Broadband ISP Ogi Opens New 70km Fibre Route in South Wales

Welsh internet provider Ogi, which is building a multi-Gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network for homes and businesses across South Wales, has today opened its new 70km long diverse “high-capacity digital route” into the region – boosting their network capacity, resilience and offering a mix of wholesale products.

The privately-backed project, which was officially announced back in October 2023 (it’s gone live just six months later), stems from a 25-year concession agreement with the Welsh Government that is seeing Ogi bring new Dark Fibre and Microduct Access products into the South East region of Wales, boosting capacity and resilience for the likes of carriers, hyper-scalers, data centres and rival ISPs looking to expand.

The diverse route utilises the public-owned motorway and trunk road network, with Ogi installing along the southeast section of the M4 corridor into Wales and over the Prince of Wales Bridge, into Europe’s largest datacentre campus – Vantage CWL1 – and onwards to key hubs such as Cardiff’s Empire internet exchange in the capital’s central Stadium House site.

The new products are intended to offer an alternative means to scale networks across South Wales – “considered one of the fastest growing digital economies outside London” – with capacity to grow and extend across South Wales and onto Ireland as demand increases.

In order to deliver this, Ogi’s engineers have had to utilise, amongst other solutions, the “latest micro-trenching technology“, rapidly cutting enough space for the ducts – making road surface reinstatement much faster, less disruptive and less carbon intensive than traditional methods.

Justin Leese, Ogi’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer, said:

“With billions being invested in new data centres around the world, the need for high-capacity connectivity and increasing resilience regionally – along with the expert support that goes with it – is pivotal if Wales is going to attract tomorrow’s tech leaders, today.

The big data age is here; with technology like AI forging ahead a need for more space and network capacity. This new network puts Wales on the map as a place to do business confidently, boosting the opportunities for a sector that’s already worth over £8.5billion to the Welsh economy.”

The move will also help Ogi to support its existing services, which in some areas can even support business connections as fast as 25Gbps via Nokia’s next generation 25G Passive Optical Network (25G PON) fibre technology (here). New products including lit services are also already in the pipeline, adding to Ogi’s growing wholesale offer.

In terms of the network itself. Ogi has previously informed ISPreview that Phase One of the TRC programme rollout has the capacity for over 1,500 pairs of fibres, with each pairing capable of 1.6Tbps (Terabits) of data using commercially available products such as those from Ciena and Nokia. This equates to around 2,534Tbps of data capacity or 2.53Pbps (2530,000,000,000,000 bits per second).

In theory, future phases of the scheme could see high-capacity infrastructure reaching other parts of Wales – where Ogi is already rolling out domestic services – boosting local, Welsh and the UK economies. But it remains to be seen whether they have the budget to progress that phase into existence.