The recently rechristened i3 Group (H20 networks) has officially launched its fibre optic network called Fibrecity. The release took place at Bournemouth, where 50 residents are now connected to the blazing 100Mb speed ‘fibre to the home’ broadband network.

The company approached the problem of laying cables for the new network with an innovative idea. Instead of digging up roads, it used the existing sewer pipelines to get the job done. This approach made sure there was no hassle in dealing with roads, and reduced the cost of the project. The Bournemouth network is the first of fifteen such networks to be launched in different towns.

The project aims to go to many places all over the UK and aspires to connect 2000 homes each week as the project reaches full speed.

In the meantime, as testing of the network is still ongoing, Fibrecity customers are enjoying their installation as well as service for no charge. However, this will last only until the engineers wrap up their work in the area and move on to Dundee, where the same promotion will be on offer. Once the project moves to the next town, users will have to pay a fee to avail the service. The work at Dundee is expected to finish by the end of 2010. For more info on what broadband is available to you, click here.

Chief executive officer of i3 Group, Elfed Thomas, elaborated on the advantages of Fibrecity over BT’s fibre optic network. He said that Fibrecity was providing with fibre optic connections right up to the end user, whereas, BT still uses copper networks, an outdated and much slower technology, and something that Fibrecity never relies on. This ensures that the speeds that Fibrecity offers are significantly higher than those offered by the BT networks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 5:28 am and is filed under Buyers Guides, Technology Info, Telecommunication Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.