DarkLight / Dark Fibre for West Sussex

[EXA_Mark]

I am sure some of you are already aware of our DarkLight service, and also what we are now doing in West Sussex. So I thought I would tell you about our launch event for West Sussex based schools, next Tuesday 9th October between 10 am and 12.

 

The event will let you hear from ourselves, our partner, JSPC and CityFibre who are laying the fibre for us.

 

I would strongly recommend schools to attend the event, even if you are in contract now with someone else, as we can build to the school for when you current contract expires, without upfront costs, as it makes sense for us to do this during the whole construction stage, rather than going back to it later.

 

If you want to check whether your school would be able to get DarkLight in West Sussex (or other areas for that matter), you are welcome to PM me before register

 

The bit below is from the registration page

 

Mark

 

The world’s fastest internet technology is coming to schools throughout West Sussex…

 

We are delighted to inform you that Exa Education and JSPC Computer Services Ltd are working together to bring DarkLight - the revolutionary dark fibre internet connection - to West Sussex. To celebrate the upcoming launch of this service, and to explain the incredible benefits it will bring, we’re hosting a breakfast event at The Charmandean Centre between 10:00 and 12:00 on Tuesday 9th October - and we’d love you to join us!

 

Why should you attend?

 

The dark fibre network infrastructure is currently being laid by our partners, CityFibre (you can read more on this at: https://bit.ly/2zCGXos). During this build time, it is imperative that we have an understanding of which schools will require a world-class DarkLight connection in the future.

 

In knowing this, we can ensure that a connection is laid direct to your school’s door - so as soon as the network is live, you will be able to take advantage of the world’s fastest internet technology (although you can always wait until a time that is convenient for you). Not only will this ensure that you are one of the first schools in the county to receive this Next Generation Technology, it will also minimise the installation cost!

 

Find out everything you need to know at our 'West Sussex - UK'S First Gigabit County' event on Tuesday 9th October, book your free ticket here: http://www.exa.is/tickets

[Disease]

Interesting, I won't be able to go to the meeting but would be interested to hear when you will be available in Portsmouth.

[EXA_Mark]

Maybe VERY soon. If you want to PM me your school post code, I'll let you know more.

[supportman]

My experience of CityFibre was very poor, they wouldn't even lay it 150 meters to our school when we had 2 schools registering our interest and possibly the hospital.

 

As far as I could tell, they were simply sweating the original Marconi fibre lines that were laid 20 years or more ago with no new fibre being laid.

[EXA_Mark]

My experience of CityFibre was very poor, they wouldn't even lay it 150 meters to our school when we had 2 schools registering our interest and possibly the hospital.

 

As far as I could tell, they were simply sweating the original Marconi fibre lines that were laid 20 years or more ago with no new fibre being laid.

 

I can't really comment on your specific situation with City Fibre at that time, but if you want me send me a PM with the school address I can tell you for sure what the situation would be from our side.

 

As far as sweating the older lines, I am sure in some areas over the past five or six years, they have reused the existing fibres, if they bought them, but I can tell you from first hand experience, the vast majority of work we have done with them in Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Calderdale, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rotherham, Doncaster and other areas (including West Sussex) have been new digs and new fibre pulls, I know this first hand, as the other end of the splice is new into our DC's and PoPs in those areas.

 

Our average dig is well over 150M per site, with some schools I can specifically link you to, including mentioned on here, have been over 800M. It all depends on the areas, what else is around and the type of construction required.

 

I can say for certain if you had two schools within 150M of our network you would be getting DarkLight installed no problem.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Just on a side note.

 

We too have access to Cityfibres Dark Fibre network if you need a quote for Dark Fibre access or layer 2 access using Cityfibre then feel free to PM me too as it uses the same underlying technology as @exa_mark Dark Light product which is a brand name Exa has created.

 

We've already done quite a few Cityfibre connections around the country. Although we now find that Talk Talk, Virgin, BT and Vodafone have now caught up on pricing for layer 2 services and have better coverage anyway so we generally shy away from using Cityfibre unless there's a specific reason to do so.

 

Dave

[EXA_Mark]

Although we now find that Talk Talk, Virgin, BT and Vodafone have now caught up on pricing for layer 2 services and have better coverage anyway so we generally shy away from using Cityfibre unless there's a specific reason to do so.

 

Dave

 

Just to be clear Dave, TTB, Virgin, BT, Openreach and Vodafone, do not sell Dark Fibre. They all sell a lit product (leased line or EAD type) or a wave length (Openreach). And currently are limited to up to 10Gbps circuits.

 

We've already delivered 40Gbps and are about to do some 100Gbps services dedicated fibre, not wavelengths.

 

So whilst the 100Mbps pricing has come down, the Gbps or 10Gbps is nowhere near our DarkLight pricing, from any other provider. I know this for certain as we have now done hundreds of Dark Fibre circuits and even more on traditional leased lines with all of the providers you mention (excluding Vodafone). 1Gbps 1:1 on the intial 10Gbps DarkLight service is less than £6,000 a year, none of the others are anywhere near that.

