Boost for Bangor as Welsh broadband plans start to deliver

Bangor is the first area of Wales to benefit from a publicly-funded broadband project to improve connectivity in the region.

The first fibre cabinet has now been installed in the city as part of the Superfast Cymru project that has benefited from funding of £205 million from Europe and the UK and Welsh governments.

The arrival of that fibre cabinet is the first step in plans to take “next generation” broadband to more areas of Wales.

BT has also contributed £220m and is running the project, which should see homes able to access up to 80Mbits/sec services.

“Those in Bangor could be reaping the benefits of this investment as early as the Spring,” the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said in a statement.

“Further cabinets are now also being installed in other parts of the city. Engineers will ultimately lay around 17,500 kilometres of optical fibre cable and install around 3,000 new fibre broadband cabinets in streets the length and breadth of Wales.”

Handover node

While the Bangor cabinet is the first to target homes with fibre, it’s not the first fibre to be laid in Wales.

“Interestingly, the FibreSpeed project that was a multi-million project to increase backhaul competition in North Wales also has a major point of presence in the city, but aside from helping provide backhaul for fixed wireless services and some business parks, the SME and residential market has seen very little benefit from that spending,” said Andrew Ferguson, network expert for Thinkbroadband.com in a blog post.