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What are Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Jersey?

What are Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Jersey? 

Latest news stories about Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Isles  Jersey Telecom, also known as JT, is an ISP based in the Channel Islands, supplying broadband, landline calls and mobile services to customers. 

Gigabit Jersey, also known as Gigabit Isles, is a plan to get everyone on the island of Jersey able to order full FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) broadband from JT, along with 5,000 customers on Guernsey. What are Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Jersey?Jersey Telecom currently offers a range of ADSL-based services alongside its superfast fibre products.

Superfast broadband packages available from Jersey Telecom provide include an entry level 50Mbps serivce, an intermediate 100Mbps service and a truly next-gen 1Gbps package. 

Realising that not everyone wants or needs superfast speeds right now, Jersey Telecom will continue to offer 2Mbps, 4Mbps and 8Mbps services once the Gigabit Isles programme is complete. 

Jersey Telecom is spending £41.5 million on upgrading its old copper network and aims to have the project completed by 2016. 

Humax YouView boxes bundled with broadband

Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Jersey: Humax YouView boxes bundled with broadbandJT is bundling 500GB and 1TB Humax YouView boxes with its broadband packages.

The standard 500GB Humax DTR-T1000 can be bundled free with either the 16Mbps or 20Mbps JT Broadband services and all of JT’s fibre broadband packages.

Those after a bit more recording space can snap up the 1TB DTR-T1000 for a one-off fee of £49.

With each package you get the monthly usage bumped up to 20GB to compensate for data used up by YouView-s on-demand services like BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Now TV. If you want YouView in extra rooms then JT is giving subscribers the option of buying extra boxes at £249 and £299 a pop for the 500GB and 1TB versions respectively.

For JT customers in Guernsey YouView is also available, albeit at a slightly higher price. The one off costs for the two boxes work out at £49 for the 500GB box and £99 for the bigger 1TB box.

Additionally while most of the catch-up on-demand servies like BBC iPlayer are free, Now TV is a subscription service that costs £8.99/month for the first three months and £15/month thereafter.

Now TV currently gives you access to the same films available on Sky Movies and is guaranteed to have new titles available to watch before the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm.Jersey Telecoms and Gigabit Jersey: Humax YouView boxes bundled with broadband

JT is currently in the process of switching out all of the island’s old copper lines for full FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) fibre broadband. Aimed to be finished by 2016 this will provide 1Gbps speeds to everyone on the island.

November 26, 2012

Previous stories about Jersey Telecom and Gigabit Jersey

    YouView now available in the Channel Islands with JT    

JT subscribers can now take YouView TV with their broadband.

The subscription-free digital TV platform that blends Freeview channels with on-demand elements will be available to take alongside JT broadband products.

We’re waiting for further information from JT and YouView on this but the latter has at least confirmed the partnership via Twitter this morning.

We’re expecting YouView boxes to come bundled free with broadband packages, or available for a small one-off fee.

November 23, 2012

    First 1,000 homes now getting fibre broadband    

Jersey Telecom has announced that it’s connected 1000 homes to its next-gen fibre broadband rollout.

The Gigabit Jersey venture will see 1Gbps FTTP fibre broadband made available to everyone by 2016 serving the island’s 97,800-odd residents.

Of the 1000 homes that can get the new fibre broadband, just ten have elected to sign up for the 1Gbps service, which gives you up to 1Gbps (1024Mbps) speeds down and up to 100Mbps speeds up.

The majority of other customers have signed up for a 100Mbps download package – slower but still a cut above the UK average speeds.

Jersey Telecoms and Gigabit Jersey: 1000 homes how getting fibre broadband

Dave Newbold, Chief Operations and Technology Officer at Jersey Telecom said: “The fibre trial was the first phase of our three-year programme and enabled us to gain valuable learnings ahead of our island-wide roll-out. With this completed, we are now rolling out fibre on an area by area basis, with the aim of establishing a point-to-point network by 2016, and along the way customers have a choice of services from 2Mbps to 1 Gigabit.”

Jersey Telecom will be rolling out fibre to a further 8000 homes by the end of this first phase and has announced that 15,000 Jersey homes in total are now ready for fibre.

Jersey Telecom’s fibre broadband packages start at £17.99/month for a 2Mbps speed, £44.99/month for 100Mbps speeds and go up to £59.99/month for 1Gbps speed.

September 6, 2012

    Jersey superfast fibre broadband rollout: 1Gbps for all by 2016    

Jersey’s incumbent telco JT Group (formerly Jersey Telecom) has begun rollout of Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) lines to 42,000 homes and businesses, which will provide speeds of 1Gbps (1024Mbps) to everyone by 2016.

Costing £59.99 a month for 1Gbps download and 100Mbps upload speeds (plus a 50GB usage cap), the lines will eventually serve the island’s 97,857 residents will provide superfast broadband.

There’s also a 100Mbps service available which will provide top download speeds of 100Mbps, top uploads of 20Mbps and a 50GB cap.

Jersey superfast fibre broadband rollout: 1Gbps for all by 2016

JT’s ‘Gigabit Jersey’ project, which recently appointed Professor Peter Cochrane as its global ambassador, will completely replace the old copper-based network with optical fibre.

“Clearly it takes time to replace the island-wide copper cable network,” said Graeme Millar, CEO of JT in a statement. “We need to do that in stages to minimise disruption and gain appropriate access to the 42,000 homes. Thankfully when we laid the copper, we did it in such a way as to make it as easy as possible to replace, which will help to keep that disruption to a minimum.”

Silicon Roundabout? Silicon Island more like

Cochrane, who has criticised the UK Government’s next-gen broadband plans, has hailed Gigiabit Jersey as a model for fibre rollout:

“Jersey is punching well above its weight here and putting the Channel Islands on the map by ensuring that businesses and people can benefit from new digital services ahead of the UK and Europe. JT’s fibre-to the-home roll out and Next Generation Network technology make the Island an ideal example of how each country in Europe should be progressing.”

Over £40 million of funding from JT and the State of Jersey has been stumped up for the Gigabit Jersey venture.

Compare this to the UK where just two-thirds of the country will be served fibre to the home by 2015, and then only (only!) at top speeds of 300Mbps. BT is spending £2.5 billion on its venture, with the UK Government setting aside £100 million for smaller local broadband projects.

Of course this is a simple argument that doesn’t take into account things such as scale, terrain and replacing old infrastructure. Following extensive storm damage in the 1980’s, Jersey took the opportunity to set up a phone line network that would be easier to retrofit with fibre once it became available. The UK’s phone network is less easily upgradeable, with parts of it still using aluminium lines.

JT Group has also spent £500,000 on mobile network upgrades this year, with speeds of 42.2Mbps coming in the summer. A 4G live trial has also been carried out with Alcatel-Lucent – there’s no word on when 4G will be coming to Jersey but with an incumbent carrier there’s none of the regulatory kerfuffle that’s plagued Ofcom’s tete-a-tete with the UK networks.

The Channel Island’s Low Value Consignment Relief deal with the UK might be a thing of the past, but with 1Gbps a distant pipe dream, maybe businesses, start ups and creatives should head south. Screw the Silicon Roundabout – Silicon Island anyone?

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