Gigaclear Spend £6.2m to Extend 1Gbps FTTP Broadband in Kent

Rural fibre optic UK ISP Gigaclear has announced that they’ve invested a further £6.2 million (£8m total so far) to expand their existing Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband network to reach more than 4,500 additional homes and businesses in West Kent (England) by the end of 2020.

The new ultrafast “full fibre” broadband network expansion is expected to focus on connecting underserved residents and businesses east of Sevenoaks, with communities including Hildenborough, Crouch and West Peckham being among the first to benefit.

Apparently construction will be commencing in the “coming weeks” and the first customers should be connected sometime this summer 2018. Readers with a long memory may recall that the provider first commercially extended their network into Western Kent via the village of Underriver in 2014 (here), with the Godden Green, Dunks Green and Plaxtol communities following in 2015 / 16.

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

“We have many very happy rural customers in Kent who are already benefitting from the UK’s fastest broadband. This new investment will enable us to expand our reach in the county, increasing the number of areas that can profit from the economic benefits ultrafast broadband provides. This will allow more rural businesses to thrive and residents to do more online, potentially reducing the need to commute for example.”

Mark Dance, Kent County Council Member for Economic Development, said:

“Our society is more advanced than ever, and fast, reliable connectivity is now as valuable to both residents and businesses as energy and water. Gigaclear’s continued investment in our county ensures that our local communities are able to keep pace with the larger towns and cities when it comes to digital connectivity.”

Gigaclear’s FTTP/H network currently covers over 65,000 homes and businesses in 22 counties across the South West, Midlands and South East of England. It has further contracts and commitments to expand, connecting hundreds of thousands of premises to a completely new full fibre network, which has the potential to reach over 300,000 premises by the end of 2020.

Customers typically pay from £41.30 a month (inc. VAT) for their unlimited symmetric 50Mbps package and this rises up to £76.60 for their top 1Gbps plan. Meanwhile there’s a hefty one-off activation charge of £100 and installation costs start from £129.99. It’s not cheap to setup but this does help to make their model more viable for commercial deployment into rural areas.