 

Also, I believe SB would take the City Fibre product through Entanet (City Fibre Wholesale) and that is just lit and contended GPON product, not the Dark Fibre product we have CF install on our behalf, which as you are aware is a very different thing.

 

Finally, there is no lit product available in West Sussex from CF/Enta, only Dark Fibre / DarkLight.

[supportman]

I can't really comment on your specific situation with City Fibre at that time, but if you want me send me a PM with the school address I can tell you for sure what the situation would be from our side.

As far as sweating the older lines, I am sure in some areas over the past five or six years, they have reused the existing fibres, if they bought them, but I can tell you from first hand experience, the vast majority of work we have done with them in Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Calderdale, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rotherham, Doncaster and other areas (including West Sussex) have been new digs and new fibre pulls, I know this first hand, as the other end of the splice is new into our DC's and PoPs in those areas.

Our average dig is well over 150M per site, with some schools I can specifically link you to, including mentioned on here, have been over 800M. It all depends on the areas, what else is around and the type of construction required.

I can say for certain if you had two schools within 150M of our network you would be getting DarkLight installed no problem.

 

That's great news! Looks like things have changed then. I was told that 45m was their limit in when I had quote last year. The prices were fantastic from our reseller which prompted my interest.

 

We went with a BT 500mbit line in the end which was about 5 times the price. About the same quote from Virgin.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Kind of Mark,

 

BT, Talk Talk etc don't yet do Dark Fibre (although they will in the not so distant future) but you can do Waves with them which we have done.

 

We can also buy Dark Fibre circuits via Entanet for CityFibre and link that back to our POP in a location (just as you can). In fact any Entanet partner can. Entanet was of course bought by CityFibre abut 12 months ago so we now have access to exactly the same circuits as you do and can do the high speeds you've put in your post.

 

 

So if anyone does want a CityFibre Dark Fibre based circuit (not layer 2) then feel to come knocking to us, Exa or another Entanet partner. You are incorrect about the GPON comment. We have GPON, layer 2 and Dark Fibre access.

 

Dave

 

 

Just to be clear Dave, TTB, Virgin, BT, Openreach and Vodafone, do not sell Dark Fibre. They all sell a lit product (leased line or EAD type) or a wave length (Openreach). And currently are limited to up to 10Gbps circuits.

 

We've already delivered 40Gbps and are about to do some 100Gbps services dedicated fibre, not wavelengths.

 

So whilst the 100Mbps pricing has come down, the Gbps or 10Gbps is nowhere near our DarkLight pricing, from any other provider. I know this for certain as we have now done hundreds of Dark Fibre circuits and even more on traditional leased lines with all of the providers you mention (excluding Vodafone). 1Gbps 1:1 on the intial 10Gbps DarkLight service is less than £6,000 a year, none of the others are anywhere near that.

 

Also, I believe SB would take the City Fibre product through Entanet (City Fibre Wholesale) and that is just lit and contended GPON product, not the Dark Fibre product we have CF install on our behalf, which as you are aware is a very different thing.

 

Finally, there is no lit product available in West Sussex from CF/Enta, only Dark Fibre / DarkLight.

[EXA_Mark]

Kind of Mark,

 

BT, Talk Talk etc don't yet do Dark Fibre (although they will in the not so distant future) but you can do Waves with them which we have done.

 

We can also buy Dark Fibre circuits via Entanet for CityFibre and link that back to our POP in a location (just as you can). In fact any Entanet partner can. Entanet was of course bought by CityFibre abut 12 months ago so we now have access to exactly the same circuits as you do and can do the high speeds you've put in your post.

 

 

So if anyone does want a CityFibre Dark Fibre based circuit (not layer 2) then feel to come knocking to us, Exa or another Entanet partner. You are incorrect about the GPON comment. We have GPON, layer 2 and Dark Fibre access.

 

Dave

 

I am so tempted to get into this with you on here Dave, but perhaps not the best place So let's just agree to disagree!

 

As you know, to take Dark Fibre and then be able to offer internet connectivity through it and light up the fibre, (hence DarkLight), you have to have a PoP/DC in each geographic location to terminate one end (the customer being the other) and then either breakout or connectivity back to another DC in your network to breakout. From what I understand of your network you do not have that many DCs? Of course my information might be out of date since we met earlier in the year.

 

On the matter of the others doing Dark Fibre soon, I really do hope this is the case. Our network was not built to just use City Fibres DF, but any, and the kit we have in all of our DC's and PoP throughout the country, with another three opening this year, makes it all the better, where we have more options for getting fibre for other areas. It was a shame when BT (and others) blocked Openreaches decision to launch Dark Fibre last year. Although how competitive each of them end up being remains to be seen. But competition is good, and here's hoping we have more network suppliers making their infrastructure open to ISPs through Dark Fibre as opposed to just waves.

[SchoolsBroadband]

yes I agree on the BT Dark Fibre being pulled. I think that was bad for end customers personally but I'm sure Ofcom will re-do it and it'll get pushed through next time.

 

Ref POPs, yes you are incorrect but I won't hold it against you

 

Dave