The town where I live is going to be the first “Fibrecity” in the UK, apparently. I’ve been asked for permission to connect fibre-optic cabling capable of speeds in excess of 100Mbps to my house, at no cost.
I’m usually quite skeptical about no-cost offers like this, but this one does seem like it might be genuinely useful. Also, our local council has already gone ahead with the work for their offices and for the BIC and Pavilion.
I’m thinking about opting in, but there’s an exhibition about it at the local library so I might go and see that first.
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10 responses to “Fibrecity”
Tim – I’m sure it will be interesting to see the exhibition, but it sounds like you have little to loose and a lot to gain. I’m sure many of your colleagues will be very jealous, and you’ll probably struggle to contain your excitement 😉
Congrats, and let’s hope the s**t you get is of the electronic content kind, rather than something else coming up through the fibre 😉
They will install the cable – but how much will it cost to use it?? No mention of that at all. I am an old cynic but suspect they need a minimum number of installations before they can start digging up Bournemouth. I would love it if it were free but I doubt it!
Indeed, there’s been no mention so far of how much it might cost to use it once the cable is installed, or even of how long it might take before I would be able to do that (only that work commences in September).
This part is just to give me the option to use it at a later date.
To quote from the leaflet “Fibrecity is an all inclusive project, free to all homes, businesses, hospitals, and educational facilities.” unquote. The way I read it, it costs nothing to use.
William: it was the next sentence that made me think there will be a service charge for use: “It is up to you if you take advantage of the services that are delivered over it when they become available.”
Unfortunately when I went to the library the day after writing this post, the Fibrecity stand hadn’t turned up…
I’ll try to pop in this week and find out more.
What is the matter with you guys? It is free. If and when they start their BB ,if you think it is too expensive, or any other adverse reason then don’t take it. You have nothing to lose.I wish I lived in Bournemouth.
From my reading of the information, H2O will be installing dark fibre i.e. the back bone of a network. They will won’t be providing network services themselves. Once the fibre is in place they will market it to ISPs for them to use in providing services to the public.
http://www.h2onetworksdarkfibre.com/about-us/?faqs
It’s very clear from the leaflet through our door today that FibreCity are installing the infrastructure for someone else to use to sell us services. FibreCity are quite clear that they are not going to deliver TV, broadband or telephone. They also say they are going to charge for installation after a month so we should sign up now! Anyway, it’s free, so why not? They’re not coming into the house and promise to make good any damage they cause. Seems to be supported by the City Council and it sounds good to me, so I’m signing up!
We’re collecting information on this rollout and have the map on our site for Bournemouth which is drawn from confirmed members of the public having the service. Seems slow progress so far. Where you at Tim?
http://www.fibreforum.co.uk
Tim, I’d also point out that there are a lot of free trials going on so there is little risk really from people on our forums.
Here’s the deal on Fibre City folks – they are a shower of s**t – I organised organised two appointments here in Bournemouth to come and do the internal installation in my house but have not turned up both times. I stayed home from work twice to meet them. No apologies, no contacts …. nothing. If I run my business like they do theirs I would be bankrupt in 6 months. I called, they were apologetic, promised a call-back – never materialised…. I threatened to scratch the whole thing if their manager did not call me in 30 minutes …. surprise…… no call! Does anyone actually have an operating Fibre City service up & running?
They cut through other media cables here in Bournemouth when they were setting the cables and half the town was without telephone / broadband connections for 3 weeks as a result. Do they really know what they are about? They are great on talk but when it comes down to it they simply can’t deliver. I’m back with ’02 – at least they are efficient. Good luck with these guys.