£350K Project Brings FTTP to Rural Devon and Somerset Villages

Several rural communities in mid Devon and west Somerset are gaining access to a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network after UK ISP Technological teamed-up with the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Scheme and the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) project on a £350,000 build.

The new fibre optic network currently spans 70km and is working to connect the villages of Loyton, Claypits and Timewell Hill in Devon, as well as Skilgate, Upton, Huish Moor and Huish Champflower in Somerset. At present it’s expected to cover over 180 premises, with a further 400 in construction and 120 scheduled to be connected in early 2021.

The take-up across this scheme has also proven to be incredibly strong and is running at 96%, including 45 rural SME businesses that are now able to work effectively despite the pandemic. Community facilities, such as Skilgate village hall, have also benefited after being provided with a free connection as part of the local build.

To date, over 3,300 premises across the two counties have now benefited from the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme (various separate projects combined), representing an additional investment of nearly £4m in full fibre. Work is also continuing with other communities and another 2,700 vouchers have already been approved for build over the next 12 months.

Jim Weir, Technological Services Limited, said:

“This is a community focused scheme, working with local landowners, residents and their Parish Councils to leverage the Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme, and we’re grateful for the support from Connecting Devon and Somerset in helping us to deliver the broadband upgrade these communities desperately need.

These are extremely challenging rural build locations and our team has worked incredibly hard to connect these communities despite the physical and environmental difficulties we have faced in the last 12 months. Some connections are over 1km of build from the main network, so these really are the most remote of properties but we’ve proven we can deliver access to them.

Most of our team live around the area allowing us to harness that local knowledge which in turn is crucial to our success. The feedback from live customers is amazing and keeps us all motivated to reach more of the hard-to-reach communities who have struggled for years on sub 2Mbps connections.”

The ISP involved in this project – Technological – is somewhat of a new name on these pages and, initially, the only FTTP products that we could find on their website appeared to come from Openreach (BT) and seemed to use the older (much more expensive) pricing model. But the above network does not appear to have had any involvement from Openreach.

After a bit more digging, we were finally able to uncover some additional details. Prices for the new network seem to vary from £40 inc. VAT per month for an unlimited 40Mbps (symmetric) speed package on a 12-month contract (inc. wireless router) and this goes up to £75 for their top 300Mbps package. A cheaper £15 per month option also exists if you only want a fibre voice (VoIP) solution, which runs at 2Mbps on a monthly contract.

The map above is an older one and the network has already gone a little further than this. Construction is being carried out by both an in-house build team, with their own selection of Vermeer Vibratory Plows and Trenchers, plus a number of local specialist contractors. The network uses Hexatronic’s Microduct & Air Blown Fibre system with Nokia ISAM PON for the access network.