New ISP Fibrecast Brings 100Mbps Broadband to Parts of Dundee City

Residents and businesses in the south side of Dundee City (Scotland), including the City Quay area and Dundee Airport business park, can now access symmetric broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps via a new ISP called Fibrecast. Despite the name it’s actually a wireless provider.

The new network officially launched in January 2016 and most of its coverage currently exists around the south side of Dundee City. All of this is especially relevant because a number of those areas do not currently have access to affordable “fibre broadband” connectivity via fixed lines.

As for the new network, it’s currently using the latest Ubiquiti Airmax AC radios within the unlicensed 5.5-5.725GHz band and the 5.725-5.85 GHz light-licensed band. Fibrecast are also pondering use of the V-Band and E-Band radios to help support future backhaul capacity needs, which may be needed as they expand into new areas.

Meanwhile end user premises, which are often reflective of Multi-Dwelling Units (MDU) and or office blocks, tend to be covered via a single high capacity radio (or fibre optic cable in certain circumstances) and related distribution setup where applicable.

Kieran Paton, Fibrecast Founder, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Dundee is well known as being a major contributor to the games industry for many years, and much of Dundee has excellent Fibre broadband coverage through BT Openreach and Virgin Media. However for quite a few areas in Dundee (e.g. City Quay complex, most of the industrial parks) there is currently very few Fibre broadband options which has put businesses at a disadvantage to their competitors. Fibrecast has been established with the aim of filling in the gaps of superfast broadband coverage in these areas whilst remaining competitively priced.”

The provider’s website is currently somewhat sparse and they don’t have a coverage map, although we’re told that each enquiry is manually reviewed to classify its feasibility. Firecast’s installation charges, which include an 802.11ac wireless router, are typically around £200 (confirmed after site survey), but this also depends on factors such as the size of the antenna required to receive an adequate signal and the complexity of the installation itself.

In terms of price, Fibrecast only offers a single “unlimited” use 100Mbps option with a 12 month contract at £30 per month for home users (they’re not VAT registered, thus this is the price you pay), or £35 with a 24 month contract for businesses. We note that a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) applies, although at the time of writing we couldn’t find any related Terms and Conditions on their website.

One other thing to be aware of is that the ISP uses a CGNAT (IP address sharing) system by default, although this is set to be removed as part of a future network overhaul and in the meantime it’s still possible to add a dedicated static IP address for an extra +£5 per month.