Thousands of businesses across Bath & North East Somerset are to be connected to an ultrafast full-fibre broadband network that promises some of the UK’s fastest speeds.
The project is the result of a £10.3m investment deal signed by publicly funded body Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) with Oxfordshire-based ultrafast broadband provider Gigaclear.
It is aimed primarily at the hardest-to-reach communities where the commercial market will not provide the infrastructure.
Gigaclear is carrying out essential surveys for CDS ahead of the installation of the new full-fibre network that will deliver broadband speeds of up to 1,000Mbps (1Gbps).
In total some 6,500 businesses and homes will be connected under the scheme, part of a wider £171m CDS programme – the biggest public-funded broadband project in England, which has already provided over a quarter of a million homes and businesses with access to superfast broadband.
CDS is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, European Union, local authorities, the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and private sector investment.
Network construction starts early in January with the first businesses and residents anticipated to be connected by the end of spring based on how close they are to the Gigaclear Internet backbone network.
Under the deal with CDS, Gigaclear will invest £7.8m to build the new all-fibre network. CDS will also be reinvesting public subsidy returned by BT as a ‘gainshare’ – or dividend – from increased take-up of internet services to help fill gaps in the current planned coverage.
More than 28,000 homes and businesses in Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) and North Somerset already have access to superfast broadband under an earlier deal by CDS with BT.
Tens of thousands more have access via entirely commercial provision – and it is anticipated that commercial coverage will increase across the Bath & North East Somerset and North Somerset areas.
CDS is in discussion about the final amount and will reinvest the money to extend full-fibre broadband coverage to as many communities without a service as possible.
CDS is awarding public-subsidised contracts to companies through competitive tender to build the infrastructure needed, such as fibre or wireless connections. CDS is only able to invest where suppliers have no declared and credible plans to invest their own resources to extend their networks.
So far, more than 248,000 miles (400,000 kms) of fibre cable have already been laid, enough to circle the Earth 10 times, in a programme that has taken more than 2m man hours to date.
B&NES cabinet member for economic and community regeneration Cllr Paul Myers said: “Excellent broadband infrastructure is essential for our economy to remain competitive. So this is good news as it will give our local businesses access to some of the fastest broadband speeds available and the ability to trade without boundaries.”
Gigaclear business development director Joe Frost added: “We’re delighted to expand our footprint in the South West and continue our strong relationship with CDS, bringing Gigaclear’s ultrafast broadband to some of the hardest to reach rural areas.
“By working with CDS, Gigaclear is helping to secure the area’s digital economy. As the leading alternative provider of ultrafast, full fibre-to-the-premises broadband to rural Britain, our investment in this new network will bring economic and social benefits to the area for many years to come, making it an even more attractive place to live and work.”
