VIDEO – Rural UK Full Fibre ISP Gigaclear Launch First TV Ad
Smaller broadband ISPs rarely ever produce TV adverts, particularly those with limited network coverage. But that hasn’t stopped rural-focused alternative network provider Gigaclear from this week running their first ever television advert to promote their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service.
Like most such adverts, the new promotion is somewhat tongue-in-cheek and features a “Gigaclear Astronaut” who brings “digital happiness to a family all working and playing online at the same time.” It’s always wise never to take these things too seriously. The move also accompanies a subtle brand refresh, which seems to take some inspiration from Microsoft’s old logo for Internet Explorer.
Otherwise, the ad is said to mark the start of a “new phase in the organisation’s history” and will be “beamed directly into the homes of potential Gigaclear customers across its build area” using the Sky Adsmart and ITV Hub platforms. This should help to reduce the risk of disappointment that might come from seeing such an advert in areas where the network itself is not yet present.
The Infracapital-backed network, which currently covers around 250,000 premises and is being fuelled by c.£700m of investment (here and here), is already present in over 450 rural communities and market towns across parts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Kent and Essex.
Nick Rawlings, Chief Marketing Officer at Gigaclear, said: “Our new TV advertisement is one giant leap forward in the growth of Gigaclear. We are proud to be the largest rural full fibre broadband provider in the country. The network is growing at light speed, and we are now using local TV advertising to communicate with many more people.”
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 Linkedin.
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Sorry to harp on about this company (well, not really)…
“This should help to reduce the risk of disappointment that might come from seeing such an advert in areas where the network itself is not yet present.”
Having been descoped by these people, I live in the hope that I will not be presented with this ad. However, that hope is likely a forlorn one, unless they can somehow get ITV to run the ad only in those non-descoped areas adjacent to the ~2300 descoped properties of south Herefordshire and Glocestershire.
Since ITV does not have that granularity capability, I fear I may need a new TV soon… or perhaps I should place it far enough away from me that I can’t reach it with whatever solid object is to hand when it airs!
They’ve probably used the Scottish R100 compensation (failed bid) to pay for this ad LMAO
To be totally fair to them they will want the take-up in the areas that they have covered to be as high as possible.
With aa higher take-up and better ROI then areas that were not scopable might just be able to be brought into scope.
Cost were probably higher and take-up lower which lead to scope reductions.
They bid for the contract and (to put it politely) admitted they didn’t really do their homework on the area, and then a couple of years into the build, using national and local government monies, they declined to complete what they contracted for.
They deserve all the scorn and opprobrium I put their way, not just for the descoping itself, but for the many wasted years waiting for a promised product that never arrived.
I wasn’t saying they were geniuses. Cleary they did get things very wrong.
I run a construction business and since BREXIT we have left the era of stable materials and labour costs behind.
That may have something to do with scope change?
@HR2Res
I’m no fan of Gigaclear like you but Openreach are equally as bad when it comes to BDUK projects, they bid low to win them and then push the costs up so they are only able to delivered about half of the project so the other half is then descoped.
I don’t doubt there were cost increases; that happens with most projects. I daresay the councils and Gigaclear could have come to some arrangement if that were the root cause.
But no, Gigaclear just cocked up when they bid for the contract, and then they took an age to get things going.
See point 14 in https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s50095647/Programme%20Change%20to%20Fastershire%20Delivery.pdf:
“Gigaclear have conceded their original modelling five years ago was at fault in terms of cost and time. An attempt was made to address timescale issues in March and then December 2019 via cabinet member decision, but even if those decisions were implemented it would not solve the problem of current deployment. There are 2,324 Herefordshire premises within Lot 2/3c that were due to be reached via public subsidy that are now considered by Gigaclear as undeliverable due the considerable escalation in cost – appendix one gives details of the premises by ward.”
The principal cause of the escalation in cost (and the likely reason BT didn’t touch it with a barge pole, because they knew the logistics issues) was Gigaclear not considering what they were bidding on carefully enough.