Sewer firm brings 100Mb/sec broadband to Britain

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 23 Jan 2008 at 12:52

H2O, a company that specialises in deploying fibre broadband through sewers, plans to make either Bournemouth, Northampton or Dundee the first place in Britain with 100Mb/sec home broadband connections.

The company has already deployed its fibre solution to councils and businesses within these towns and sees the extension of the network to homes as the next logical step.

"There's already fibre builds within these towns, so it makes sense to complete those builds first," says Elfed Thomas, MD of H2O. "There's also an existing awareness in the councils and business communities of the power of fibre through the sewer, and the speed of deployment, which makes it easier to sell."

H2O claims the decision on which town will be completed first will be made towards the end of April, with work on the network beginning in September and completed within 18 months.

Thomas claims the network can deliver speeds of around 100Mb/sec, and that negotiations with ISPs to deliver the service to consumers are already under way.

Thomas was also keen to point out that though one of the towns would inevitably be wired-up first, the others would follow within 18 months.

H2O says it plans to rollout its fibre solution to the rest of the UK within 10 years.

BT is also trialling a fibre-to the-home solution in Kent, though the company has no plans to complete a nationwide rollout of the technology.