ISP Gigaclear Turns Slowest UK Street for Broadband into the Best

A bit of good news from rural “full fibre” provider Gigaclear, for a change. The ISP has announced that Greenmeadows Park (Bamfurlong, Cheltenham), which was last year named as the slowest street for broadband speeds in the United Kingdom, has now become one of the fastest after a 900Mbps+ capable FTTH network went live.

The “slowest” claim actually stemmed from uSwitch’s report at the end of 2018 (here), which was itself based on consumer speedtests rather than network availability and found that locals in the area generally received a pitifully poor average download speed of just 0.143Mbps (Megabits per second).

The good news is that the Gigaclear has been working to reach the area as part of their state aid supported deployment under Phase Two of the Fastershire programme. Following an 18-month build and more than 380km of ground dug, properties in Green Meadows Park can now connect to a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network if they so desire.

Joe Frost from Gigaclear said:

“We believe passionately in the importance of digital inclusion for all, no matter how rural their chosen home or business is, and we are delighted that our network is bringing best in class broadband speeds to residents of Green Meadows Park in partnership with Fastershire. We hear time and again how an excellent internet connection can really transform lives, be it accessing important social and retail services remotely or simply keeping in touch with family members living far away.”

Gigaclear is currently working to extend their FTTP network to cover around 70,000 premises across both Gloucestershire and Herefordshire (16,000 of those have already been completed), although their roll-out has suffered from a few delays (here).