Smartoptics announced that Broadbandnd for the Rural North Ltd. (B4RN) has partnered with Smartoptics to upgrade its rural UK core network to 400G. The upgrade project will make the network future-proof through 2030 with flexible and cost-effective network solutions. B4RN was launched in 2011 to bring full fiber broadband speeds to underserved rural areas in the UK.

As a community benefit society, any surplus made is put back into the communities. The rural UK Internet service provider (ISP) performs a major network upgrade every seven years. The goal is to choose future-proof solutions that will last until the next upgrade project.

Smartoptics equipment has already been deployed in the past. Building on this past success, B4RN turned to Smartoptics once again to upgrade its entire backbone network. The upgrade project aims to support 400G in the rural core network with new dark fiber extending about 650 km creating a ring around the north of the UK between Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds.

Smartoptics open line systems along with 10G and 400G optics were selected to future-proof the network through 2030. Distances between nodes in the backbone network range from about 40 to 100 km - typical of a rural operating environment and longer than many metro networks. Smartoptics supports rural internet service providers in meeting their needs, including these distances, and provides a 24/7 direct line to engineers for support.