Electricity poles give broadband to Welsh village

published 27 July 2010

A Welsh village is set to receive fibre broadband connections thanks to existing electricity structures.

Virgin Media has got together with power company Surf Telecoms to provide residents in Crumlin with up to 50Mbps broadband by running the fibre network over electricity poles.

The broadband provider claimed it would increase current BT provided copper speeds by as much as ten times.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: "We're already bringing broadband speeds of up to 50Mbps and, soon 100Mbps, to over half of all UK homes and are pushing the boundaries to ensure that homes right across the UK benefit from ultrafast broadband."

"Working in partnership with companies like Surf Telecoms, we can more rapidly and efficiently expand the reach of fibre optic networks to towns, villages and communities right across the UK."

Virgin Media has already trialled something similar in Woolhampton, Berkshire, earlier this year but it was forced to build its own infrastructure to carry the fibre lines. With the latest trial, the infrastructure is already there and ready to be used.

The trials of the technique are set to begin next month and will run into 2011.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.