Delivering with Gigaclear
Gigaclear Networks has won two contracts to deliver Stage 3 of the Superfast Northamptonshire project. These are bringing full fibre broadband to communities in rural North and West Northamptonshire. This technology is capable of supporting the fastest broadband speeds available in the UK.
Find out more on Gigaclear’s website Full Fibre Broadband in Northamptonshire (gigaclear.com)
The rural full fibre network build being delivered with Gigaclear is part funded by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (SIT) managed by government agency Building Digital UK (BDUK) and The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Developments (EAFRD):
What do the contracts with Gigaclear involve?
| Contract |
The two contracts were awarded to Gigaclear Networks by then Northamptonshire County Council, on 30th January 2017 following a competitive open procurement process with the wider telecoms market. They were extended in September 2020. On 1st April 2021, these contracts novated to North Northamptonshire Council to manage on behalf of the new North and West Northamptonshire Councils. |
| Public Investment (£) |
Combined, these contracts involve almost £10m of public funding, including:
|
| Gigaclear Investment (£) | A minimum of £5.5m investment by Gigaclear. |
| Network Build Details |
Planning, design and build of a gigabit capable pure fibre network which provides for symmetrical download and upload speeds. Standard services start from 200Mbps. Around 6,800 rural premises will be connected and able to order full fibre broadband services by summer 2024. More than 100 villages, where some or all premises are suffering poor broadband speeds, will benefit from this investment. |
| Timescales | Network build will run from mid 2017 to mid 2024. |
| Where? | To find out more about where Gigaclear are delivering for the project, please go to the Roll Out Schedule and view the list of communities in the ‘now available with Gigaclear’ and ‘village delivery programme for 2024′ sections. |
Gigaclear contract signing in January 2017
Image below shows Joe Frost Business Development Director at Gigaclear (on left), and Matthew Hare, then CEO of Gigaclear (third from left), with the Superfast Northamptonshire team at the signing of the contracts in January 2017.
Gigaclear’s Investment – More than just a Network Build
Gigaclear has made a real difference and commitment to rural communities in Northamptonshire. Working with the local authority and BDUK, they have brought full fibre connectivity to many rural areas in need, enabling residents and businesses to access some of the fastest broadband services available in the UK. However, Gigaclear have also delivered wider community benefits. This has included a Christmas donation of books providing presents for local children, supporting a number of Warm Room initiatives, sponsoring local community sports teams, and investing in around 50 community hubs across Northamptonshire.
Community Hubs are local community buildings such as village halls, church halls, sports centres or community and youth centres. Gigaclear are providing a free ultrafast broadband connection to help give these spaces a new lease of life, widening the range of uses possible, improving experiences, and bringing communities together for social and celebratory events, learning projects, games and virtual or hybrid meetings. One hub is sponsored for each community build area (which may cover more than one village). To find out more about connecting your community and how to apply, visit the Gigaclear Community Hub web page.
Gigaclear Case Study – Astrop Park Farm, Kings Sutton
Astrop Park Farm, which is based in Kings Sutton near Banbury, has been operating as a farm under its current family ownership for almost 60 years. Now, connection to gigabit broadband has provided the business with much improved access to vital online cloud-based services that the farm and its family members need to thrive in today’s digital world.
Before connecting to Gigaclear’s full fibre network, broadband access was slow and unreliable, resulting in websites and email being either intermittently unavailable or slow to load. With upload speeds as low as 1Mbps, the quality of the connection was not good enough to support reliable use of cloud services without delays.
“We were conscious that many businesses like ours were moving toward Office 365 and cloud-based services and we didn’t want to be left behind,” said Rupert Perry, Partner at Astrop Park Farm.
However, since connecting to Gigaclear’s fibre to the premise broadband, which delivers Internet access directly to the property, Astrop Park Farm staff have had a much faster and uncongested Internet connection which they have been able to rely on for their communication needs. Administration of the business has become more efficient, with staff’s work lives improved.
“Now that we are connected to Gigaclear, we can finally take full advantage of modern online services and simple online tasks are no longer frustrating for our workers.”
Connection to gigabit broadband has also made a significant difference to how the farm is used. It now has the added benefit of being a viable rural business location and Rupert’s family members who live on and around the land now have the freedom to work remotely, saving them from commuting to and from offices every day. This has opened a valuable new business opportunity for the farm.
“In addition to family members using the space to work, we now have ambitions to let out some of our properties as office space to local businesses, helping to diversify the property and provide additional income for the farm. This would never have been possible before connecting to Gigaclear,” adds Rupert.
To make the service even more cost effective, Astrop Park Farm has been able to decommission its previous ISDN phone line connections, replacing them with the Gigaclear Internet line and a SIP voice provider.
“Switching to Gigaclear has meant that we now receive a far superior service for around the same monthly cost as we were paying before.”
Following the positive impact Gigaclear has had on Astrop Park Farm, Rupert recently replicated the benefits in his home life by opting to have his own home connected to the network.
“We can now enjoy streaming services, such as Netflix, as well as utilising cloud services and Office 365, helping to improve the lives of the whole family. I would absolutely recommend Gigaclear to other businesses and residents.”
Further information
For more information on how and where Gigaclear are delivering in Northamptonshire visit the following pages:
- Gigaclear Postcode Availability Checker
- Gigabit Coverage Map
- Roll Out Schedule
- Superfast Northamptonshire section on Gigaclear’s website.
For more information on how Gigaclear roll out their network please watch Gigaclear’s build video, below.