mm deep" is required for the final customer connection, but they don't say how it connects to the sewer itself (dig? no dig?). Maybe we find out soon.

Posted by zuccster over 4 years ago
I'm living in BH10 and registered my interest with H20 at the earliest opportunity. I've not heard anything from them since the initial registration (on their very amateurish website), and I've seen no obvious evidence of any cable laying activity in the local area. I hope I'm wrong, but I remain cynical that H20 will deliver what they've promised.

Posted by whatever2 over 4 years ago
BH13 didn't get asked.

BH1 didn't get asked.

Around the corner, did though. Replied, not heard a dicky bird. Or seen anything.

Posted by lloydio over 4 years ago
I have seen them laying the cable down the sewers in BH7 and asked an engineer which confirmed it. H20 told me that they will be announcing the first provider very very soon!

Posted by CaptainW over 4 years ago
Can I ask if anyone knows what ISP's actually have the ability to utilise this service? Or, is it a product they ALL have the ability to use without too much trouble?

Posted by lloydio over 4 years ago
I guess H20 will be connected to the same backbone as the new data center in bournemouth. http://www.connexions4london.co.uk/colocation/bournemouth_datacenter_and_colocation_hosting_datacentre.html

Posted by ProdMan over 4 years ago
H2O is a wholesale model. In theory, any ISP with good content providers will be interested. I would have thought Sky for a start.

Most of the talk at this years Broadband Forum was of FTTx (British ISP's included) - it is just a matter of hard cash vs business case given the current financial situation.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 4 years ago
quote"CB, afaict the service hasn't even got any confirmed ISPs lined up yet never mind gone live yet and yet you're counting your chickens? I wish them every success, but so far the track record of alternatives to DSL (or cable) isn't brilliant."

Well no doubt thinkbroadband will keep us informed, if H20 market this right and charge right it could be a smash hit

Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 4 years ago
ElBobbo - quite apart from the fact they're leaders in sewer installs of cable, they're using a new sort of blown micro-fiber ducts (in their micro trenches).

If this deployment works they could rapidly accelerate it deployment...

Posted by CaptainW over 4 years ago
When Sky last fed back their results, Jeremy Darroch CEO stated no-one had given him a proper business model or put forward any need for such speeds for broadband, so perhaps Sky aren't all that interested - although, Sky being Sky you could see them wanting to do one over on their competitors and be at the forefront of advancement.

Posted by comnut over 4 years ago
CaptainW: you're right, but that has never stopped 'speed junkies', who then find that 'the rest of the web' is not fast enough.... as they did when going from dialup to BB, and then from 2M to 8M, etc, etc....

Posted by CARPETBURN over 4 years ago
If in Skys mind speed isnt important than it remains a mystery why they bother to sell ADSL2+ doesnt it

Posted by CaptainW over 4 years ago
They haven't said speed isn't in their mind.....what they said was that no-one has managed to provide a current business model or reason for such speeds - two differnet things;)

Posted by CARPETBURN over 4 years ago
^^^ What absolute rubbish and obviously sour grapes on skys part. Many people dont need 16Mb speeds but they provide them... Business model again rubbish, whats their business model for 16Mb if many dont need it??.. Honestly the constant complaints, whinges and the we are better than others which seem to always come from the lips of sky, virgin or BT really are just totally pathetic now. I hope H20 are paying attention and if their service turns out to be popular send rats like sky on their way and tell em get your own bad business model service.

Posted by danjkent over 4 years ago
There was a comment on a related news item that someone had spotted cable being laid in the Littledown area (BH7), now they've confirmed that they're working in BH10 & BH11.

Damn it! I live in BH8, about 1 mile away from the BH10 boundary and my exchange is in BH9, about half a mile away from BH10. Close, but no cigar!

Posted by comnut over 4 years ago
you dont know this new sales model?? for quite a few years, they have invented things that people 'dont really need', and then make the ads to tell sheeple that they really, really need them... you can always count on 'my number is bigger than yours' to generate income...

Posted by CARPETBURN over 4 years ago
Sorry again dont agree, providing this method of supplying fibre is as reliable as what they have claimed, speed wont matter. I dunno about others, but what is more important to me is how reliable the connection is... Speed is nice obviously but no good if its unreliable, H20 have apparantly tested this for atleast 2 years in very small areas before this rollout to the public started... The main benefit of this to me is its a new way to get a net connection without having to rely on BT or clueless virgin for the line.