UK ISP Gigaclear Bring FTTH to 2450 Devon and Somerset Premises

Full fibre broadband ISP Gigaclear has today moved to remind everybody that the commercial rollout of their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in Devon and Somerset is on-going. The provider has just added a further 239 properties in the villages of Lympsham, Eastertown, Edingworth and Rooks Bridge.

The recent fallout from the Connecting Devon and Somerset project’s move to scrap Gigaclear’s state aid supported contract (here) has perhaps overshadowed the fact that they still have a commercial FTTP roll-out in the two counties, which has so far covered a total of 2,450 homes and businesses.

As present the network mostly covers – in addition to the above locations – the Blackdown Hills villages of Millhayes, Upottery, Yarcombe, Rawridge, Churchinford, Ford Street, Blackmoor, Sampford Arundel, Sampford Moor and Wrangway, as well as the Somerset villages of Failand, Abbots Leigh and Banwell.

From their office in Taunton, Gigaclear said they’re “focussed on delivering service to rural areas where it will have the most impact on the local population.”

Jo Scarrott, Regional Manager for Gigaclear South West, said:

“I’m pleased that we have been able to get these properties online and ready for this essential service. We know that in today’s environment, a fast and reliable broadband connection can enable communities in many ways. The build phase on this project has been long and we appreciate it can be disruptive to the local community. However, the long term benefits we are delivering far outweigh the short-term disruption.

Our commercially funded building work in the area is continuing and I’m looking forward to expanding our network.”

Sadly today’s announcement didn’t include an update on the status of their wider commercial plan for both counties, which originally proposed a £67.3m investment to cover 43,000 premises. However that deployment was intended to complement the separate CDS contract and Gigaclear are now understood to be reviewing their plans.