Blackpool Council has secured £2.7m of government cash to activate high-tech, better broadband, the full length of the tramline.
The Enterprise Zone at Blackpool Airport is one of the first locations to benefit. The multi-million pound investment will boost internet speeds and connectivity. Businesses will get faster digital access through future 5G technology.
Home of the Celtix-Connect2 internet cable – the North Atlantic Loop
Blackpool connects digitally to New York in under 0.06 seconds, via the next-generation subsea fibre optic cable network. It comes out of the sea to ground at Squires Gate. The new fibre optic cable landed at a ‘meet me point’ at Blackpool Airport in September 2019.
The North Atlantic Loop links the USA with European Financial markets, delivering a resilient, diverse, high capacity network. Connecting the USA (New York and New Jersey) with Ireland, the UK and Northern Europe. In reality it means that Blackpool has faster transatlantic internet connectivity than London!
The multi-million pound investment is thanks to Aqua Comms. They’re an Irish company and worldwide specialist in the building and operations of submarine cable systems.
The science bit: This transatlantic system supports the needs of the Pan-Atlantic hyperscale providers. They underpin today’s international cloud industry for global carriers, cloud-based networks, internet service providers, data centres, IT companies and the global media.
Full fibre Broadband comes to Blackpool
This multi-million pound investment will deliver the fastest, most resilient broadband internet connection on the market. And as a result, Blackpool will be one of the first UK towns and cities to get full fibre gigabit broadband.
A co-operative group from the private and public sectors are working together to roll out FIBRE BLACKPOOL a local full fibre network that will give an improved broadband internet connection to residents and businesses on the Fylde Coast.
The launch of Fibre Blackpool is a result of £3.1m of funding secured in Spring 2018 through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The grant has been used to expand a shared fibre infrastructure into Blackpool town centre and along the length of the coast’s tramline. It runs from Squires Gate Lane and Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone all the way to Fleetwood and Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone. This future-proofs the town with a full ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP) connection.
State of the Art Fibre Network
Shaun Fensom is secretary of the Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI). He said, “We’ll be working with Blackpool to unlock a state-of-the-art fibre network for the benefit of both residents and businesses. The network will enable Internet service providers – members of our cooperative – to deliver some of the fastest internet connections available in the UK. They’ll be investing to connect businesses and residents along the Fylde Coast and in the two Enterprise Zones. That will mean faster, better connections, and bring yet more investment to Blackpool.”
Network operator and CNI founding member, ITS has been quick to make use of this network to benefit local businesses.
Daren Baythorpe is CEO of ITS He said: “Our network utilises CNI’s infrastructure. But we are also investing in and laying additional full fibre cable so that even more premises can be connected to this fantastic network to benefit from gigabit services. Businesses are encouraged to register their interest as we will build to where there is demand. As a network operator, we work with our partners so that businesses can get the right services and best deals for their needs. We are providing an offer that caters for businesses and organisations of all sizes, shapes and connectivity budgets.”
Connecting with Fibre Blackpool means:
- Fast reliable performance. No more buffering watching juddery videos or waiting for hours for films and music to upload
- Hyperfast speeds to power your bandwidth hungry applications. It will handle anything you throw at it from Netflix, Office 365, gaming online, voice over telephony and payroll services
- Competitively priced services to fulfil your individual requirements. Premium services also available where a dedicated line is required
What’s full fibre?
The UK has more than 94% coverage for superfast broadband with speeds of 24 megabits per second or higher. However most superfast connections rely on copper telephone wires or TV cables from a box on the street to the home or place of business. These are limited in the speeds they can support, so for the fastest and most reliable broadband delivering gigabit speeds, a full fibre connection is required.
What’s a gigabit?
Gigabit broadband is an internet connection that offers speeds of 1 Gigabit per second (1Gb) or more
1 Gigabit = 1,000 Megabits so it’s a big leap in connection speeds
A 1GB service would allow you to download a HD film in seconds
Full fibre services are capable of being symmetrical – meaning the download and upload speeds are the same.
Click here and on the image to download and read the ‘Digital Blackpool’ brochure.
Serving 30,000+ properties
There are an estimated 30,000 properties within range of the fibre optic infrastructure. Working through a fibre-sharing co-operative, internet service providers will be able to build out the network to individual properties.
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