Network Communications News (NCN) August 2017 | Page 17

ON THE CASE
Gigabit City status
set to spark digital growth
in Leicester and Nottingham
CityFibre is set to unleash the power of full-fibre beneath Leicester and
Nottingham’s streets, giving businesses access to next-generation internet
connectivity for the very first time.
Local businesses will soon be able to harness the benefits of full-
fibre connectivity after CityFibre announced Leicester and Nottingham’s
transformation into Gigabit Cities following a complete upgrade to their digital
infrastructure. With a modern full fibre infrastructure currently available to
just two per cent of UK premises, businesses across the area can now access
affordable and near-unlimited internet speeds.
As well as providing a boost to local business, CityFibre’s investment will also
serve to bolster digital growth in the Midlands region.
CityFibre is now calling for local businesses to register their interest to find
out more about Leicester and Nottingham’s networks, their capabilities and
how they can support their digital ambitions, before they go live this autumn.
Connections can be secured by telecoms service provider Onecom.
At pres ent, co nn ectio ns a c ro s s Le ic e s te r a re ava ila b l e to a ro u n d 2 , 0 0 0
bu si ne s s es between Rat b y L a ne in t h e we s t a nd H u m b e r sto n e Ro a d i n t h e
east, via Da n e Hil l s , Fro g Is l a nd a nd t h e Cit y C e nt re , i n c l u d i n g t h e Un i ve r si t y
of Le i c es ter.
Across Nottingham, up to 3,000 businesses between Wollaton and Carlton
are within reach of the new infrastructure. This includes those based in Arnold,
Daybrook, Woodthorpe, Forest Fields, Hyson Green, Nottingham Trent University,
Queens Medical Centre, West Bridgford and Clifton Boulevard.
Rob Hamlin, commercial director at CityFibre, said: ‘Leicester and Nottingham
are hugely ambitious cities with thriving business communities, but, their
potential as leading players in the UK’s digital economy is currently being stifled
by poor connectivity.
‘We’ve been rolling out full-fibre infrastructure to a number of cities across
the Midlands helping the entire region reach its digital potential. Our investment
in Leicester and Nottingham will stand to give city businesses and services a
modern foundation for growth, investment and innovation and a proven toolkit for
increased efficiency, productivity and competitiveness.’
For further information visit: www.cityfibre.com
Huawei and Imagine
announce game changer
in the delivery of
Superfast Broadband
Huawei and Imagine Communications
Group have announced the formation of
a strategic partnership which will make
Ireland beome the first country to benefit
from the deployment of a pioneering
national wireless-to the-x (WTTx) network.
Using the latest released LTE
technologies optimised as a purely fixed
access network, Imagine will use Huawei’s
(WTTx) solution to deliver superfast
broadband (200Mbps+) connectivity
across Ireland, removing the digital divide
between urban and rural areas.
With the latest 4.5G technologies
(such as Massive MIMO and Massive
Carrier Aggregation), capable of a
downlink speed of over 1Gbps and
providing a roadmap to 5G, using
high per formance Customer Premise
Equipment (CPE) to connect premises to
fiber at a mast is faster to deploy with
significantly lower costs compared to
fiber access solutions. WTTx is emerging
as a key strategic alternative to FTTx
accelerating the delivery of 100% high-
speed broadband availability.
Ireland is a country with a huge
contrast between urban and rural areas
in terms of network infrastructure. While
in urban areas cable availability provides
an alternative to the limited fibre-to-
the-x (FTTx) experience, it rarely meets
the advertised headline speeds of up to
100Mbps, and cannot meet the demand
for higher speed 100Mbps plus services.
In fact for 61% of the market in regional
and rural areas, x digital subscriber line
(xDSL) services are as slow as 3Mbps.
Mao Dun, vice president of Huawei
Wireless Marketing and Solution Sales,
said: ‘Huawei’s WTTx solution has the
capability of providing internet access
to everybody everywhere. Working with
Imagine in a commercial environment,
we have optimised our WTTx solution
deployed as a purely fixed network
alternative to FTTx.
‘Removing the barriers faced by
FTTx deployments to meet the need and
demand for Superfast Broadband, Ireland
is an ideal market to demonstrate the
ability of the latest WTTx solutions. We
look forward to continuing our strategic
partnership with imagine and delivering
the best in industry solution.’
For further information visit:
www.huawei.com
August 2017 | 17