New deal to deliver 1GB fibre to 5,000 Herefordshire premises
The state-supported Fastershire project has struck a deal with rural broadband provider Gigaclear and rival firm FullFibre to deliver access to a 1GB-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to 5,000 premises in the town of Ledbury, Herefordshire.
The Fastershire project uses contracts with providers, including Openreach, Airband and Gigaclear, to extend gigabit-capable broadband across premises in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. The project forecasts that it will have reached 97 per cent of premises across by both counties in late 22.
So far, Fastershire has connected 96,516 premises, with 99 exchange areas live, 621 cabinets live and 7,000 kilometres of fibre laid. According to recent figures, 92 per cent of properties in the two counties can access superfast broadband (30mbps or above), while 26 per cent of Herefordshire properties can access ultrafast FTTP broadband, almost double the national average.
Discussing the new deal for Ledbury, Gigaclear Regional General Manager James Flint said: “We are pleased to be working with Full Fibre Limited and will be using new build methods that will enable us to reach over 5,000 premises in the Ledbury area.”
“In extending our network to this area, we will be making use of existing infrastructure here possible, which will help ensure we are able to minimise disruption to residents.”
“Once completed, people in Ledbury will be able to enjoy access to our ultrafast full fibre network, which has the capability of providing speeds of up to a gigabit per second – a massive improvement on what is currently available in this area!”
FullFibre Limited CEO Oliver Helm commented: “As specialists in market town fibre deployments we know how vital and transformative great connectivity can be to communities like Ledbury, but also how important it is to reduce disruption as far as possible whilst we do so.”
“Over the coming months our teams will be out on the ground planning and building this new network and working with the community to do so as smoothly as possible.”
