Gigaclear Adds Winchcombe and Cinderford to Gigabit Rollout

Infracapital-backed UK rural broadband ISP Gigaclear has this afternoon announced that the next two towns to benefit from their commercial rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network will be Winchcombe and Cinderford in Gloucestershire, England.

The operator’s network, which currently covers over 250,000 premises, is already present in rural communities and market towns across various parts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Kent and Essex. Gigaclear’s ambition is to reach 500,000 UK premises by the end of 2023.

The planned full fibre rollout in Winchcombe is expected to reach 2,500 premises and will require over 3.6km of new fibre to be laid via trenching as well as through existing duct and pole infrastructure. The first homes and businesses are expected to benefit from this as early as June 2022, with the local rolling being due to reach completion by the end of 2022.

Similarly, Gigaclear’s deployment in Cinderford aims to cover 5,500 premises (via 12.5km of new fibre), with the first premises being covered from next month and completion being due by around the middle of 2023.

Jamie Flint, Regional General Manager at Gigaclear, said:

“We already have a firm foothold in rural Gloucestershire through the Fastershire project with Building Digital UK (BDUK). Now, we are back in the region working independently on a commercial basis to bring ultrafast internet to towns, like Cinderford, which have been calling out for better connectivity for some time.”

Customers can expect to pay from £17 a month (discounted rate) for a symmetric 200Mbps broadband package on an 18-month term (£40 thereafter) and that rises to £49 (£79 thereafter) for their top 830Mbps plan. All packages include a wireless router and free installation.

In addition, the ISP has frozen its full-fibre broadband rates for 18 months, meaning both new and existing customers will not see a rise in prices until October 2023 at the earliest.