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Fibre network to connect Manchester homes and businesses
Thursday 14 January 2010 14:06:09 by John Hunt

A fibre network in Manchester is set to provide connectivity to 500 businesses and 1,000 homes. The project funded by £1m of investment from the North West Development Agency will be seen as a test-bed for new services from content providers and may be followed closely by government. The network will initially serve 200 premises in the Oxford Road area of the city known as "The Corridor", expanding to cover 1,500 over the year. With so few to be connected it's unclear how keen content providers will be to deploy new services on to the network, but if future plans are to include more homes and business, this could be more worthwhile.

Service will be provided at the full 100 Mbps for both download and upload speeds, and Geo, the company building the network are in talks with ten other local authorities about building similar networks in areas not served by Virgin Media or in BT's current next-generation rollout plans.

One proposed benefit of this type of network over current offerings, besides from the high speeds, is the ability to use services from multiple service providers. Users would be able to pick and mix services with provision for both Internet access, local community television and the hope for services provided by the NHS and the BBC.

"Geo is delighted to be working with Corridor Manchester and the MDDA to deliver this important infrastructure. Creating a true open access network with next generation fibre broadband capable of fully symmetrical world – leading broadband services will radically change the way people use the internet for business and social use. Geo's unique business model is ideally suited to helping the UK to meet the challenge of building the new networks needed for the country to compete on the global stage and we are proud to be associated with this landmark initiative."

Chris Smedley, (Chief Executive) Geo
[ Topic: Broadband | 17 comments | link to this item ]
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Comments

Posted by cyberdoyle 7 months ago
Go Geo Go.
Show the telcos and government that this is what we need. Well done MDDA Manchester, you lucky lot.
Many areas in rural Lancashire can't get any broadband at all... no mobile either. We watch your project with hope in our hearts.
Posted by CARPETBURN 7 months ago
It does seem this combined with this http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/4129.html
indicates the future may well be rosey not having to rely on BT for fibre services :)
Posted by whatever2 7 months ago
hope it's more successful that h2o's efforts in bournemouth...
Posted by kamelion 7 months ago
I wouldn't be too enthusiastic - there aren't that many homes in the area being provision, it being mostly made up of businesses and the university, hospital etc. Not exactly a large step in bringing fibre to the home user.
Posted by wirelesspacman 7 months ago
"Every little helps" as a certain supermarket likes to say!
Posted by eded2000 7 months ago
Would "Local community television" really be a draw for users?
Posted by whatever2 7 months ago
I wonder if this is the same sort of idea.

Headline grabbing speeds, perhaps a signup offer to get some potential numbers in. Just needs a few ISP's and content providers to be hooked with the idea that they have this wonderful customer base sitting there (councils love the idea they can pump their services to you, as opposed to just using the existing internet)

Then sell it to the city so you have enough money to actually go out and do it.

Might sponsor a racing car along the way, who knows.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon 7 months ago
Oh look, Government Funding
Posted by Dixinormous 7 months ago
Local funding, excellent. Perhaps if more consider it there'll be less begging for national government funds.

Dawn - needed at the moment, most companies don't want to pay business rates or beg/bribe whomever is required to dig.
Posted by CARPETBURN 7 months ago
quote"Local funding, excellent. Perhaps if more consider it there'll be less begging for national government funds."

Well said
Posted by CARPETBURN 7 months ago
quote"wouldn't be too enthusiastic - there aren't that many homes in the area being provision, it being mostly made up of businesses and the university, hospital etc. Not exactly a large step in bringing fibre to the home user."

I see what you mean but with this, the easynet and BE stories in the last few days it shows to me atleast some hope there will be choice for 40+Mb services in the future :)
Posted by Dawn_Falcon 7 months ago
Dixi - Required regardless. And Government Funding is still that, regardless of the conduit.
Posted by Dixinormous 7 months ago
Sadly required indeed.
Posted by TonyHoyle 7 months ago
I doubt the university will want this.. they've already got better than a gigabit (last I heard, *way* better).

The Hospital has its own internal secure network, and I doubt patientline care.

Mostly down there it's a few shops and the park until you get to the curry mile.
Posted by rian 6 months ago
MMU is planning to build a compus in Hulme area. This is probably a factor for why they rolling out fibre in Oxford road area.
Posted by Kaufhof 6 months ago
I wouldn't have thought there were 1,000 homes in the "Oxford Road area".
Posted by Somerset 6 months ago
'not served by Virgin Media or in BT's current next-generation rollout plans'

Do they know BTs plans?
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