Gigaclear Target 5000 Premises for FTTP Broadband in Rural Northamptonshire

Fibre optic broadband ISP Gigaclear has announced that their 1000Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) network is set to reach 5,000 homes and businesses in several rural Northamptonshire villages (East Midlands of England) by the end of 2017.

The provider, which only last month confirmed plans to float on the London Stock Exchange in the hope of raising enough funding to help afford a huge network expansion to 200,000 premises (here), states that the first communities to benefit from their demand-focused deployment will probably be in West Haddon and King’s Cliffe.

Construction of the network, which will also reach Apethorpe, Aynho, Coton, Croughton, Guilsborough and Ravensthorpe, is expected to start before the end of this autumn. Gigaclear also intends to conduct a big marketing campaign, which could help to add more villages to their new network.

Matthew Hare, CEO of Gigaclear, said:

“Work, rest and play in Northamptonshire will now come at Gigabit speeds. Gigaclear is going to transform the connected lives of members of Northamptonshire communities as we have done in other counties with our ultrafast pure fibre broadband, putting these homes and businesses into the best-connected 1% worldwide.”

Andre Gonzalez de Savage, Northamptonshire Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, said:

“I am delighted that Gigaclear is working to bring its ultrafast fibre broadband to Northamptonshire. This private sector investment looks set to deliver early benefits. The villages Gigaclear will be rolling out to aren’t part of any other commercial or subsidised plans and it is fantastic that they will be bringing pure fibre broadband to the county at no cost to the taxpayer.”

It’s interesting to note that Gigaclear’s planned deployments all exist “outside of the BT [FTTC] deployment area being subsidised by [Broadband Delivery UK] and the County Council“, which should help to mitigate any immediate conflicts.

On the other hand we’ve seen previous examples where some councils really don’t seem to care if another provider has already deployed an NGA network, which can end up causing a conflict with EU state aid rules (i.e. if BT’s alternative for the same area is publicly funded).

Packages on Gigaclear’s service start at £37 inc. VAT per month (includes line rental) for a symmetrical 50Mbps connection with unlimited usage and the needed Gigabit capable router (those who want 1000Mbps will pay £69 per month). A £100 one-off connection fee must also be applied.