ISP Juice Broadband Expands Wireless Coverage in Rural Dorset UK

Poole-based ISP Juice Broadband has once again expanded the coverage of their 50Mbps capable Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) superfast broadband network in Dorset, which has just seen a new mast go live to cover more of the rural Purbeck and Studland areas. They’ve also launched a 300Mbps service for Bournemouth.

The new coverage doesn’t yet appear to be showing on their latest availability map (pictured – ‘blue’ are planned for 2018 and ‘orange’ is live), but it should help to connect people in more isolated coastal parts of the county. Apparently Juice connects to customers using the 5GHz radio spectrum band and they also use both 5GHz and 24GHz links for back-haul, redundancy or where a physical connection is not possible.

So far Juice appears to be focusing most of their efforts upon areas that can show the most demand, such as those missed by Openreach’s (BT) deployment of FTTC or FTTP. For example, the ISP seems set to install new kit to help cater for a small community of around 22 houses on Matchams Close, which due to distance from the cabinet would otherwise struggle to reach much more than 1-5Mbps.

Simon Laraman, Resident of Matchams Close, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We’re in Hampshire, although serviced by East Dorset council. BT only provides ADSL which gives us speeds under 1mbps. The telephone lines are poor for many properties here. Many residents were under the impression that BT would upgrade the infrastructure. Openreach implies we’re getting fast internet, but it has implied that for over 4yrs. It appears that we’ll need FTTP rather than FTTC which may not be available for many years to come.

Once I explained to residents that the technology is available through Juice Broadband to give us up to 50mbps from £25pcm, many showed interest (a few years ago myself and another neighbour had tried to drum up interest to no avail).”

So far 12 homes on Matchams Close have registered an interest and 4 have returned their contracts (although more have signed direct debits), with installation expected to start within the next few weeks. Residential customers typically pay a one-off £99 connection fee, while rentals start at £25 per month for a 30Mbps (2Mbps upload) wireless broadband service with a 50GB usage cap and this rises to £49 per month for their unlimited 50Mbps (5Mbps upload) package.

Meanwhile the ISP has also recently launched a new 100Mbps to 300Mbps capable symmetrical “ultrafast broadband” service for home workers and businesses in parts of Bournemouth, which appears to mix a fibre optic fed mast with FTTP technology (the description is a little vague). Prices for this start at £98 +vat a month and you can receive FREE installation with a 3 year contract term (or £300 install on 12 month contract).