50 Rural Monmouthshire Villages Targeted for FTTH Broadband

Residents in the tiny rural Monmouthshire village of Llanddewi Rhydderch in Wales now have a second 1Gbps capable speed option for broadband in the form of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is intended to complement their existing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) trial. But another 50 villages could soon join them.

The original wireless trial (here), which harnessed both 60GHz “mesh” radio technology and some of the lower 5GHz frequency band via Broadway Partners (UK ISP Broadway Broadband), formed part of the Government’s wider 5G Rural Integrated Testbed (5GRIT) project and received a share of £3.5m in public funding (here).

A few months ago ISPreview.co.uk revealed that Broadway would also start to build a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the village too (here). At the time Barry Weaver, Broadway’s Operations Director, informed us that the aim was to have a mix of different technologies and the customer can then choose what works best for their particular circumstances.

Since then Broadway, who recently obtained Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) accreditation with Openreach (BT), have now completed all the design and planning work and will soon be connecting the first of the residents in the village to their new 100Mbps and faster packages as early as mid-January 2020.

Barry Weaver, COO of Broadway Partners, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Delivering connectivity through a combination of fixed and wireless technologies is the only economic, scalable and rapidly deployable solution for the challenges of Gigabit in rural environments.

Our rollout for 2020 will target a further 50 Monmouthshire communities with fibre deployments. If you are a community that wants Gigabit connectivity we can deliver it and we want to hear from you.”

The initial 100Mbps service comes with unlimited data and starts from just £24.99 a month over a 12-month contract. On top of that there are also 300Mbps and 1Gbps packages available at a monthly cost of £99.99 and £109.99 respectively, for those with a need for greater speed.