The UK subsidiary of French firm Axione Fibre has made an application to Fife Council for permission to install four new street telecommunications cabinets within the town of St Andrews’ conservation area. These cabinets will form part of Axione’s open access network model where it will connect with internet service providers, including Openreach, and channel partners to deliver gigabit broadband services to businesses and users.
If approved, the plans, which are backed by £300m funding from Bouygues Energies and and Vauban Infrastructure, will see 1.6m green cabinets introduced across four locations throughout the seaside town including St Mary’s Place Car Park.
Axione UK previously announced that its large-scale build of a full-fibre network would aim to “reach 4 million premises throughout the UK in suburban and rural areas”. The deal marks Axione’s first FTTP investment in the UK and builds on the company’s Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) contract to connect public sector sites in Aberdeenshire in 2019.
Pierre Vanstoflegatte, president of Axione, said: “In all the countries in which we operate, we want to do more to deliver essential resources to local and regional communities, helping them to forge their future.”
Vanstoflegatte added that the company had “proved the strength of its model in France” where Axione operates around 22,000km of fibre infrastructure. Axione is one of several new companies to enter the FTTP sector since the government announced plans to extend gigabit-capable broadband availability to 85% of homes by the end of 2025.
Ofcom’s recent Connected Nations Report claimed that the roll-out of full-fibre technology is “accelerating at its fastest ever rate” with more than 8 million homes (28% of the UK) having access to full-fibre broadband, representing an increase of 3 million properties on 2020.
