Full Fibre ISP Gigaclear Expands Rollout into Rural Hampshire UK

Rural focused broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has already built a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 450,000 UK premises passed across 24 counties, has added the large village of Kingsclere in Hampshire to their current rollout plan – adding another 1,500 premises upon completion. But they’re not the only locations.

According to the Basingstoke Gazette, the new project is said to be part of a new £18 million investment in underserved rural communities in Hampshire (England). At present, the operator doesn’t have much of a presence in the county, although we have recently seen some of their other builds crossing into related areas, like Eversley, to the north of the county. Engineers have also been spotted in a small part of Bramley.

As for the village of Kingsclere, engineer work has already begun and the first homes should be able to connect from November 2023. The build itself is due to reach completion during Spring 2024. Customers typically pay from £17 a month (£41.50 after 18-months) for a symmetric 200Mbps broadband package, which rises to £49 (£82 after 18-months) for their top 830Mbps plan. All packages include a wireless router and free installation.

Ben Woods, Delivery Director, said:

“There are many great benefits to living in rural communities such as Kingsclere but having access to the fastest broadband speeds is not always something people expect. People living in towns and cities, on average, enjoy much faster speeds than people in rural locations and Ofcom says that divide is growing.

However, Gigaclear’s mission is to address this gap and bring full fibre faster speeds to residents in rural villages and towns so they’re able to work from home, stream online entertainment, scroll and gameplay just like everyone else.”

The rollout forms part of the Infracapital-backed provider’s wider investment strategy, which is estimated to be worth up to around £1.1bn (here) – this aims to help expand the coverage of their full fibre network to “over” 1 million premises by 2027. But prior to that they’re expecting to reach 500,000 properties at some point in 2024.