Belfast-based Barclay Communications has announced a strategic partnership with Fibrus to simplify full fibre broadband access for businesses across Northern Ireland.

The collaboration, delivered through the wholesale channel Hyperfast Networks, aims to bridge the digital gap for organisations in both rural and central areas.

The partnership leverages infrastructure developed as part of the government-backed Project Stratum, which has already connected over 81,000 premises across the region. By utilising the Hyperfast Networks platform, Barclay Communications can now provide 100Mbps to 1,000Mbps speeds to previously hard-to-reach locations.

A Managed Service for Local Business The collaboration is designed to remove the technical and administrative hurdles that often stall fibre uptake. Barclay Communications will act as a single point of contact, handling:

• Ordering and Managed Installation: Streamlining the transition from legacy copper networks.

• Unified Billing: Consolidating connectivity costs into a single managed service.

• Local Support: Providing in-house engineering and customer service teams. John Roulston, Sales Director at Barclay Communications, commented: "Many organisations know faster broadband exists but are unsure what they can access or how disruptive the process will be. By partnering with Fibrus, we can manage everything on their behalf. It means one conversation, a single supplier, and ongoing local support."

Addressing the "Digital Lag" Despite Northern Ireland leading the UK in gigabit availability, Barclay Communications has identified approximately 7,000 businesses that have yet to switch to full fibre, despite it being available in their area. As Openreach begins the phased switch-off of traditional copper-based services across 132 UK areas, the pressure on businesses to migrate to fibre-only networks is increasing.

To incentivise the transition, Barclay is offering six months of free broadband access to new sign-ups—an initiative estimated to provide around £1.7 million in cumulative savings for the NI business community.

Neill Patterson, Head of Wholesale and Product at Hyperfast NI, added: "Together, we're delivering the speed, reliability, and best-in-class service organisations need to compete and grow in a digital economy."