Manx Telecom to invest in more fibre-to-the-premises

Isle of Man telecommunications provider Manx Telecom said on Wednesday that it was prioritising more investment in fibre optic cabling, to bring download speeds of one gigabit per second (1Gbps) to “selected” homes and businesses across the island later this year.

The AIM-traded firm said the initial ultrafast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) roll-out would begin during the second half of 2017 to 77 locations, covering key business districts and industrial estates across the island.

It said the new service would provide download speed options of up to 1Gbps and upload speeds of up to 200Mbps.

“In addition to £10m invested in fibre broadband since 2011, we are pleased to announce further investment in our current broadband service through the delivery of the latest speed enhancing technologies,” said Manx Telecom chief technology and information officer Kevin Paige.

“We are also formally launching our ultrafast fibre broadband service via FTTP technology which continues to build on our goal of extending our fibre network, and the ultimate extension of that strategy is to provide fibre directly into the homes and businesses on the island.”

The project would also see the improvement of the company's current superfast fibre broadband (VDSL+) service, increasing speeds from 80Mbps to up to 100 Mbps, and the launch of a new faster service, providing download speeds of up to 200Mbps.

VDSL was currently available to 93% of the population, with the service experiencing 45% penetration.

Manx Telecom said there continued to be “strong levels” of take up for VDSL+, which was available to 73% of the population.