Gigaclear Bring 5Gbps FTTP Broadband to 10,000 Oxfordshire Properties
Rural ISP Gigaclear has confirmed that their ultrafast 5Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband network will soon have reached a total of 10,000 homes and businesses in Oxfordshire (England) when their local roll-out completes with the final few communities.
Apparently the only communities left to finish are Warborough & Shillingford and Shipton on Cherwell, including Enslow. So far Gigaclear’s network spans more than 40 villages across Oxfordshire and those within their coverage can now order broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps (1000Mbps), with the option of taking a trial 5Gbps package (details).
The deployment in Oxfordshire has been on-going for the past few years and is an entirely commercial project. The first location to go live was Appleton in 2012, followed by Beckley in 2014 and, most recently, Warborough and Shillingford, which went live this year.
Matthew Hare, Gigaclear’s CEO, said:
“Oxfordshire homes and businesses have dived head first into the information revolution. New ways of working, of doing business, learning, communicating and playing are now available to over 10,000 homes and businesses through the Gigaclear Ultrafast fibre network, where the customer can choose the speed they want and it is as fast to upload a file as it is to download it.
From our first network build in Appleton in 2012 to our most recent in Shillingford, the FTTP technology means our customers have a broadband infrastructure that will not need updating for the foreseeable future. The county’s homes and businesses on the Gigaclear network benefit from a future-proof world-class Internet connection.”
Meanwhile Gigaclear are continuing to roll-out to tens of thousands of premises elsewhere in England and in keeping with that they also have a number of major Broadband Delivery UK projects too, all of which are helping to bring ultrafast speeds to some of the country’s most remote communities. Good work.
So far Gigaclear claims to have delivered its network to a total of over 20,000 properties in Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and of course Rutland. They’re now aiming for around 40,000 and beyond.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Well done Gigaclear! Doing what BT and other commercials struggle to do.
Congratulations, of course, though I thought Gigaclear are a commercial company?
I wonder though what 10,000 are as a percentage of the fixed internet connections in the whole of the UK? And if BT and BDUK had proceeded with a wholly fibre roll-out to EUs what percentage of those total connections would be superfast for the same money as spent today; and how far across the country those connections would have got? May be more deserving business parks would have been served, rather than the least deserving hamlets villages and estates who could afford the more expensive solutions like Gigaclear instead of buying cheap-as-chips xdsl for their YouTube and streaming fix. They could have waited for Gigaclear and the likes or done it themselves like B4RN; but I suspect there are fewer votes in that. The mbile companies might had made more money selling data too, to help fund a faster 4G rollout.
Gigaclear operate using a different take up model.
So… well done for getting the take up they need before deploying? It’s just normal practice for them
That’s great news.
How much per month and how much up front?
£40 per month for the 50/50 service.
This is connectivity only service – no phone service is included. you are free to choose a VOIP provider if you want to use the fibre for voice.
As I recall there is a £100 activation fee (which includes the router/ONT unit – which you HAVE to use)
However note that the network termination point is at the property/land front boundary and the costs of getting the fibre from there across your garden/drive etc and into your home are met by you on a bespoke case by case commercial quote basis.
The above is all assuming they are in your area of course!
Thanks Peter,
It’s great to have some context to these story’s.
I wonder what happens if the customer decides they no longer want to use the ISPs, are they free to use the connection with another provider?
No,Chris
The ISP is fixed as Gigaclear on a Gigaclear commercial operation area – no idea about their BDUK funded projects.
In reality in terms of ISP services Gigaclear are just providing a connectivity service to the web and that is it – there are no other services, content or add-ons.
I presume you are aware aware of how they operate their commercial areas?
In brief: they approach a village of interest which is suitable and meets their criterion. They say to the inhabitants: if 30% of houses legally sign up and commit to us we will install the fibre network and give a connection point to EACH house in the village. Those village that get the 30% get the fibre network – those that don’t Gigaclear abandon the idea move on elsewhere.
…….and believe me getting to that 30% of houses is a lot more difficult than it might seem.
thanks for this info Peter, really interesting
do you know how the Fibre connects into the ‘passing loop’? do they take a fibre pair from the loop or does a new fibre pair get connected from premises to the nearest fibre distribution point? sorry if thats not clear, im not familiar with the tech
I will try in a para’ to outline a typical GC village network.
There is a central controlling cabinet in the village connected back to some suitable backhaul access point. Locally they are using Cable and Wireless as the backhaul provider. I think a cabinet can control around 400 houses.
The village network is a point to point type FTTP network not a GPON broadcas/share type FTTP network so each house has a dedicated sole use single-mode fibre pathway back to the village cabinet from the network termination outside their property.
Generally the topography is of several thick multi-fibre armoured cables containing maybe 144 individual fibres radiating out from the cabinet to suitable splitter points on local roads. The individual fibre cables run from each house in the immediate area are collected at the point and each one joined onto one from within the multi-core cable. Typically a 144 core cable would then continue on to the next splitter point further on.
