We are delighted to be working with OpenInfra to bring the benefits of full-fibre gigabit (and higher speed!) broadband to some 3000 households in the Lexden area of Colchester. 1400 of these are now live and can order a service from OpenInfra if they have not signed up. Almost 500 have already signed up to receive a full-fibre connection.
OpenInfra is a Swedish builder of fibre optic networks, with a solid footprint in Sweden, Germany, the US, Norway, and now the UK. Colchester is OpenInfra’s second target destination after Barnet in North London, where they have passed around 10,000 homes while achieving 40% uptake. OpenInfra has built the local access network in Lexden to deliver blazingly fast broadband to customers. Colchester Fibre has provided the wholesale infrastructure between London and Colchester, as well as the local links to connect the OpenInfra neighbourhood networks.
Both OpenInfra and Colchester Fibre are committed to furthering the development of open-access fibre infrastructure in the UK, which allows multiple operators to share the same underlying infrastructure to reach end customers. This model was first developed in Scandinavia and has ensured near-100% availability of full-fibre broadband in those countries. The city centre, Shrub End, Berechurch, Wivenhoe, and now Lexden, have benefited from this approach, attracting investment from both Government and a number of external investors.
Tobias Uller, Managing Director of OpenInfra UK, said “We are very happy that we now are live in Colchester. Running a business model based on homes connected instead of homes passed is challenging and things take time because we need a certain percentage of interested households before we build. We are very happy for the trust that Colchester residents have put in us and we now can deliver on that trust. The process with Colchester Fibre has been incredibly smooth in terms of building the uplinks to our street equipment. We are very thankful and are looking forward to helping more areas in Colchester connect to next-generation full-fibre networks.
Simon Coward, Group MD of Colchester Amphora Trading, of which Colchester Fibre is part, said “We’re delighted to welcome OpenInfra to the Colchester Fibre open-access network. This direct foreign investment in Colchester is a sign of the confidence our network partners have in the infrastructure we have built and operate here. Following the first stage in Lexden, we look forward to deepening our cooperation with OpenInfra to help deliver our vision of a connected, ultrafast, Digital Colchester.”
(L) Pedro Monteiro, OpenInfra Chief Engineer and (R) Tobias Uller, MD OpenInfra UK, launch their first street cabinet in Lexden