Fastershire is a partnership between Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council to bring faster broadband to the two counties, with funding from central government’s Broadband Delivery UK matched by the local authorities. The ultimate aim is that by the end of 2022 there will be access to fast broadband for all who need it.
However, Fastershire is not only about technology, the project also includes social and digital inclusion activities, and an extensive business support programme, FasterBusiness. The programme is designed to help small and medium size businesses get the most from fibre broadband and be more competitive. In fact, it is expected that Fastershire will help to boost the local economy by £420m over the next ten years.
Fastershire will revolutionise the way that people of all ages across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire work, learn and play, and will benefit generations to come.
Phase 2 of the Fastershire rollout of faster broadband across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire will be based around four areas (area 1, 2, 3(A-E) & 4) and will comprise of premises that were not covered by Phase 1 or commercial rollout.
Each went through its own consultation and procurement process to secure a supplier to carry out the deployment.
Gigaclear was awarded the contract to deliver phase 2 in the Cotswolds in summer 2015. The first digging for our delivery of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises to parts of the Cotswolds began in October 2015 and is now complete.
The rollout covered areas of Andoversford, Bibury, Bourton On The Water, Cirencester, Coberley, Coln St.Aldwyn, Cricklade, Fairford, Fossebridge, Guiting Power, Kemble, Kempsford, Lechlade, Miserden, North Cerney, Northleach, Poulton, South Cerney, Southrop, Stow-On-The-Wold, Windrush and Withington not upgraded to faster broadband in Phase 1.
Phase 1 of the Fastershire strategy has provided approximately 90% of the homes and businesses across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire with access to superfast broadband and speeds of 30Mbps or above.
Over the next two years, phase 2 of the project’s strategy will increase total superfast coverage to around 98%, as phase 2 seeks to provide faster broadband to premises that were not covered by Phase 1 or commercial rollout.
Stage 3 of the Fastershire rollout sees BT continuing to deliver in Hereford, Gloucestershire and Cheltenham and build on their commercial deployment.
Gigaclear has been awarded the Fastershire delivery contract for rural areas of the county.
Gigaclear is a wholesale network provider and internet service provider (ISP) who specialise in connecting rural communities by installing its pure fibre network straight into the property.
Pure fibre, also known as Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) offers a more future-proof solution and broadband speeds of up to 1000Mbps. This technology is not affected by how far your home is from the network cabinet and the connection is symmetric so you get the same upload and download speeds.
For the remaining, hardest to reach properties, Fastershire is using a mix of solutions, including a bespoke grants and contract extensions.
Business Grant
Fastershire, in partnership with Connecting Shropshire and Superfast Telford and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, have designed the Marches and Gloucestershire Broadband Grant.
The grant provides up to 100% of the capital installation cost for an eligible SME that not be included in Fastershire’s main rollout and that can demonstrate the economic return.
Viable Clusters
Fastershire has been awarded funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and has identified a number of significant property clusters that could benefit from this funding.
Contract Extensions
For the remaining properties, Fastershire will be exploring possible contract extensions with BT and Gigaclear to provide access to faster broadband.
Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Upper Oddington.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 3rd August 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Front Street.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 10th August 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Cradley.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 24th August 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Brimscombe.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 31st August 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Botloes Newent and Redmarley D'abitot.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 14th September 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Walls Quarry and Minchinhampton.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 21st September 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Fastershire and Gigaclear are hosting a community meeting to explain the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband in network build area, Huntley.
Location: Online Meeting
Date: Tuesday 28th September 2021
Time: 18:30-19:30
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Homes and businesses in Ross-on-Wye will soon benefit from gigabit capable broadband. Wholesale broadband provider, Full Fibre Limited, will build new Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) network across the town, providing access to some of the fastest broadband in the country.
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Homes, shops, and businesses in Hereford’s historic centre now benefit from access to faster broadband. New fibre cabinets have been installed as part of Fastershire rollout with Openreach providing access to properties along Bridge Street, King Street and around the Cathedral
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The ongoing infrastructure project to build a new gigabit capable full fibre broadband network in rural Gloucestershire has ramped up in communities around the M5.
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The first funding awards for the new the Fastershire Community Broadband Grant have been made in recent months. This heralds a major step towards finishing the job of providing fibre broadband across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
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Vicarious Productions, a film and television production facility based in Edvin Loach, is one of 400 premises in hard-to-reach communities who have gone from being among the worst connected areas in the UK to having access to some of the fastest internet in the country.
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Hereford is set to become one of the UK's fastest cities under new plans announced. Zzoomm, the 100% Full Fibre broadband network operator, has announced that it plans to serve over 28,000 homes and businesses in Hereford.
Read Full StoryWe're inviting Primary Schools across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to take part in our filmmaking challenge to create a short film about internet.
Schools are required to produce a 30-60 second film to showcase positive use of the internet and can be an advert, comedy, documentary, ‘how to guide’ or news report.
The competition is designed to help demonstrates the benefits of the internet but also to provide an opportunities for children to use the internet as a learning tool, to search and accesses online resources to help them plan and produce their film.
The films will be uploaded to the Fastershire website and the film with the most views wins £200 for their school.
To help you get started we've compiled some useful resources and 'how to' videos.
Into Film
Into Film is an Education charity that offers support to teachers and educators to achieve a wide range of effective learning outcomes in their use of film.
Their website offers free resources about all elements of film making, by age and topic.
Young Film Academy
Young Film Academy helps over 7,500 young people each year complete their first films across the UK and is an official London delivery partner for the BFI Film Academy.
As young people now grow up using laptops, tablets and smartphones as if they were second nature, we would like to help them share their skills by teaching a family member how to use the internet.
Fastershire can run competitions with schools across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to encourage students to teach a member of their family the basics of using the internet. At the end of the teaching, the student and the person being taught will be asked to write about the experience and what they've got out of it, and the student will submit this as an entry to the competition.
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Media and entertainmentThe Government's Better Broadband Scheme aims to help provide access to a basic broadband service that will offer download speeds of at least 10 Mbps.
The Better Broadband Scheme, developed by the UK government, provides a voucher worth up to £350 for basic broadband installation to homes and businesses that will not benefit from superfast broadband.
The eligibility criteria for the scheme is as follows;
For more information or to apply, please visit the Government's Better Broadband Scheme website.
96,516 Faster homes & 
99
exchange areas 
7,000 km of 
621
cabinets Faster broadband is being rolled out across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire between now but it is not possible to flick a switch to make every area go live on the same day and some areas will go live before this. Register your interest today and we'll let you know when you can order.
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