ISP Giganet Expand UK Full Fibre Rollout to 2 Wiltshire Towns

Network operator and UK ISP Giganet has confirmed that their rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network has begun to be extended into the two Wiltshire (England) market towns and civil parishes of Marlborough and Devizes, which will benefit 21,500 homes at a cost of around £23m.

Giganet is currently investing £250m via Fern Trading to deploy their own full fibre network to 300,000 premises across poorly served parts of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and West Sussex (here). On top of that, the operator is continuing to expand the availability of FTTP via Openreach and CityFibre’s wholesale platforms in other parts of the country, to maximise availability.

Some of the first locations to see activity from Giganet’s rollout were Wimborne, Ferndown, Ringwood, Fordingbridge and the communities in-between (i.e. mostly around the Dorset and Hampshire area). The villages of Henfield and Hurstpierpoint (West Sussex), as well as Hythe, Totton, Fair Oak and Tadley (Hampshire), have also appeared on their plan for this year, but we haven’t had a solid progress update for a while.

Otherwise, the new builds across Marlborough and Devizes are expected to reach completion in early 2024, but the first services will go live much sooner.

Kevin Barry, Chief Network Build Officer at Giganet, said (Gazette & Herald):

“This is an exciting chapter for Giganet as we bring Wiltshire’s smaller communities up to speed with full fibre services. Over the last few years there’s been a surge in demand for faster, more reliable broadband. For us this also means providing customers with an offering that’s grounded in honesty and simplicity – from flexible contracts to no exit fees.

While there will be some short-term disruption from the build, this will benefit the local area tremendously in the long-term. Large or small, we’re connecting communities and making sure that no one is left behind.”

However, Giganet’s FTTP may not be the only gigabit-capable network in the areas they’re targeting, particularly with operators like Swish Fibre and Openreach also deploying or looking to deploy full fibre in places like Marlborough. The provider’s website also appears to lack a map or useful summary of their ongoing build progress (at least we couldn’t see one), which makes it a little harder to keep track of their progress.