Gigaclear’s fibre broadband spades hit the dirt in ultrafast Berkshire

Rural fibre ISP Gigaclear has begun work on a project that will see 12,000 Berkshire homes able to get up to 1,000Mbps broadband. 

The project is due to be completed by June 2017, which is obviously some way away, but once the hard work is done, residents will be able to enjoy a symmetrical service – that’s download and upload speeds of up to a gigabit per second – that’s roughly 40 times faster than the current UK average. 

Residents and business owners in Hungerford, East Garston, Kintbury and Lambourn will be among the first to have access to Gigaclear’s broadband service during completion of the first phase, which is due to finish in June 2016. 

Matthew Hare, Chief Executive of Gigaclear, said: “This is an exciting start to the delivery of this future-proofed, ultrafast broadband network in West Berkshire. 

“Installing a new, pure fibre communications network will give those living and working in the region Internet speeds up to 1,000Mbps meaning they can do whatever they need to do online, anytime. Working in partnership with the Superfast Berkshire team, we look forward to transforming the broadband experience in this area and delivering this project on time.”

Superfast Berkshire is a public-private joint venture between the local authority, BT and Gigaclear. The great majority of homes and businesses in Berkshire – 92.3 per cent – will be able to order FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet)-based services from ISPs using BT’s Openreach network by the end of the year.

In some places, whether as a result of the first £8m Superfast Berkshire fund or BT’s own investment, you’ll be able to order FTTP (Fibre to the Premises)-based services; a quick search on SamKnows reveals that some customers connected to the Reading Tilehurst exchange can order FTTP providing download speeds of up to 330Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30Mbps. Only a small number of ISPs currently offer this service, including BT, Zen and AAISP.  

The second £5.15 million phase of Superfast Berkshire will see Gigaclear’s lines piped out to thousands of families and firms in predominantly rural areas. While the headline 1,000Mbps service is expensive, Gigaclear also offers cheaper 50Mbps and 100Mbps products which are also symmetrical. 

Gigaclear has published a timetable detailing the postcodes that will be hit by the phased rollouts between now and June 2017.