Gimme Fibre Day

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One-in-five of JT’s broadband customers are now connected to the Gigabit Jersey fibre-optic network, JT has announced on the week of the first annual international 'Gimme Fibre Day'.

The Fibre-To-The-Home Councils Global Alliance has organised the day to promote the benefits of fibre-optic broadband around the world, and to encourage communities to press operators to invest in fibre technology. The 4^th of November was chosen as ‘Gimme Fibre Day’ because it is the birthday of Sir Charles Kuen Kao, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for his ground-breaking work in fibre-optics.

Thanks to the Gigabit Jersey project, the Island is some way ahead of most of the rest of the world in embracing fibre technology:

One in five JT broadband customers are already connected to the fibre network - only seven places in the world have a higher connection rate.
Stretched end-to-end, the fibre cables already used in the project would go around the planet almost six times.
More than 100 local jobs have been created, mainly for young people, by the Gigabit Jersey project.
When the project ends in 2016 Jersey will have the highest fibre-optic connection rate in Europe.
Connecting to the Gigabit Jersey network is free, but in the UK you might have to pay anything from £49 to £130 depending on the operator.

JT Chief Operations and Technology Officer Dave Newbold said that by making the vital investment now, the Island would be ready for the expected demand of decades to come as more and more services and devices would go online.

He said: ‘The real advantages of fibre aren’t just about the higher speeds, the way that more people can be online at once sharing a single connection or the new products like video-calls or streaming, they are also about future-proofing and ensuring that we have a communications infrastructure that is built to last.

‘Making this investment now will mean that we’re ahead of the curve on connectivity, and that we won’t have to touch our infrastructure again for decades. It is already really heartening to see how innovators in the business community are seeing the possibilities in a new tech and digital sector – we are sure that more and more Islanders will see the benefits and possibilities of this project as they are connected to the new ultrafast network.’