Gigaclear Begin FTTP Broadband Rollout for Rural Northamptonshire Villages

Towards the end of last year Gigaclear announced a new plan to roll-out their 1000Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband network to several thousand homes and businesses in a number of rural Northamptonshire villages (East Midlands of England) by the end of 2017. The good news is that this installation work has now started.

The ISP reports that the first of their “ultrafast broadband cabinets“, which are not to be confused with BTOpenreach’s significantly slower hybrid-fibre FTTC street cabinets, have now been installed in the villages of King’s Cliffe and Apethorpe. Once complete some 5,000 premises should be served.

At the same time a related plan to reach 2,500 premises across several villages North West of Northampton has also made progress with their first ultrafast broadband cabinets being installed. In this area the first villages soon to be live will be West Haddon, Ravensthorpe, Guilsborough and Coton.

Several other locations are also on Gigaclear’s potential roll-out plan for Northamptonshire, such as Aynho and Croughton.

Joe Frost, Gigaclear’s Sales and Marketing Director, said:

“We are excited to now be delivering the UK’s fastest broadband to West Haddon and the surrounding villages as part of our multi-million pound investment in Northamptonshire. We are very grateful for the support delivered by Northamptonshire County Council and the local Parish Councils, especially from David Herbert, a local Parish Councillor and broadband champion.”

Heather Smith, Deputy Leader of Northamptonshire County Council, said:

“I am delighted to see the work that Gigaclear is undertaking to bring ultrafast broadband to King’s Cliffe and Apethorpe. This is great news as current broadband speeds are very poor. Attracting commercial investment by telecoms providers is critical if the county council’s ambitious target to see full coverage by the end of 2017 is to be met. Gigaclear will provide these villages with vital ultrafast connectivity which will bring significant benefits to small local businesses, residents looking to work from home and also other social uses such as iPlayer and SmartTVs.”

Gigaclear claimed last year that all of their planned deployment areas in the county exist “outside of the BT deployment area being subsidised by [the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme] and the County Council“, which should help to mitigate any immediate conflicts.

Packages on the service start at £38.80 inc. VAT per month 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 and there’s no need to also pay separate line rental, although those wanting a phone service can take an optional VoIP solution from Vonage for +£7 per month (Anytime calls).