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Full Fibre UK ISP Gigaclear Formally Unveil Smart WiFi Mesh

Wednesday, Jan 22nd, 2020 (1:59 pm) - Score 5,237
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Rural full fibre broadband ISP Gigaclear has today formally launched their new in-home Smart Wi-Fi “mesh solution” for customers, which harnesses the new Velop router from Linksys and makes it possible to easily extend the wireless network signal by adding a series of linked repeater nodes into the network.

Readers of ISPreview.co.uk will note that we spotted the introduction of their Smart Wi-Fi system a few months ago (here), although for some reason it’s taken them awhile to put out a formal announcement. By default the new Smart WiFi (mesh system) comes included (1 router + 1 repeater node) with their top 300Mbps and 900Mbps packages, although if you want a 2nd node then that increases the monthly price by £5 and a 3rd by £10.

Meanwhile Smart WiFi is an optional paid add-on for their entry-level 30Mbps and 100Mbps packages or existing customers, which means you can add it from £5 per month for one repeater, £10 for two and £15 for three. Personally we’d prefer it if this was optional on all packages (i.e. in return for a lower price) as we don’t all require a mesh system and some people will already own one.

James Lowther, Chief Marketing Officer of Gigaclear, said:

“We focus on building to rural areas, which means our customers often suffer from poor WiFi performance due to the stone construction or size of their properties. Our broadband service provides the best speeds in the UK, and we want our customers’ WiFi performance to be able to take full advantage of it.

Linksys has significant know-how in this space and has proven to be the right partner as it understands how to maximise a user’s WiFi experience. It has worked with us to develop the ‘Gigaclear powered by Linksys’ brand and we look forward working with them in partnership to give our customers not only the best broadband speeds in the UK, but the best WiFi experience available.”

Alternatively you could just buy a pack of three Linksys Velop (WHW0103) routers from Amazon for £145 and forget about any extra monthly charges. In fact there’s quite a wide selection of mesh solutions from various different manufactures, so you don’t have to buy a rented solution from your ISP in order to benefit. On the other hand it’s always handy if your ISP provides support for a particular setup.

Gigaclera’s Packages (FTTP)

Superfast 30 Mbps – £39 per month

Ultrafast 100 Mbps – £44 per month

Ultrafast 300 Mbps with Smart WiFi – £49 per month

Hyperfast 900 Mbps with Smart WiFi – £79 per month

NOTE: All packages apply a £30 one-off activation fee and an 18 month contract term with symmetrical speeds.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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Comments
8 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Fred says:

    Now if only Gigaclear were actually a bit better at rolling out their network…..I understood that before Christmas they were just about to announce their refactored plans for Devon and Somerset but in true Gigaclear style – more empty words…. Anyway, Truespeed should be with me in 3 months.

    1. Avatar photo Pezza says:

      Well count yourself lucky, I’m in North Dorset and because we were upgraded by Openreach to FTTC I’ve got no hope of FTTP for several years if ever… no G.DMT either.

    2. Avatar photo Martin Pitt - Aquiss says:

      @Pezza

      G.DMT is ADSL. I’m pretty sure you can still get that 😉

  2. Avatar photo TomD says:

    On Black Friday they were giving Linksys SmartWifi away for free – plus a £15 discount on the monthly package taking the whole shebang @ 300Mbps down to £34/m. To those where GC is available – be patient and look out for offers

    1. Avatar photo Lodge says:

      They seen to be discounting on a regular basis, they need do otherwise it looks very expensive particularly with the mesh system. Most ISPs are now raising their game of Wi-fi as part of the standard package.

  3. Avatar photo Jonathan says:

    It almost never makes sense to pay a rental to get a mesh system. It is cheaper to just buy one outright yourself and actually own it.

  4. Avatar photo DaveS says:

    After a near 3 year wait for me to be connected, due to way-leave issues, I have now have a up and running Go 300MB system, so only a modem and mesh 3 channel Router, no additional node, but I had a 2 Channel 3 node Lynksys mesh connected to my ADSL router, the only issue I had was the App didn’t what to add an additional system to the account. so replace the node 0 with the new Router, renamed the wifi and password to the old system and then reconnected the old nodes, all devices connected as if nothing had changed… PS the wi-fi range of the Gigaclear router is better than the 2 channel linksys, but that is to be expected. Anyone know if the other 3 lan ports on the Modem are usable, as I tried them and had no connection, so am using the single one on the Router to a switch.

  5. Avatar photo John Spiers says:

    I was in one of the first villages to go with Gigaclear, the only alternative at rollout was BT copper wire and the maximum speed was around 2MB/s … the 50 up down they transformed us to was incredible (and it was cheaper if you bit the bullet and disconnected from BT entirely, replacing the landline with a Vonage VOIP package).

    There have been problems. There is definite throttling of streaming services at peak times resulting in dropouts (they deny this but I’ve done a hell of a lot of research in to this and there can be no other reason) … a good tip if you are using Gigaclear and this happens to you … start a speedtest.net broadband speed check from another device and it always kickstarts the stream … they don’t want bad publicity so the speed test always brings back the stream!

    I noticed they were now offering 100MB/s for the same price I had been paying so I enquired if I could get this too … and they replied advertising the 300MB/s package as an alternative. I went for it.

    The Linksys Velop tri-band nodes are incredible. My package comes with 2 nodes … and I’m seriously tempted to get a third. Our stone walls had always been a problem with wi-fi – and this is definitely the solution. 300MB/s is brilliant too. The bandwidth seems larger for multiple heavy use at the same time. The ability for these nodes to use ethernet cables has led to me having full speed in an outbuilding as well. We will see if Gigaclear start the same tricks with throttling on this package … but initial signs are very good.

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