About Us

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.

The Rollout

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.

All information, including forecast dates, is indicative only. Forecast dates may move forwards as well as backwards.

Area 1: The Cotswolds
Area 2: The Forest of Dean
Area 3A: Cheltenham and Gloucester
Area 3B: Hereford
Area 3C: South Herefordshire and Gloucestershire (west of the Severn)
Area 3D: North Gloucestershire
Area 3E: South Gloucestershire
Area 4: North Herefordshire

Area 1: Cotswolds

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.

Area 2: Forest of Dean

We have awarded a contract to Gigaclear to deliver the phase 2 rollout in parts of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the Golden Valley in Herefordshire not upgraded to faster broadband in Phase 1.

Area 3(A-E) & 4: The rest of the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire

Area 3A-B (Cheltenham and Gloucester) and area 3B (Hereford)

We have awarded a contract to BT Group to deliver the phase two rollout in these areas not upgraded to faster broadband.

Area 3(C-E) & 4: The rest of the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire

We have awarded a contract to Gigaclear to deliver the phase two rollout in these areas not upgraded to faster broadband in Phase 1.

Area 3C (South Herefordshire)
Area 3D (North Gloucestershire)
Area 3E (South Gloucestershire)
Area 4 (North Herefordshire)

To find out if your property is included in this next phase of rollout please use our address checker at the top of the page.

Fastershire Strategy

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.

Phase 2

Stage 3 – Hereford, Gloucestershire and Cheltenham

Stage 3 of the Fastershire rollout sees BT continuing to deliver in Hereford, Gloucestershire and Cheltenham and build on their commercial deployment.

Stage 3 - Rural Herefordshire and Gloucestershire

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.

Stage 4

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.

Stage 5 Fastershire Community Broadband Grant

The new Stage 5 will offer grants on a property basis to individuals and businesses to procure their own Gbps capable broadband solutions from a selected range of suppliers.

Grants will be provided as follows:

Individual grants will be offered to eligible business premises up to £25,000 via the second phase of the Marches and Gloucestershire business Broadband Grant (MGBG)
Fastershire Community Broadband Grant grants for residential and commercial buildings that are not eligible for ERDF funding

Time: 18:30-19:30

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Latest News

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New grant launched to help community groups during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

31st March, 2020

The new Keep Connected grant has been launched to help support groups and organisations to adapt and continue to deliver their services remotely as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The grant has been created by the Herefordshire Council’s Fastershire Broadband Project, and is available to any not-for-profit groups or organisations, including charities, community groups and Parish/town councils.

These groups can access a grant up to £500 to fund new software subscriptions, online platforms or technology, such as microphones, headsets, cameras or large screens to ensure that they can engage with their members or service users.

In addition to funding, these organisations will have access to free online or telephone support from one of Fastershire’s expert advisors to help them set-up and operate the new technology.

Councillor Ellie Chowns, Cabinet Member for Environment, Economy and Skills, said, “These are incredibly difficult and unprecedented times and it’s essential that we do all we can to help the county's community groups to support each other.”

“With over 90% of properties in the county able to access a superfast broadband service, the majority now have the ability to connect remotely using the internet and this grant and accompanying support package will ensure that these groups can take advantage of it.”

The project’s well established Faster Business programme is also offering free remote one to one business support and consultancy to any small and medium size enterprise (SME) to help them tackle the challenges of working from home or running a business from various locations.

For more information about grant, visit www.fastershire.com/KeepConnected or to register for free consultancy, please click here.

Primary School Filmmaking Competition 2018

We'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.

The 2017 Winner - Walford Primary School, Herefordshire

Register

To take part in the FasterSchools filmmaking competition 2018, please complete the online registration form and return to info@fastershire.com.

Online Resources

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.

www.intofilm.org/resources

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.

www.youngfilmacademy.co.uk

How to? Storyboard

How to? Sound

How to? Direct

How to? Structure

How to? Light

How to? Edit

How to? Health and Safety

How to? Camera

Faster Schools

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.

You can download PDFs of our training guides to use in training sessions or for your own learning...

Introduction for helpers

Your set-up

Internet basics

Everyday help

Keeping in touch

Your family

Services and support

Media and entertainment

Money and shopping

Better Broadband Scheme

The 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;

Your current broadband download capacity is below 2Mbps
There are no alternative affordable broadband services available to you which would provide a download speed of at least 2Mbps
There are no plans to provide superfast broadband to your location (To see if your property is included in Fastershire’s rollout, please use the website address above)

For more information or to apply, please visit the Government's Better Broadband Scheme website.

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Fastershire Community Broadband Grant

The Fastershire Community Broadband Grant is targeting the final 3-4% of properties in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire that still require access to a superfast broadband of 30mbps or more.

Who funds the scheme?

The scheme is entirely funded by Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council and designed to help find a solution specific for each community.

Fastershire will fund up to a maximum of £500,000 per community project.

What does the scheme aim to provide?

The purpose of the grant is to provide these properties with access to superfast connection (30mbps or above), but the scheme will only invest in networks that are capable of providing access to gigabit connections (1,000mbps) so community projects that are successful will have access to Fibre to the Property.

In some cases, the solution may mean using a new supplier or different technology to reach a deeply rural community, or to extend an existing network further to reach outlying properties that were too expensive to connect in previously.

Who is eligible for the scheme?

Any property in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, either residential or business that;

Is listed in our address data
Cannot access a superfast connection (30mbps or above)
Is not included in a planned commercial rollout
Is not included in one of Fastershire’s on-going rollout contracts the Openreach, Gigaclear or Airband.
Has not already benefitted from a Fastershire grant

How to register

To see if your property is eligible for the Stage 5 Community Broadband Grant, please use the address checker above. If your property is eligible the address checker will display the Expression of Interest form*.

*For information about how this information is used, please read the Community Grant Privacy Notice, click here.

How does the grant scheme work?

Step 1: Individual residents and businesses will submit their Expression of Interest

Step 2: When there is sufficient interest from an area, Fastershire will bring these requests together to form a ‘community’ project

Step 3: Fastershire will support the ‘community’ to develop the formal ‘Request for Quotation’ (RFQ) which will be published on the grant’s online procurement portal

Step 3: Broadband network suppliers will then have 28days to view the RFQ and submit bids for the contract

Step 4: Fastershire will evaluate any received quotes and will make a formal recommendation to the community

Step 5: The contract will be specific to that community and will be awarded by the community to the chosen supplier

Step 6: When the network is built, Fastershire will release payment to the supplier when community members confirm the network has been delivered and they are able to place their broadband order

To see if your property can register for the stage 5 grant, please use the address checker function above.