FullFibre and Gigaclear Battle with FTTP Broadband in Cinderford
Network builder FullFibre Limited has announced that the first customers can now connect to their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network in the Gloucestershire (England) town of Cinderford, which comes only a couple of months after Gigaclear began deploying in the same place.
The operator, which deploys its network as a wholesale platform via Fibre Heroes for other UK ISPs to harness (i.e. consumers should visit that site to check coverage), aims to reach “at least” 500,000 premises by 2025. So far most of their builds have focused on towns in parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as the counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire under the Fastershire project.
But FullFibre Ltd aren’t the only network operator playing in Cinderford right now. Rival operator Gigaclear revealed in mid-May 2022 (here) that they were also working to deploy across the town, which they said would involve covering 5,500 premises (via 12.5km of new fibre), with completion being due by around the middle of 2023.
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Sadly, FullFibre Ltd hasn’t said how many premises will benefit in the town or when the build will reach completion, but it appears as if they’ve managed to go live first. On top of that, the same town also exists on Openreach’s FTTP rollout plan. For such a small area, that’s a lot of competition, which is great for locals (aside from the noisy street works), but it will make it harder for each player to gain a return on their investment.
Matt Smith, FullFibre’s Head of Public Procurement & Engagement, said:
“Cinderford has been a welcoming community that understood the need and value for FTTP networks. Liaising closely with the county council, the FEP and Fastershire has been a pleasure and these strong relationships will continue to grow. Becoming part of the community is an added bonus for us at FullFibre and Fibre Heroes.”
In terms of pricing, the example ISP of Air Broadband charges from £20 per month for their unlimited entry-level 100Mbps (symmetric) social tariff package and that rises to £55 for their top 1Gbps tier. The service comes attached to a 24-month minimum contract term, and in the small print there’s mention of a £6.50 router delivery charge.
By comparison Gigaclear’s service, once it goes live in the near future, will cost 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 (effectively the same as Air’s 1Gbps plan – Gigaclear are just following the correct advertising rules). All packages include a wireless router and free installation.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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All credit to gigaclear for following the advertising rules.
This appears to be the same situation here in Worcestershire. Fibre Heros arrived in Broadway last December to check the ducts and started installing fibre a few months ago. However Gigaclear have now arrived and they are also installing their fibre in the same ducts and have sent residents a letter confirming the install. We wait years for an Altnet and then 2 arrive together!
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/10/fullfibre-ltd-list-19-new-towns-in-england-for-fttp-broadband.html
i think Air broadband only offers from £25 a month for the 100Mbps service
There are areas of Fastershire’s BDUK builds that Gigaclear was originally due to complete by the end of 2018 that are still not complete. Gigaclear now seem to be putting effort into commercial builds in urban areas in preference to the (costly) rural areas.
This is the same across a lot of West Sussex, many of the larger villages have 2-3 Alt-Nets building in them plus Openreach on building or on their radar
Always the way. OR, as part of the fastershire project (mmmm project in its widest sense here) built in Huntley and they are having an overbuild with Gigaclear before the local rural areas with sub 4mbs. This was supposed to be sorted in 2018 and still is ‘in scope’. Max speed on the 4g in the area is around 8 so most days patchy at best. Granted they need to make money but must be held to account about what they have promised and not delivered.
We’ve had so many promises from Fastershire that have been broken for a decade; how can these clowns do anything properly. I did a freedom of information request to Gloucestershire Council 4 years ago asking for the project plan for getting the high speed internet completed. Guess what, the response was that they did not a have plan at all!
We use the 4G network, but the mobile networks keep playing around on the main towers, so we end up days or weeks before the reasonable service (and I will not saying good) is restored. How can we get 5G if they can’t get 4G working. I need high speed internet for my work and it’s so disrupted my customers keep complaining.