EXFO announced that leading rural UK ISP Gigaclear has selected EXFO's remote fiber testing and monitoring solution to support Gigaclear's ambitious expansion plans. EXFO's technology will allow the ISP to ensure "first time right" deployment to reduce fault finding and truck rolls during operation, and rapid fault identification once in service, from just a few strategic, central locations within its network. Gigaclear's mission is to take fiber further to rural towns and villages as the first fiber provider in those locations.

Its network is already present in over 650 rural communities covering more than 22 counties across the South-West, the Midlands and the South-East of England, and more than 300,000 premises are already connected to its FTTP network. The service provider is now in the advanced stages of expanding its network to provide its services to thousands more premises in the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire over the next few years. To meet the government's deployment targets, UK fiber providers must accelerate build times from 1.5 million homes passed per year (in 2019), to 6 million homes passed by 2025, installing more than 500,000 kilometers of fiber in the process.

EXFO's technology will help Gigaclear substantially reduce network deployment and turn-up time in pursuit of its fully-funded build target of 500,000 premises by December 2023, contributing to the Government's goal of connecting 85% of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025. In addition, the technology substantially reduces the time and cost associated with fault-finding and repair once networks are in service, increasing network resilience and customer satisfaction. EXFO's remote fiber testing and monitoring solution is based on fixed OTDR test equipment placed at strategic central locations across the network.

Through optical switching, the solution automates and speeds up the execution of tests throughout various phases of the network lifecycle, from deployment to operation. This allows the condition of fiber optic installations to be constantly checked and the locations of degradations or breaks pinpointed within minutes of occurring.