First service providers to use open access Fibrecity network in Bournemouth confirmed

First service providers to use open access Fibrecity network in Bournemouth confirmed: Fibreband, Velocity 1 and Vispa will be the first service providers to offer services to consumers in Bournemouth via 100Mbps Fibrecity network connection.

The first service providers to deliver next generation services to homes in Bournemouth via the fibre to the home network being built by Fibrecity Holdings, an i3 Group company, have been announced today. Fibreband, Velocity 1 and Vispa will be offering telephone, TV and superfast broadband services costing from £9.99 per month.

The three service providers are offering a variety of packages which allow Bournemouth’s residents to choose a tailor made package to suit their requirements. The broadband speeds range from 25Mbps to 100Mbps with some packages offering the ability to boost speeds to 1Gbps, a first for the UK residential market.

Elfed Thomas, CEO of i3 Group said: “The Fibrecity portal is a virtual market place that offers consumer choice by allowing multiple service providers to offer and deliver services over a single Fibrecity network connection. I am delighted that Fibreband, Velocity 1 and Vispa are the first service providers to join this portal.

“This announcement is just the start, as we expect additional providers, large and small, to come on to the portal over the course of the year. Now that service providers have a technology platform to support next generation services, I believe they will develop media rich applications that legacy copper networks simply cannot support.”

In addition to next generation services, the Fibrecity network allows consumers to make better use of services that already exist, such as the BBC iPlayer and social media, to run multiple services simultaneously without disruption and benefit from new media rich applications in the future.

Matt Hawkins, managing director, Fibreband said: “We have more than ten years’ experience of delivering high speed Internet solutions across the world. The Fibrecity portal has allowed us to enter the residential market which would have been very difficult to do without the open access model. We are really excited to be at the forefront of the digital revolution.”

James Saunders, managing director, Velocity 1 said: “The Fibrecity portal has allowed us to extend the reach of our already successful triple play services. In addition, because Fibrecity Holdings has built a fibre to the home network, we are able to offer exceptionally fast broadband with boosts of up to 1GMbps for the first time in the UK. The open access model from Fibrecity Holdings has given us the chance to bring our services to new markets, which we are very much looking forward to serving.”

Adam Binks, commercial director, Vispa said: “We have been providing Internet services to residential and business customers across the UK since 1999, but the Fibrecity network open access model has enabled us to develop and offer a complete triple play service to the residents of Bournemouth without the constraints of existing broadband technology. We're looking forward to building upon our relationship with i3 Group and providing our triple play services to future Fibrecity networks.”

Homes in Bournemouth that have already been connected to the Fibrecity network will be contacted to arrange installation of a set top box¹ that will allow them to browse and access the services available from Fibreband, Velocity 1 and Vispa. The set top box is being given to Fibrecity network residents free of charge and as an introductory offer they will be able to view and record a range of free digital TV channels.

Fibrecity Holdings is an infrastructure provider and is therefore the technology platform for service providers to deliver their services. Residents will buy services directly from their chosen service providers.

For more information please visit http://www.fibrecity.eu/ or call 0800 904 7042.

¹ For residents to be able to make use of the Fibrecity network, an engineer needs to fit an Optical Network Termination (ONT) box to the inside of the wall that the outside connection has been made. An Ethernet cable then connects the ONT to the set top box.