An alternative network provider known as County Broadband aspired to provide 500,000 homes with gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network by the end of 2027. As of now, however, they have just announced having provided the first 200 homes in the most remote of areas with high-quality connections.
The full fibre provider are funded by Aviva Investors, and are currently working to provide broadband to rural areas of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk in England.
To manage this more efficiently, they have created a specialist ‘Bespoke Connections Team’ (BCT), who have been tasked with identifying solutions to connecting places such as farms and other remote buildings that would likely not be connected otherwise. The reason the BCT are tasked with this specifically is because they are often further away from the road, and may have obstacles such as rivers or streams.
According to today’s announcement from County Broadband, they have just completed their 200th connection to a remote property out of their pledge. While it’s not much, its great to see a company making effort to really help these remote areas cross the digital divide and provide them with the same broadband quality as more busy areas.
“The rollout of full fibre broadband is accelerating across the East of England but we know, particularly in rural communities, many remote homes and businesses continue to be overlooked.”
”County Broadband typically connects over 80% of a rural village to our full fibre network as part of our main build. The remaining properties can’t easily be connected, often due to physical challenges such as behind hundreds of metres away. That’s where our Bespoke Connection Team comes in.
”Whilst some other providers might ignore them for financial reasons, we believe it’s vital they have access to full fibre broadband just like everyone else. Our dedicated team works closely with each home or business to identify how we can connect them in a way which is cost-effective and minimises unnecessary disruption. We are pleased to reach our 200th milestone and we will continue to accelerate our plans across the region.”
Gavin Ashkettle, Manager of County Broadband’s Bespoke Connections Team
To access County Broadband, customers pay £33.99 monthly for an unlimited symmetric speed 100 Mbps service with a bundled wireless router. While it isn’t the cheapest of broadband, for those in remote areas with often patchy access to the internet, it’s a great option.
