Cowes, Isle of Wight, November 8, 2021:
West Wight gears up for all-fiber broadband in 2022

WightFibre’s full-fiber Gigabit Island deployment continues along with the full-fiber broadband service now available to more than 30,000 homes and businesses on the island.

The final milestone saw WightFibre lay a new fiber optic cable on the River Yar. This cable is part of a fiber optic ring around West Wight connecting Yarmouth, Freshwater, Totland and Brightstone to the new WightFibre network. Following the successful completion of the river crossing work, work is expected to begin at Freshwater and Yarmouth over the next few months.

Laying this fiber, albeit over a short distance, was a major undertaking. Respect for the environment and local natural habitats was a major concern. Various approvals were required from private landowners, the Isle of Wight Council, the Maritime Management Organization and Crown Estates. This included a public comment period earlier this year. Close liaison with Natural England has ensured that work is carried out outside of breeding and nesting times for wildlife and that any potential environmental impact is mitigated. The Yarmouth Harbor Commission provided invaluable advice and assistance. A number of environmental reports were required, including a ‘Habitat Regulation Assessment’, ‘Water Framework Directive Assessment’ and ‘Flood Risk Assessment’. These were carried out by environmental specialists based on the island “Eagle Eye Environmental Solutions”. The work was carried out by WightFibre and RS Divers, assisted by Verevo Nexus Fiber Solutions.

WightFibre Chairman and CEO John Irvine said: “WightFibre has made great strides in building the UK’s first Gigabit Island on the Isle of Wight, having already made all-fiber broadband available in more than 30,000 premises.

West Wight is often an afterthought in large infrastructure projects, but from the start, WightFibre has always planned to include West Wight in our deployment. This cable runs under the River Yar is a major part of our deployment so that we have two routes to West Wight. This will ensure that we can provide the most reliable service possible.

By the end of 2022, more than 90% of homes in West Wight will be able to receive WightFibre broadband.

– Ends –

Note to editors:
Technical Note: Deploying a fiber optic ring around West Wight enables a very resilient network design. A ring architecture means that if the cable is broken by, for example, road works by other utilities, the network will continue to operate because a connection can still be made by bypassing the ring in the other direction. At fiber optic light speed, the extra distance makes no difference to the speed or performance of the broadband connection.

A description of the advantages of full fiber broadband over copper broadband as well as supporting graphics can be found here. www.wightfibre.com/full-fibre

Contacts:
Deon Redpath, Marketing Director 01983 240125
Email: [email protected]

About WightFibre.
Since 2001, WightFibre has owned and operated its own telecommunications infrastructure completely independent from BT Openreach. WightFibre provides telephone, television and broadband services to homes and businesses in the Isle of Wight. Only WightFibre is committed to building a full fiber broadband network across the island.
The WightFibre Gigabit Island project will see the deployment of all-fiber broadband to approximately 75,000 homes and businesses across the island by 2023 and is already available to more than 30,000 homes. The scale of this important civil engineering project is reflected in the figures that show how 500 kilometers of trenches will be dug, containing 5 million meters of conduit and 750 million meters of fiber optic cable like this all-fiber broadband, ultra-fast and scalable. The network continues to expand across the island, including in areas that were previously not served by WightFibre. www.wightfibre.com

Those interested in receiving the new gigabit broadband services can apply online at www.wightfibre.com