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WightFibre’s ‘Gigabit Island’ project gets underway – a project that will provide gigabit, full-fibre, future-proof broadband to homes and businesses across the Island, and one of the largest civil engineering projects on the Isle of Wight for 20 years.
The initial project representing a £35m investment in the Islands Broadband Infrastructure, giving the Island some of the fastest Broadband speeds in the world. Enabled by WightFibre being the first company in the country to receive investment from the government’s new Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, launched by HM Treasury in July 2017.
“We are extremely pleased to announce our investment in WightFibre. This is the first investment by Digital Infrastructure Investment Partners, jointly with Infracapital’s Greenfield strategy, WightFibre has a strong local brand and has a proven capability to deliver good service and fast broadband to homes and businesses on the Isle of Wight, and we look forward to supporting the expansion of its network, to the benefit of customers island-wide”. - James Harraway, Director of Infracapital.
A project which will see 500 Kilometres of trenches dug, enough to go around the Island’s coastline over four times. Trenches containing 5 million meters of duct and a staggering 750 million meters of fibre-optic cable - enough to reach the moon and back, twice.
When completed, Gigabit Island is expected to see full fibre deployed to around 65,000 homes and business across the Island, including areas not previously served by WightFibre. Something that will help the Island grow, develop and be a great place to live and work.
“Just 10 years ago few of us could have imagined just how much we would all be using the internet both at home and work. Traditional copper networks have struggled to keep up with demand. The new WightFibre full-fibre network will be capable of handling the islands broadband demands for decades to come, catapulting the island into the front line of the new digital economy” - John Irvine, WightFibre CEO.
Gurnard Pines was identified as the first area to be upgraded to the new full-fibre, Gigabit broadband service. A pilot project to prove WightFibre’s new network technology and processes to ensure a smooth upgrade process for customers. The Staplers area of Newport will then be the first new WightFibre area followed by Wootton and Ryde, Sandown, Lake, Shanklin and Ventnor. Detailed planning was also underway to connect West Wight and some of the islands more rural communities not previously served by WightFibre.
Download our 2024 Connecting the Isle of Wight report from Curia, demonstrating the Value of Improved Connectivity for the Island.
