Sky fibre on hyperfast GB/Fibrus cables

[Andy+Wade+58]

Hyperfast GB (commercial arm of Fibrus) are connecting properties across Cumbria under the government's project gigabit. Our property is going to be included but at the moment the only ISP on their network is Fibrus. Their network is not closed and can support other ISPs. My question is will Sky be looking to offer on this network as I am happy with them as an ISP and don't want to switch. If they are not, I will have to switch otherwise I will be stuck on slowband forever.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Andy+Wade+58 

Sky do and probably will not use fibrus. There has been talk about using city fibre but there has been little talk about it since last year

[TimmyBGood]

@Andy+Wade+58 

As @cookiemonsteruk indicates, the only announced deal is with CityFibre: that's due to start distribution later this year (2025)

https://cityfibre.com/news/sky-and-cityfibre-sign-partnership-to-bring-sky-full-fibre-broadband-to-t... 

Agreement on a carriage deal with any other altnet would be commercially sensitive information before it's made public: personally I suspect Sky will want to see how the CityFibre arrangements work out first.

[Andy+Wade+58]

Sky already carry on Openreach and Fibrus are using Openreach poles, tunnels etc so I don't know what a difference it makes. The upshot of this is that all the villages around us that have Openreach fibre to the cabinet can get sky super fast and many others but those of us that Openreach missed have to put up with Fibrus as the only option. Big monopolistic to say we (via the government) are paying for them to fit the cables.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Andy+Wade+58 wrote:

Big monopolistic to say we (via the government) are paying for them to fit the cables.

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That's the way successive governments, through Ofcom oversight, have chosen to pursue the goal of nationwide Ultrafast coverage.  For Sky to have a carriage deal with an altnet requires complex technical, legal and financial arrangements which historically have only been with Openreach on a level playing field with other ISPs: Fibrus using Openreach poles and ducts doesn't change that.