Rural Full Fibre Provider Gigaclear Has Reached 250,000 Premises

Rural broadband infrastructure provider Gigaclear has now extended its full-fibre network to 250,000 premises, with a focus on rural areas in England.

Gigaclear has added 80,000 premises to its full-fibre broadband network this year alone, building on its work over the past decade.

To achieve this milestone, Gigaclear has dug 12,000 kilometres (7,642 miles) of trenching, “almost equal to the UK’s total coastline.”

Much of this progress has been in the East of England, with 20,000 premises added to the network in the region. The East of England is also home to Gigaclear’s largest network build project to date: Braintree, Essex, where it hopes to reach 20,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2022. Over half of the pure fibre network is now complete in Braintree, with 6,500 connections expected to be live by the end of the year.

Across England, Gigaclear is targeting 500,000 addresses by the end of 2023, an expansion funded by investment partner Infracapital and £525 million of debt financing secured last year. 

Gigaclear has also been supported by several of the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) programmes to bring 900Mbps broadband to 64,000 of the UK’s hardest to reach premises.

Gigaclear’s next stop will be communities in communities in Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Warwickshire and Suffolk, with specific locations announced in the “coming months.”

Chief executive Gareth Williams said: “I am incredibly proud of what the Gigaclear team has achieved to date. We know that access to fast and reliable broadband is now more vital than ever, especially in rural locations. With over 10 years of experience designing and building the full fibre network we have now scaled up and are rapidly expanding our network not just to new communities but into new counties. The teams are geared up and fighting fit for the challenge.”

Currently, Gigaclear has 50,000 customers—a take-up of 25% (only 200,000 of the connected 250,000 premises are “ready for service.” 

These customers receive symmetrical 300Mbps speeds for £49 per month, with free installation, or top speeds of 900Mbps for £79 per month. Gigaclear also frequently runs promotions which can significantly reduce these monthly costs for the first 18 months of service.