Gigaclear Run Fibre Optic Cable Under the Clifton Suspension Bridge

Rural ISP Gigaclear has achieved an important milestone in their contract to deploy a 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTP/H) broadband network to 53,000 premises in Devon and Somerset. The operator has managed to run their cable underneath the iconic 19th century Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The bridge, which spans the Avon Gorge (River Avon), was first opened in 1864 and is used to link (toll road) Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Suffice to say that the bridge posed some unique challenges for Gigaclear but it also offered a more direct route for their fibre optic cable.

The city of Bristol is already quite well served and so the main goal of this project was to expand outwards from there in order to hook-up some of the more isolated rural Somerset communities, many of which are still stuck on BT’s older and slower copper lines. As a result Gigaclear claims to have become the “first utilities provider since 1935” to use the bridge by delivering a modern Gigabit capable broadband network.

Matthew Hare, CEO of Gigaclear, said:

“Over 150 years ago, Clifton Suspension Bridge was a pioneering development, linking communities together using what was revolutionary technology for the time. Today, Gigaclear is using the best technology the 21st century can offer to move forgotten communities into the modern age. Our focus is to ensure that rural communities have access to the latest and very best quality broadband technology. This investment into the broadband infrastructure in Bristol and Somerset will ultimately help to drive the area’s digital economy, providing future-proof connectivity.”

Apparently locals in Abbots Leigh will be amongst the first to experience the ultrafast service when it goes live around September 2018. Gigaclear has also won various other Government-backed Broadband Delivery UK contracts for Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, West Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Essex and Northamptonshire.

The operator’s UK network currently passes 65,000 premises (could reach 150,000 by the end of 2020) and is home to over 15,000 customers. Recently the ISP has also become the subject of a £270m acquisition by M&G Investment Management (here).