Fibrestream ( NextGenUs ), an outspoken UK community network specialist in true ultrafast fibre optic broadband ISP services, has announce the creation of NextGenUs Cumbria CIC (NGU Cumbria) alongside tentative plans to extend its new Cumbria platform "county-wide".

Ofcom claims that broadband take-up in Cumbria stands at 63% and superfast broadband availability is practically zero. More than 21% of local people receive download speeds of less than 2Mbps (Megabits per second), though the average line sync speed is 6.1Mbps (real-world performance is usually a fair bit lower).

Cumbria (England) is perhaps best known for being home to the famous Lake District and is one of the United Kingdom's most sparsely populated rural county's, with a total population of less than 500,000 people.

The NextGenUs Cumbria FiWi project, which will be supported by an investment exceeding £1 Million in Phase One (see the map - top right - for this phase), envisages a mixed deployment of 100Mbps+ capable Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) and wireless (FiWi) broadband technology.


Fibrestream (NextGenUs) have historically adopted a unique privately funded and community owned approach to building their broadband platforms. The network itself will be partly built by the community itself and usually doesn't require any Taxpayers Money to deliver.

ISPreview.co.uk understands that the new network will initially "link together islands of superfast symmetrical broadband" across the Eden District of Cumbria. Plans to extend county-wide are already said to be "in place", although this will depend upon "community demand".

It's interesting to note that the new project is proceeding without Public Subsidy, although there is a forlorn hope that Cumbria County Council (CCC) may yet "disregard" the governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office and offer some form of Welsh style Broadband Support Scheme to aid their deployment.