More fibre broadband to be given to residents of Bournemouth

With the help of a brand new self-service portal, residents in Bournemouth could be the first in the UK with the ability to pick their own content provider and broadband service provider.

Broadband access with speeds of up to 100Mbps, which is claimed to be the fastest broadband service available in the UK, will be given to homeowners in Bournemouth using the new fibre-optic infrastructure that has been deployed by Fibrecity, an I3 Group company.

A number of content and service providers have signed up to sell services through the new portal and now that the first homes have now been connected to the Fibrecity network these residents will now be able to select these services.

A menu displaying a range of different providers offering service in the area will be available to users through a router and a set-top box that has been connected to the Fibrecity network. The purchase of these services and packages is available directly from the provider’s existing online system and the customer simply needs to click on the icon of the provider.

The chief executive of the I3 Group, Elfed Thomas said “Our vision is to offer people living in Fibrecities real choice without being restricted to one provider.”

There would be little point in expecting any participation in this new system from the various ISPs like Sky, Orange, O2, Carphone Warehouse or the current UK telecoms giant BT as these companies would rather sell their own multi-play packages, which would include broadband internet access, TV Channels and both fixed and mobile phone services, to customers.

It is expected that the Bournemouth Fibrecity will be completed by 2011, although the deployment will take place in stages allowing for a progressively larger number of users able to access this incredible new system.

Source – Computing