PRESS RELEASE
AssetHUB and CNI partnership promises less fibre overbuild
9th October 2024 – Public and private sector organisations can more easily share assets, such as fibre, ducts, ethernet and street furniture, thanks to the latest partnership announced today between AssetHUB and Cooperative Network Infrastructure (CNI).
The AssetHUB platform can now be used by all of CNI’s 50+ members, to manage incoming enquiries regarding their fibre and other infrastructure assets. CNI represents public and private sector organisations, helping them share digital infrastructure in Tameside, Blackpool, Manchester, Lancaster, Brighton and Sussex.
“This partnership is fundamental in bringing together the interests of organisations and sharing infrastructure in a safe and secure way,” said Rob Leenderts, CEO of AssetHUB. “With free open access to a ‘shop window’ of digital assets, CNI members will be able to deliver full-fibre connectivity faster than ever.”
“Sharing infrastructure is critical, otherwise Altnets will have to lay more fibre or add new poles, resulting in more customer disruption, wasted investment, unnecessary carbon emissions and expenditure,” said CNI Chair Tony Doyle. “AssetHUB is providing a marketplace platform for CNI to share assets between members more easily, while also serving as a mechanism to attract more members and encourage the sharing of more assets.”
“The partnership underscores our continued dedication in bridging the gap between operators and public sector organisations and helping provide communities across the UK with full-fibre connectivity,” Doyle continued.
Both organisations have also been jointly working with the Independent Network Cooperative Association’s (INCA) Special Interest Groups to encourage Altnets to share physical infrastructure. A trial of AssetHUB will be directly available for all INCA members in the Infrastructure Sharing Group Special Interest Group (IS SIG) for pole, duct, fibre and cabinet space sharing.
INCA CEO Paddy Paddison welcomed the partnership between AssetHub and CNI and said: “Collaborating and sharing between members has always been a key part of INCA membership. We are therefore delighted to see this partnership, allowing our members who want to share infrastructure to do so more effectively, with reduced timescales and increased standardisation. We look forward to working together to ensure infrastructure sharing is encouraged and supported across our membership.”
In areas where Openreach Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) products are not available, Altnets might be hesitant of entering into commercial sharing agreements with their competition for access to cable ducts and poles, particularly when they have invested heavily themselves. AssetHUB caters for this by sharing information with approved customers only, via its secure online platform, while CNI simplifies commercial arrangements and promotes good collaborative practice using its proven governance model.
To find out more about AssetHUB, please visit: https://www.asset-hub.co.uk/.
To find out more about CNI, visit: https://cni.coop.
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About AssetHUB
AssetHUB is a secure, centralised marketplace for the purchasing and selling of telecommunications assets, connectivity and services in the UK.
Drawing on a decade of operation and development in Sweden – one of the most fibre-connected countries in the world – AssetHUB is part of the Hubbub Group, a leading player in the wholesale of open access assets for the UK telecoms industry.
AssetHUB allows the UK industry to leverage existing infrastructure to speed up network deployments, reduce overbuild, obtain resilient connections and ensure compliance to key national regulations. The platform manages the full, end-to-end business workflow for buying and selling assets instantly via API, or manually through a secure web-portal, with all contract communications stored in a single place.
Assets includes duct, dark fibre, wavelengths, ethernet, street furniture, masts, towers, poles, buildings, cabinets, colocation space and land. Asset visibility is only shared with trusted and approved organisations. For more information, visit https://www.asset-hub.co.uk/. For the latest updates, follow the AssetHUB on LinkedIn.
About CNI
Cooperative Network Infrastructure brings together public and private sector organisations to create and share new digital infrastructure in Tameside, Blackpool, Manchester, Lancaster, Brighton and Sussex.
CNI’s 50 members include NHS trusts, local authorities and operators including CityFibre, ITS and Virgin Media.
The cooperative neutral host (‘thin layer’) model facilitates rapid deployment of new, full-fibre infrastructure, while avoiding some of the complications and downsides associated with other public sector demand aggregation, leveraged and co-investment models.
Read Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds on why CNI is an important model for developing digital infrastructure.