GoFibre Completes First Phase of Rural Teesdale Full Fibre Rollout

Rural broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink), which is building a 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network across the North of England and Scottish Borders area, has announced that they’ve completed the first phase of their £6.6m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract in rural Teesdale – putting services live across 885 covered homes.

Just to recap. The original contract (Lot 4.01) was first awarded in September 2022 (here) and set a target to upgrade more than 4,000 hard-to-reach Teesdale premises in Northern England with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology. The first build phase then began in April 2023, due to the usual engineering surveys and other prep work (here). Completion is targetted for 2025.

As part of this first phase of the network build, some 885 homes and businesses in the Barnard Castle, Middleton-in-Teesdale and Winston areas can now access and benefit from the new network. The first customers are said to have started to go live over the “last few weeks“.

We should point out that GoFibre also holds the £7.3m North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) build contract under the same programme (here), which will aim to upgrade over 3,750 hard-to-reach premises, and work on that appears to be progressing at a similar pace.

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the first customers have been connected to our full fibre broadband network in Teesdale. Through our partnership with the UK government and Durham County Council, the completion of this first phase marks a significant step forward in our aim to close the digital divide across rural areas, many of whom, like John, have faced years of persistent digital connectivity problems.

To any locals or businesses interested in learning more about how our network can benefit them, please do get in touch or register. We appreciate your patience during the ongoing construction and are excited to continue to bring the benefits of full fibre connectivity to even more homes and businesses in Teesdale.”

Sir John Whittingdale, Minister for Digital Infrastructure, said:

“I’m delighted to see the first local residents in Teesdale being able to plug into the fastest broadband speeds on the market thanks to our Project Gigabit investment. Working with GoFibre, we are set to deliver next generation broadband to thousands more homes and businesses from Barnard Castle to West Auckland, ensuring people have access to the fastest connections fit for the future.”

Customers of the new service can expect to pay from £36 per month for a 100Mbps package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to £69 per month for their top 1000Mbps plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans too for just £5 per month extra).