GTC Deploy 300Mbps Broadband to Cumbria’s Story Homes Development

Utility infrastructure provider GTC, which last year made their 300Mbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network the standard broadband technology across all of their future new build homes (here), has confirmed that they’re now rolling out to the new Story Homes development in West Cumbria (England).

The Story Homes project is a new estate of over 550 units in Whitehaven and they’ve appointed GTC to supply both the FTTH broadband and telephone services across the site. Apparently an initial phase of 30 executive homes (Wilson Howe) is already under-way, with the first houses planned to be ready for occupation in January 2016 and after that a further 109 units will form the first phase of an adjacent development (Edgehill Park).

All home owners will be able to benefit from the “fibre-ready homes” as soon as they move in and Sky has also agreed to help support related properties with premium TV services, much as they have done with prior GTC projects (example). We suspect that this setup will involve a mix of Satellite TV and a related Fibre Integrated Reception System (FIRS).

Louise McGuckin, Sales Director for Story Homes, said:

“We have had great pleasure in working alongside GTC to deliver superfast broadband to our customers on this exclusive development in Whitehaven. Our customers are looking for the wow factor and coupled with the high quality and high specification of the homes at Wilson Howe and Edgehill Park, a hi-tech offering fit for the next-generation is appealing to buyers of our homes.

This offers them some of the fastest broadband of any new housing development, and also cutting edge telephony, using fibre to the home services, making slow, unreliable connections a thing of the past.”

Tom Brough, GTC Sales and Marketing Director, said:

“We are aware that homeowners not only want the highest speed and most reliable fibre connections but also that they need it to be available from the moment they step over their new threshold. We provide this service to help housebuilders to meet with their customers’ demands and to provide that essential unique selling point.”

It’s worth pointing out that GTC are part of the same BUUK group that involves more familiar names like Independent Fibre Networks Ltd. (IFNL), which provide their FTTH broadband services via ISPs like Direct Save Telecom and Seethelight.