Major Investment And New Jobs As Wightfibre Announces “Gigabit Island”

Wightfibre is excited to announce that it has secured an investment of £35 million towards building a full-fibre, future proof, ultrafast broadband network across the Isle of Wight.

This investment comes from the government’s new Digital Infastructure Investment Fund and Wightfibre is the first company to benefit from it. The fund was launched by HM Treasury earlier this year.

It has been announced that speeds of up to 1Gb (1,000Mb) or even faster will be available to more than 50,000 homes and businesses across the Island, including areas which are not currently served by Wightfibre.

Full-fibre broadband uses fibre optic cabling for the complete journey from the exchange into the home, rather than the current system where the fibre optic cable stops at the street cabinet and is then still delivered through old copper twister pair.

Wightfibre’s chief executive officer, John Irvine, has said:

“Just 10 years ago few of us could have imagined just how much we would all be using the internet both at home and work. Traditional copper networks have struggled to keep up with demand. The new WighfFibre full-fibre network will be capable of handling the islands broadband demands for decades to come, catapulting the island into the front line of the new digital economy”.

For more information about this exciting news, please click here.