Broadband relief for more than 1,300 rural residents and business owners in Stanford in the Vale, near Faringdon, is now a reality, with engineers set to complete work to extend a full-fibre connection to them next month (November).
Work to connect the village began in March 2023 when engineers from telecoms company Gigaclear started extending its network from Faringdon using fibre optic cables.
They have been going street to street, either digging new trenches or using existing infrastructure such as poles and ducting in order to reach each property.
Senior Project Manager Lynnette Rowland said Gigaclear is working hard to ensure rural, often hard-to-reach villages such as Stanford in the Vale – and neighbouring Shellingford and Hatford – can access the same fast and reliable full-fibre broadband enjoyed by larger urban areas.
She added: “Taking our full fibre to rural communities that might otherwise have copper or an inferior part fibre broadband connection fundamentally changes them for the better because it creates choice for the people in those communities about how they work and how they live their lives.”
Gigaclear has been designing, building and operating new gigabit, full fibre networks since 2010 during which time it has firmly established itself as the largest rural, full fibre alternative network (altnet) in the UK.
The communications Provider based in Abingdon now employs more than 750 people across five office locations, serving more than 120,000 customers throughout 26 counties.
With solid financial backing from leading European infrastructure investors, the company plans to reach one million rural homes and businesses in 2027.
