Seven Springs to be the first of Fastershire's ultrafast Cotswold communities
27th August, 2015
Around 6,500 homes and businesses across the Cotswoldswill receive ultrafast broadband by the end of 2017 as part of the Fastershirephase 2 contract awarded to Gigaclear in June 2015.
Work on this new rollout will begin in October in and
around Seven Springs, and the first Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connections
delivering upload and download speeds of up to 1Gbps will be completed before
Christmas.
This first step in Fastershire’s phase 2 broadband
rollout in the Cotswolds will reach Coberley, Upper Coberley, Cowley,
Stockwell, Cockleford, Elkstone, Colesbourne and Seven Springs, with Severn
Springs being the first community to benefit.
Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County
Council, said: “Some of the county’s most isolated and difficult to reach areas
will benefit from Fastershire’s new rollout in the Cotswolds.
“We know that residents are increasingly eager to see
details on when they may be upgraded so I’m delighted to now publish the full
list of premises included in the rollout.”
The full list of all premises included in Fastershire’s
phase 2 broadband rollout in the Cotswolds is now available at www.fastershire.com/phasetwo
A full schedule for the delivery including the expected
timeframe for all communities within the plans will be published in September.
Matthew Hare, chief executive
of Gigaclear, said: “We’re delighted to be able to reveal that Seven Springs is
to be the first community in the Cotswolds to benefit from our ultrafast pure
fibre broadband.
“This will give homes and businesses in the area a
world-leading internet connection with speeds up to 40 times faster than the UK
average. Working with local communities, landowners and the county council, we
aim to minimise the impact on the local environment during the construction
stage while we install this substantial new telecommunications network.”
As part of the rollout Fastershire and Gigaclear will
hold events in advance of engineering work to provide information and give
residents the opportunity to ask questions.
The Seven Springs community event will be held on 30th
September at Elkstone Village Hall at 7.30pm.
This rollout builds on phase 1 of the Fastershire project
which has already seen over 12,000 homes and businesses in the Cotswolds
upgraded to faster broadband through a contract with BT to deliver faster
broadband to around 90% of the county.