The Cybermoor Networks1 project, a partially community built fibre optic broadband network for the residents and businesses of Alston Moor in rural Cumbria (England, UK), has signed a new infrastructure upgrade deal with Calix2 that will enhance the current service and could potentially bring ultrafast Gigabit broadband ISP speeds to the area.
The network, which last year won the NextGen Award for Innovative Funding for its work to connect people in the sparsely populated parish (here3), has recently been kept very busy as it attempts to raise a further £400,000 from the community for future development and expansion (they’ve managed to secure £325,000 since February 2012).
So far most of the investment has come from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) but lately locals have been asked to invest upwards of £100 each (Community Share Offer) to help fund the work, with those who put in £1,000 being promised free broadband for a year. Existing Cybermoor customers have been told that they could double their broadband speed if they invest (subject to survey). This is a similar method of funding to B4RN4’s project in Lancashire (here5).
The new investment itself, which originally came about because BT wasn’t willing provide superfast broadband to the area, will go towards laying a fibre network that will initially cover the most populous parts of Alston Moor, starting with the centre of Alston town (i.e. The Firs, Church Road, Jollybeard and Church Road). It will be extended to cover more remote areas as more investment is raised.
Today’s news that Calix’s Ethernet eXtensible Architecture (EXA) Powered E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) has been selected by Cybermoor Networks, which aims to utilize “powerful” Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology delivered via the Calix E7 and 716GE-I indoor optical network terminals (ONTs), is just one part of that upgrade work.
Daniel Heery, Cybermoor Project Manager, said:
“We believe that this network will be transformative to the community of Alston Moor, whose residents will be among the first in the country to become a UK Fibre Optic Community. A fibre network at the heart of the community will provide high capacity connections to local residents and businesses and will help to attract people and businesses who want to live in a rural area and benefit from high-speed connections. With this powerful infrastructure, we will in fact be better served than many of the larger towns and cities of the country not only for today, but for some time to come.”
Andy Lockhart, Senior VP of Sales at Calix, said:
“Few areas in the UK are more remote and rural than Cumbria, yet even fewer areas in the country will be as wired for the future as Alston Moor. We applaud the way that residents are taking their destiny into their own hands to meet the bandwidth needs of the community. The Cybermoor project is both visionary and innovative, and we are delighted to be able to bring our expertise and leadership in rural broadband implementations in other countries to help support this ambitious project.”
Subscribers to the service will apparently use the Calix 716GE-I indoor ONTs to bring four high-speed ports and two voice ports into the home through a single fiber access connection to the network, which will allow it to deliver additional voice, TV and possibly even “gigabit speed” broadband ISP services. Customers will even be able to choose different ISPs per port if needed.
Broadband Security 