FTTH network to be built in South Yorkshire

Fibre based broadband can provide speeds upto 100 Mbps and countries like Japan, South Korea and Sweden have been offering this highspeed internet to majority of the internet users in their countries. In the UK, ADSL+2 is making its way to many households due to the limitations of ADSL which degrades after a certain distance. ADSL+2 can offer upto 24 Mbps theoretical downstream speed and its network can be extended up to 7.5 kms. However, the copper lines that are used by both these technologies do not transmit data as efficiently as fibre optic wires which, though expensive, are deployed to provide high speed broadband.

A recent report says fibre optic network is to be setup in the South Yorkshire. Thales, the French based defence and engineering group has won the contract for building the fibre network that will provide future generation broadband in this area which has over 60,000 households. The new service will offer speeds upto 50Mbps to home users and businesses.

This project will replace the existing copper lines with fibre which is capable of providing very high speed internet. Soon after it is built, the network will cater the needs of over 1.3 million home users in Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham, and 40,000 small businesses. The high speed broadband network will also be helpful in other services like home monitor service or health services which see faster connection as significant advantage.

Among the many bidders including BT, Thales Telecom Services was chosen to build and run this fibre network. Since, the project cost could be much higher, the funds are expected to come from public money, European Union and a few private investors. It should be noted that Thales is a part of syndicate that comprises of Kingston Communications and Alcatel-Lucent.