Wildanet accelerates Cornwall full-fibre deployment

Of all of the regions of the UK that have been traditionally underserved by state-of-the-art high-quality broadband, Cornwall is right up (or down) there. To help it catch up in the gigabit world, Wildanet, the county’s largest alternative network provider (altnet), has partnered with Nokia and Xantaro to accelerate its network roll-out.

Wildanet is backed by specialist alternative asset manager Gresham House’s sustainable infrastructure strategy, with £100m invested since 2020. It has been awarded three UK government contracts worth £77m to transform connectivity for rural and hard-to-reach areas in the South West under the Project Gigabit scheme.

Describing itself as a provider of high-performance network and security solutions, Xantaro has been selected by Wildanet to source and install street cabinets and exchange solutions for a gigabit-enabled full-fibre network in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Xantaro will also provide professional services to Wildanet to ensure a professionally configured network with minimal disruption.

Xantaro’s integrated cabinet and exchange solutions will also help accelerate FTTP deployments for Wildanet by delivering a fully tested, pre-built and configured solution, incorporating the Nokia OLT, Viavi centralised OTDR test head, out of band (OOB) management solution, iLOQ features and more. Xantaro said the OOB management solution will allow cabinets to be fully controlled and managed prior to any backhaul solution being deployed, enabling PON ports to be managed and ODN build to progress without delay.

Xantaro is delighted to have been selected by Wildanet to construct one of the UK’s most resilient, high-capacity and future-proof networks

In addition, Xantaro will further support Wildanet with the deployment of Nokia network management solutions, providing professional services and architectural design optimisation.

Wildanet is one of more than 40 UK altnets working with Xantaro to build networks for hard-to-reach and underserved communities. Xantaro said it was chosen for this project due to its strong track record of delivering projects for service providers and extensive in-house technical expertise and consultancy. Xantaro has partnered with Nokia in Europe for a number of years.

“Xantaro is delighted to have been selected by Wildanet to construct one of the UK’s most resilient, high-capacity and future-proof networks,” remarked Xantaro chief technology officer of fixed networks Stephen Kingdom. “Drawing on our extensive experience with altnets across the UK and our long-standing partnership with Nokia, we are pleased to be delivering cutting-edge cabinet technology and professional services to Wildanet. Together, we will accelerate the deployment of fibre and essential connectivity to underserved communities.”