LuxConnect's Mission with Dark Fiber
The network has been designed with the aim of interconnecting all the country’s Data Centers. LuxConnect started to install connections along the motorways and railways, but soon the project managers had to find other infrastructures capable of accommodating Dark Fibers.
LuxConnect only installs fiber backbone, i.e. pure transport fiber that does not connect with the end customer. Connection with the end customer is the job of other operators.
National broadband strategy
In 2010, the Luxembourg government adopted an ambitious, very-high-speed broadband strategy. The goal of the strategy was to make 1 Gbps connections available to 100% of businesses and households by 2020. LuxConnect is proud to support the efforts of the government. LuxConnect is rolling out a fiber network that connects the POPs of the incumbent operator, thus allowing alternative operators to connect the last mile. LuxConnect also interconnects stand-alone cable networks. Once connected by LuxConnect’s Dark Fiber, these networks can be upgraded in order to provide very-high-speed Internet services to their customers.
Customers
Customers are national and foreign operators who are present in Luxembourg. We are the wholesalers’ wholesaler, providing the infrastructure through which our customer, operator or provider provides a service to another customer, who may in turn be an operator, a provider or an end customer.
On the other hand, LuxConnect cooperates with Luxembourg public authorities to provide the «backbone» for critical services.
Multiple international breakouts
A total of 12 breakouts are available today and used by the Luxembourg ICT community : 6 to Belgium, 2 to France, and 4 to Germany.
What LuxConnect has achieved
LuxConnect has installed and documented almost 1,800 km of optic fiber. That is the length of the cables that have been laid. Knowing that a cable contains multiple strands of fiber, this figure is obviously even more impressive. A standard cable is composed of 144 fibers, while for long distances cables with 288 fibers are deployed. We might give some thought to the fact that LuxConnect has installed almost a quarter of a million kilometres of fiber since 2007.
The specificity of LuxConnect lies in the fact that the fiber connecting our Data Centers has no connectors. When two fibers need to be connected, we exclusively use welds in order to meet the safety requirements of our customers.
An innovative fiber deployment model
Thanks for instance to the municipalities, the municipal syndicates and Luxembourg operators, as far back as ten years ago, LuxConnect was able to develop an innovating fiber deployment model – which was at the basis of a European directive on the accelerated deployment of ultra-fast broadband: for example, a municipality which grants us permission to lay our cable in the empty pipes of its territory receives optic fiber in return, for instance to link its administrative buildings.
This «capital fiber» thus allows a municipality to develop innovative ideas. Similar cooperation and exchange models exist with about twenty municipalities in the country. This is a win-win exchange that LuxConnect offers to all those who can make pipes available. The municipal syndicates, operators in the sector of energy, water, sewage, gas etc. are very interested in this cooperation model, which was adopted at European level as a standard in a directive that was transposed into Luxembourg law. LuxConnect tries to make maximum use of existing infrastructure, , sometimes even infrastructure that appears on schematics which date back more than just a couple of decades.
So an indispensable element of our almost «benedictine» work is the rigorous updating of network documentation; because it’s essential to know what belongs to whom in all those ducts and pipes.
Special conditions
Registered telecom providers benefit from special conditions for Dark Fiber connections between LuxConnect’s campuses.
Contact our sales department for further details.