Computers

Sky and TalkTalk announce 1 Gbps broadband for UK cities

Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre will begin rolling out a 1 Gbps network in York next year, before moving to other locations (Photo: Shutterstock)
Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre will begin rolling out a 1 Gbps network in York next year, before moving to other locations (Photo: Shutterstock)

Broadband speeds in the UK currently max out at about 300 Mbps, provided by British Telecom. Sky and TalkTalk have now announced that they intend to bring 1 Gbps speeds to UK cities. The roll-out will begin in York next year, before moving to other locations.

Working with CityFibre, Sky and TalkTalk have created a new company that will build the infrastructure for providing ultra-fast broadband. The new venture is aiming to create a "state of the art, city-wide, pure fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network." Once the network is built, Sky and TalkTalk will retail competing services over the infrastructure.

At 1 Gbps per second, the services will be significantly faster than the fastest fiber optic speeds available in the UK today and will match those offered by Google Fiber in the US. Sky says that the fiber optic roll-out in York will be the first time that ultra-fast broadband has been deployed in the UK on a city-wide basis. Fujitsu will be employed to deploy the network.

"This announcement makes York the digital infrastructure capital of the UK," said James Alexander, leader of the City of York council. "Gaining ultra fast broadband across the city is a huge boost for our economy, providing significant new opportunities for businesses based here and better quality and value to our residents."

The services are expected to go live in York from 2015, with a subsequent roll-out planned for two more, yet to be named, cities.

Source: Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre

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5 comments
Daishi
One of the only 1G services in the US is Chattanooga: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/17/how-chattanooga-beat-google-fiber-by-half-a-decade/
From that article they had a rollout cost of 330 million (USD) and service about 56,000 subs and just recently started to upgrade to support 1G speeds. The network has actually been in for a while and they are FTTH but their deployment cost from those numbers is $5,893 per subscriber.
From the telegraph article I found on this deployment they estimated £5m (about 7 million USD) for 20,000 subs which puts their deployment cost at about $350 USD per home.
Based on some numbers I saw published in the past when Verizon did Fios FTTH rollouts I thought they were over $4,000 per installed subscriber so the £5m estimated cost for this seems extremely low compared to the companies who have completed deployments.
I suppose the 5 mil figure us just for the FTTP portion and doesn't count the last leg of the solution that brings data from "premises" to "home".
UncleToad
I tell you what, TalkTalk, how about spending your money on getting us a working connection in the rest of the country before bothering about a 1Gbs connection in a few cities. 1Gbs? I'd be happy to get a connection faster than 2.5Mbs where I live !!!
These companies haven't got a clue. Why spend money on super speed in limited areas when the rest of the country is screaming out for a just a basic workable connection!
Paul
Kiwibird
1 Gbs for UK cities from 2015, no wait its only 3 cities ...
Well, in the wilds of rural Lancashire in the UK, a group of residents have got together and set up their own hyperfast 1 Gbs network, and it's available now.
http://b4rn.org.uk/
Check out the speeds they are getting on Youtube, just type "b4rn pat close" into the search box.
Walter Komarnicki
I agree with Uncle Toad above: here in the Philippines we're with Parasat for our broadband and cable TV, but the top speed is barely ever 2mbps.
we can only wonder if we'll ever get to the average speeds they have in Seoul, let alone other wired-up places.
Michiel Mitchell
I'm waiting for Elon's "Space-Net" the internet should be way up there, in space, where no damn Government can get to it and switch it off at will...