More Cambridgeshire villages go live with full-fibre broadband
Thousands more rural residents and local businesses in South Cambridgeshire can now access some of the fastest and most reliable broadband speeds in the UK as County Broadband continues to deliver gigabit-speed full-fibre infrastructure worth millions of pounds across the region.
The community provider is committed to designing, building and deploying full-fibre broadband infrastructure to half a million premises in rural and hard-to-reach communities across the East of England by 2027 after securing a combined £146 million of private investment from Aviva Investors. The new infrastructure provides gigabit speeds (up to 1,000 Mbps) and superior network reliability.
County Broadband, based in East Anglia, has been engaging with rural communities in South Cambridgeshire about its rollout plans and has announced that the networks have gone live in 15 villages after the significant construction projects recently completed in these areas.
The 15 villages comprising approximately 6,000 premises are: Abington Pigotts, Barrington, Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth, Great Eversden, Harston, Haslingfield, Kingston, Litlington, Little Eversden, Longstowe, Meldreth, Orwell, Shepreth, Toft, and Whaddon.
In total, 18 villages have now connected to County Broadband’s full-fibre network in South Cambridgeshire, after Fowlmere, Newton and Thriplow connected last year.
Full-fibre broadband is based on fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure, where fibre optic cables are installed directly into the premise to provide download and uploads speeds up to 1,000 Mbps. These can be upgraded to over 10,000 Mbps in the future. Network reliability is also considered the ‘gold standard’ due to the fibre optic technology and dedicated connections in individual premises.
Full-fibre is replacing Victorian fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) copper networks responsible for historically slow and unreliable ‘superfast’ broadband. Full-fibre speeds are 11 times faster than existing ‘Superfast’ networks which the government has confirmed are no longer fit for purpose.
James Salmon, director of corporate development at County Broadband, said: “We are excited to welcome more rural communities to our expanding full-fibre network across Cambridgeshire as we continue our mission to digitally future-proof the East of England with full-fibre infrastructure.
“Cambridgeshire is a thriving county but needs world-class digital connectivity to boost economic growth and attract investment – and rural and hard-to-reach communities cannot be left behind.
“That’s why we’ve been working hard since we started this ambitious project, collaborating with local residents, businesses, leaders and stakeholders to find innovative solutions and overcome the unavoidable challenges and complexities to deliver full-fibre broadband infrastructure in rural areas.
“Thousands of families, remote workers and individuals, plus many local businesses, community venues and public buildings, can benefit from the gigabit speeds and superior reliability that only full-fibre broadband can provide – and for many generations to come.
“However, we’re not going to rest on our laurels, and we look forward to accelerating our rollout plans across rural South Cambridgeshire over the coming months and years.”
County Broadband, an alternative network (alt-net) full-fibre provider founded in 2003, specialises in connecting rural areas which have been typically overlooked by other providers in the past.
In total, the rural community provider is aiming to deploy full-fibre broadband to over 60 villages across South Cambridgeshire with the majority expected to be built by the end of the year.
County Broadband has appointed civil engineering contractor NGE to help deliver its full-fibre rollout in South Cambridgeshire.
Residents and local businesses are encouraged to find out if they are included in County Broadband’s full-fibre rollout plans in rural Cambridgeshire by using their online postcode checker available at www.countybroadband.co.uk
