Ducts utilised in Wales to provide fibre broadband

South Wales will soon benefit from faster and more widespread fibre broadband due to a partnership between the Welsh Government and the company Net Support UK (NSUK) which will allow the commercial company to use and refurbish telecommunications ducts alongside trunk roads in the region.

According to a recent announcement by the Welsh Government, many telecommunications ducts, which run alongside many roads in Wales, go unused so the Government is therefore offering NSUK free reign to install fibre broadband infrastructure, as well as establish the necessary ducts where none are present, to increase coverage at no cost to the Government and therefore the taxpayer.

Upon installing the fibre network, NSUK will be permitted to commercialise it, making the most out of a Government owned asset to increase fibre coverage across the South Welsh region, thereby also making the area more attractive to businesses and also investment.

The Welsh Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, Lee Waters stated: “We are always looking at innovative and new ways of improving our fibre infrastructure, helping make Wales a more connected nation. One way is for government to look at its own assets and see if we are making the most of them.

“This scheme is the first of its kind in the UK and is truly innovative as the improvements to the infrastructure come at no extra cost to the taxpayer. Lessons learned from this will be used to support future projects.”

The Managing Director for NSUK, Giles Phelps added: “We are delighted to be working with Welsh Government on this project. Laying a fibre infrastructure is the foundation to support businesses and communities in Wales who are only going to want to use digital technologies more and who will need fibre to do so reliably.”

If you would like to read more articles like this then please click here.