Gigaclear Connect 5,000 West Berkshire Properties to FTTP Broadband

Rural ISP Gigaclear has announced that some 5,000 properties in West Berkshire have gained access to their new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which is being rolled out under the Superfast Berkshire project as part of a state aid supported contract.

The deployment, which is being supported by £16m of private investment from Gigaclear and £3.7m of public funding via the Broadband Delivery UK programme and local authority, first began at the end of 2015. Since then contractors for the ISP have dug 400km of the planned 850km trench and the aim is to cover a total of 11,700 premises (local homes and businesses) by the end of December 2017 (i.e. 99% coverage of 24Mbps+ “superfast broadband“).

Joe Frost, Gigaclear’s Business Development Director, said:

“This is a fantastic achievement for this project and it’s great to see this investment from Superfast Berkshire and Gigaclear delivering a tangible difference to rural businesses in the area. Broadband is an essential utility, vital for boosting the local economy and we’re very pleased to be able to work with our partner Superfast Berkshire to ensure that West Berkshire’s rural homes and businesses get the UK’s fastest broadband.

West Berkshire Brewery is one of many businesses that we have connected in the local area and we look forward to seeing the opportunities that our ultrafast upload and download speeds open up for them.”

Nick Carter, West Berkshire Council’s CEO, said:

“Superfast broadband benefits our residents, our businesses and the wider economy and I am delighted that good progress is being made. This new, faster network will give us a competitive edge as we seek to attract new businesses to the area and to keep those who already operate in the district. Living in a largely rural area our residents and businesses rely on the internet in many aspects of their lives.

Those people who receive superfast broadband speak highly of it and I know there are many others watching our progress and counting down the days until they too can access these superfast speeds.”

We should point out that the overall Superfast Berkshire project currently aims to take fixed line “superfast broadband” coverage to over 97% (all Berkshire districts) by the end of 2018 (Phase 3), while the above figure of 99% is just for West Berkshire. At present the coverage in West Berkshire already sits at just shy of 98%.

Locals can find a useful map and timescale of Gigaclear’s roll-out plan for the region here.