UK ISP Rutland Telecom (RT), which specialises in bringing superfast broadband access into some of the country's most remote and rural communities, today announced that Gigaclear has made a "substantial investment" to help support its fibre optic based FTTC and FTTP deployments.

The news surfaced during today's one-day NextGen Roadshow in Essex, which aims to both boost the profile of UK superfast broadband services and brings together suppliers, community stakeholders, investors and expert advisors from across the industry.


The involvement of Gigaclear, a private company that is "dedicated to building and operating Ultrafast broadband networks based on fibre technology", suggests that Rutland Telecom could be planning to become more independent from BT and may even develop its own fully fibre optic broadband platform.

Rutland Telecom has recently become quite well known for its success at bringing fibre optic based broadband solutions to a number of isolated rural communities, such as Hambleton and Essendine (here and here).

Precise details of the deal itself remain unclear, although Gigaclear's Founder and CEO, Matthew Hare, has officially joined Rutland Telecom's board as a Chairman. We're trying to find out more and hope to update again soon.