Horsebridge picks ECI Telecom to supply FTTH to City of Westminster

UK network infrastructure provider Horsebridge Network Systems has selected ECI Telecom to supply GPON equipment for a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project in the City of Westminster, London, the systems house reports.

Westminster occupies an area of 21.5 sq km and is home to 220,000 people. It is located in central London, and many significant tourist, economic, and political sites associated with London lie within the city’s limits. Horsebridge plans to install high-speed fiber-optic broadband infrastructure in more than 22,000 homes in the city over the next three years. The new GPON infrastructure will enable the delivery of digital television, high-speed Internet, and voice services, ECI says. To this end, Horsebridge has set up a new company called Community Fibre Ltd. that will provide such services to Westminster’s residents.

To create the broadband access infrastructure, ECI and Horsebridge will deploy the former’s I-OLT FTTx platform, which not only supports GPON but Active Ethernet and full traffic aggregation capabilities as well.

"We intend to roll out Community Fibre's service across all of our homes so that all of our residents will have access to the internet, which is increasingly important in this digital age,” said Jonathan Glanz, Westminster City Council's cabinet member for housing. "Currently, more than one in four of our tenants do not have access to the Internet at home. I welcome the first phase of this new initiative as it furthers my commitment to addressing digital deprivation in the city, and will improve the lives of our residents."

ECI says it has been present in the British market since 1990 and has worked with Horsebridge on other broadband projects in the UK.

For more information on FTTx/access systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.