Local ISP Deploys 1000Mbps FTTH Broadband to Part of Rural Cheddleton

Residents of St. Edward’s Park, a small rural community in the Staffordshire (England) village of Cheddleton, are celebrating after local ISP Internet Connections began rolling out a 1000Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network to the area. But oddly the local community already had superfast access.

Precise details about how much the upgrade is costing, who is funding it, how many premises will benefit and how long will the deployment take are hard to come by. But we do know that the same ISP began the work as a community project in July 2013, when they initially installed a 50Mbps Sub-Loop Unbundled (SLU) solution to the community (note: the underlying VDSL2 / FTTC connectivity could in some cases achieve up to 100Mbps).

Locals who took the above service paid £19.99 per month for the unlimited broadband connectivity and £12.99 for basic phone line rental with lower call charges (Installation is free with a 24 month contract, or £149 on a monthly contract). Most consumers would probably be more than happy with that, but now the local ISP is building on their SLU infrastructure and turning it into a full FTTH service with blistering speeds of up to 1000Mbps!

Andy Harding, Director of Internet Connections, said:

“For a company that is community focussed, we’re really excited that the investments we’re making to our high speed fibre optic network here in Cheddleton will bring great benefits to the people of St Edwards Park who will soon be able to receive the kind of speeds that could only previously be dreamed of.”

The ISP, which is also a registered supplier for the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) Connection Voucher scheme, recently secured utility status from Ofcom and that has no doubt helped their development in Cheddleton. Mind you their cable trenches look a bit shallow, but this might just be because of the picture angle.