557 Premises in Braintree Get UK ISP Gigaclear’s 1Gbps Broadband

Full fibre UK ISP Gigaclear has announced that 557 premises in Great Saling and Panfield, both within the Braintree District of Essex, can now access their Gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network as a result of both the state aid supported Superfast Essex contract (Phase 3) and their separate commercial roll-out.

Overall it’s understood that a total of 514 homes and 43 businesses have benefited from the work (half via their commercial deployment), which in most cases will boost the local connectivity from sub-10Mbps USO levels and give them the option of ordering up to 900Mbps+ (average broadband speeds).

The work in Great Saling and Panfield is part of the Superfast Essex (SFE) Phase 3 rollout which is set to reach more than 3,700 premises across 19 communities in the Central North of Essex, including parts of Braintree District and the Borough of Colchester, by December 2021. The £6m contract is funded by combined investment from Gigaclear, Essex County Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The work is very welcome; although we have to caveat that the Phase 3 project has still suffered significant delays. “All work under Phase 3 of the Superfast Essex programme by Gigaclear is now due to complete by December 2021,” said SFE during the summer (here) and that compares with the original completion target of December 2019. Bitter-sweet but at least there is progress.

Tony Smith, Gigaclear’s Regional General Manager (East of England), said:

“We are delighted to have arrived in Braintree with our full fibre technology. Poor broadband speeds are not something that households and businesses should have to deal with anymore, no matter how rural they are. The Gigaclear network is bringing life-changing broadband speeds to Braintree in partnership with Superfast Essex and we can’t wait to roll it out in more regions in the coming months.”

Essex County Councillor Lesley Wagland, SFE Steering Board Chairman, said:

“This is excellent news for these two communities in Braintree District and a great milestone for Gigaclear and the Superfast Essex programme to have achieved. We want to help as many rural residents and businesses as possible to have better access to online services and opportunities and the ultrafast speeds available from Gigaclear will make a tremendous difference. We look forward to even more of the Gigaclear network going live.”

In fairness Gigaclear’s original deployment targets always seemed too optimistic. As an example, to connect the small rural village of Panfield they had to dig a vast trench of more than 11.5km in length to run the new fibre. In Great Saling, more than 30km of digging took place. The time and money required to do this sort of work is not to be underestimated.

Locals interested in finding out more about Gigaclear’s ongoing build can attend one of two upcoming community events. The Great Saling event will take place on 22nd October, from 7pm until 9pm, at The Salings Millennium Hall. The Panfield event will be held on 24th October, from 7pm to 9pm, at Panfield Village Hall.