For a small cull-de-sac they would maybe just put a 24 core cable a little way along the road and then run all the houses’ individual cables back and fro to this selected point.
Each house fibre supply cable actually consist of two fibres (one spare). The actual fibre is in a sheath which itself is surrounded in glass cloth type protection and then there is an outer circular mechanical protection sheath – it feels and handles much like a 13 amp electrical flex cord. They put it in the ground covered in indicating tape warning those who dig of “fibre below”.
are now available to over 10,000 homes and businesses =-= wondered how many of the 10000 available have actually purchased and connected
Article last October quotes Gigaclear of take up rates ~40%.
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500255846/Consumer-take-up-of-Gigaclear-fibre-broadband-exceeds-BDUK-rates
and all the 10,000 will be able to get the advertised speeds, unlike the 12-15% of the BDUK premises past that cannot get even 24Mbps
No wholesaling, unlike Openreach who get £96/year/customer.
Errrm except they do have a wholesale solution. Lets not let that get in the way of your BT love though eh?
@TheFacts: Please stick to some facts for a change. Ever heard about the Fluidata platform for wholesale? This was mentioned several times in various ISPReview articles if you care to use Google, to find out more.
My mistake, but packages are one of the big selling points, what do they offer?
@TheFacts: “My mistake, but packages are one of the big selling points, what do they offer? “
Ah…. the evocative, creaking-sound of goalposts being moved.
I like to think of it more as a BT employee not content to eat humble pie or happy with his foot in his gob but eating too much pie, being sick then kicking himself in the mouth before remembering the BT mantra of even when wrong you must be right.
I think the distinction here is that Gigaclear *offer* wholesaling, but no-one has taken them up on it yet.
MikeW:
“Gigaclear *offer* wholesaling, but no-one has taken them up on it yet.”
Not true:-
http://www.gigaclear.com/what-we-offer/wholesale/
Ooh – that’s new to me … but definitely progress on what I last saw.
Three of the four look to be good business offerings, and one of those three also good for power home users. I’m not quite sure what to make of the Village Networks offering, as it looks like a way for them to migrate wireless users that they already have a relationship with.
They’re all good alternative for people who are seeking “alternatives” and are willing to pay for excellence … and I’m pleased to see that part of the role of “wholesaling” being fulfilled.
But the wholesaling hasn’t yet become an offering with the big ISPs, allowing a Gigaclear line to be included as part of, say, a TT or Sky TV bundle. The “value” side of the market isn’t addressed … but perhaps, given how low Sky and TT are driving prices, that is a good thing.
Does the mixture of humble pie vomit and bootsole taste nice? You seem to have a craving for it.
I hope BT gets smashed by all these dedicated FTTH installation companies. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when ever I hear about BT’s latest super/ultra/what-ever fast next gen BS. The UK, 1st world country, 3rd world telecoms, its just embarrassing.
Because of the product or the coverage?
Our biggest altnet is Virgin Media, which remote places are they installing in?
Industry view is 50M is OK for 75% of households in 2023.
@TheFacts: “Industry view is 50M is OK for 75% of households in 2023.” Source? Most of these statements are highly disputable anyway.
The typical FTTC connection does not reach 50Mb anyway unless thinkbroadband stats which show the top percents only get around 35Mb are also lies and its just another only BT tell the truth fantasy.
@GN – http://www.broadbanduk.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/BSG-Domestic-demand-for-bandwidth.pdf
Discuss.
@MIke – The typical FTTC connection does not reach 50Mb – because many buy the 40M product as they see no benefit in spending more for faster, although clearly there are those who can currently only receive slower speeds.
If 75% could get 50Mb as you claim then 75+% when taking the 40Mb FTTC should be getting full speed which is not the case…
https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php
with the mean download being 33.1Mb NO matter if they are on a higher 80Mb or 40Mb tier.
Ofcom’s 2014 report suggested that, of the FTTC lines at the time, around 30% actually achieved 50Mbps or more, and another 35% (total 65%) could achieve 50Mbps if they hadn’t chosen a 40Mbps package.
http://postimg.org/image/6dqwwza2f/
Not that the 75% will have to come from Openreach FTTC products as they exist today.
By 2023, what percentage will have the option of VM? Somewhere near 70%? What percentage will have the option of G.Fast? What percentage will have the options of a FoD-style product? What percentage will be covered by full fibre from Gigaclear, Hyperoptic, KC, CityFibre, B4RN etc? What percentage will be covered by the new startup that Ofcom want to trigger from their review?
That chart just shows around 30% get 50Mb, Nothing more. There is no figure there that adds up to 75% get 50Mb or that 50Mb is enough for 75% of people which was the claim. No matter how hard you continue to try to shift goal posts.
So my SSD will do 6Gbps – so this will work with it?
I’d have to move to Oxfordshire first.. But considering moving anyway!
Gigaclear offer wholesale access to other ISPs through the Fluidata platform. Congrats on reaching the milestone. It’s great to see so many INCA members doing well.