Quickline Complete Lincolnshire BDUK Rollout of Ultrafast Broadband
Broadband ISP Quickline, which is rolling out a gigabit-capable wireless and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across North East England, has today announced the completion of their £8.1m contract to cover 8,000 premises in rural parts of Lincolnshire with “superfast” (30Mbps+) and “ultrafast” (100Mbps+) broadband.
The original contract was announced in September 2020 (here) and involved an extension of their hybrid fibre optic fed Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, which was to be carried out under the wider Building Digital UK (BDUK) backed Superfast Broadband (SFBB) programme in the county (before FTTP became the greater focus).
Quickline’s contract was supported by an initial subsidy of up to £4.6m (£3.1m from the Lincolnshire Local Authority and £1.5m from the European Regional Development Fund), while a further subsidy of £1.5m was due to become available “subject to certain conditions” (they don’t say what). Sadly, the operator doesn’t say precisely how much funding was ultimately consumed or how much take-up the network has achieved.
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The deal required Quickline to extend their network – with access to broadband speeds of at least 100Mbps – to cover 7,969 homes and businesses in some of the hardest to reach rural areas of Lincolnshire. But in the end they managed to cover a slightly greater total of 8,100 premises.
Sean Royce, Quickline CEO, said:
“Working in collaboration with Lincolnshire County Council and engaging with communities are key drivers to help us deliver a faster and more connected tomorrow. Poor broadband connectivity is a real issue in parts of Lincolnshire, particularly in the deeply rural communities.
The delivery of the Lincolnshire Superfast Broadband build programme means thousands more people, both residents and in businesses, can now access much improved broadband speeds which will make a world of difference to the many day-to-day tasks they carry out online.”
Councillor Richard Davies said:
“It’s great news that the Lincolnshire Superfast Broadband Build by Quickline Communications is complete and has given some 8,000 rural homes high connectivity speeds. By giving digital access to very hard to reach locations, this project is a good example of our continuing desire for better broadband connectivity to all areas of the country.”
Residential customers reached by Quickline’s network are typically charged from £29 per month on a 24-month term for 100Mbps (50Mbps upload) speeds with free installation, and that goes up to £49 for their top 900Mbps (450Mbps upload) tier. The first 3 months of service are also free. But that’s for their full fibre packages and we’ve struggled to find the pricing for their wireless tiers.
The operator, supported by funding of around £500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, has previously stated that they hold an aspiration to cover 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across North East England with “ultrafast broadband” via both FTTP and their 5G based fixed wireless technology “by 2025” (here). Some 300,000 of that figure are already being reaching by their wireless network.
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 and Linkedin.
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Quickline and all the other ISP’s continue to give full fibre to other towns and plenty of villages. When asked questions, none of them can provide any answers as to why Burgh le Marsh is being deliberately left out
burgh le marsh is deliberately being left out as you call it — according to census of 2021 there are 2600 residents (of which 29% of those are in single house of in the parish so probably under a 1000 1500 home in total — that tiny in terms of roll out (unless its on the way to somewhere else and the fibre runs though the village (which in this instance is not the the case. This 100% should form part of BDUK Lot for Lincolnshire (based on the rurality and proximity to network (from last time i reviewed that area) it would not be covered by programme other than BDUK due to the complexity of covering it and also the premise spread . suggest you reach out to lincolnshire C.C to ensure your postcode has been included in the BDUK intervention area
BDUK map from Lot23 shows we are “deffered scope”.
Probably too expensive to include under the old contracts.
It’s frustrating as 1 small street in the town has FTTP via Openreach and Lightspeed are 3 miles up the main road in Skegness.
Gigabit vouchers aren’t an option as the postcode checker says Burgh is not eligible for a voucher.
There was a time Burgh was Starlink covered and Skeg was not.. As for Lightspeed, I am up Skeg (Beacon Park area) come have a look at LS if you want? Slow.. laggy and packet loss in the double figures.
Heaven! (not) Thank god mine was free for 12 months until BT ended. I am going to sack them both off and go back to Starlink!
@LincolnshireLeftOut
Can you actually provide evidence that Burgh le Marsh is being deliberately left out of any upgrades? Prince Harry I guess would say its not deliberate but unconscious bias 🙂
@Adam West
1. Openreach FTTP rollout Map shows Burgh area shows Burgh area unmarked for future upgrade
2. Have received correspondence from Lightspeed and YouFibre to say that we have no plans for Burgh
3. Upp / o2 / Virgin / Nextfibre 2024 rollout Map shows areas on the coastline planned for 2024
4. BDUK map shows Burgh area marked in blue which is “deffered scope”
5. Cannot apply for gigabit vouchers as they aren’t available for Burgh
Am not sure what else I can provide for proof? The town council wants to engage with a provider and they have reached out to all but none have responded.
@LincolnshireLeftOut
You clearly don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘deliberate’, as you would be saying all these companies have sat in a dark room and decided to work together to deliberately exclude Burgh le Marsh from any future rollout? I can imagine you are just sore that they haven’t upgraded your area yet. If you really want it pay the cost of the infrastructure and the telco’s will come.
Assuming from the press release that the technology used was not gigabit capable, then this means these premises will be included in either or both of the Lincs Project Gigabit procurements that are due to be awarded in January and March respectively.
So a grand total of 4 months between BDUK finishing subsidising the upgrade of an area and commencing the (further subsidised) overbuild of themselves with another technology. Absolutely wild.
A picture of a staff member or subcontractor with no safety gloves, key lifter No.5 with legs taped up, no roller bar, no GDU.
Bet the web site says “Safety is our number 1 priority”.