The competition for our broadband subscriptions is increasing and while many
in rural areas are frustrated by the lack of visible progress by their local
authority/BDUK projects the smaller providers either independent of any council
founding or with small amounts of funding are starting to make a difference
across the UK.
ISPreview spotted an item in ThisIsKent which has Call Flow Solutions now competing for
customers against the demand led
scheme of Gigaclear in Godden Green, Underriver, Bitchet Green, Stone
Street, Ivy Hatch, Shipbourne and part of Seal (close to Sevenoaks, Kent).
Call Flow Solutions has already deployed a fixed wireless
broadband service nearby and is now expanding to cover most of Ightham, Ightham
Common, Plaxtol, Ivy Hatch and parts of Seal and Sevenoaks.
Gigaclear is offering a full fibre to the home (FTTH/FTTP) platform, which
starts at £37 for the 10 Mbps service bursting to Gigabit service. Gigaclear
only installs its fibre network once registration levels for an area have been
reached, with this sitting around the 90% of the 190 target needed currently.
To help people understand what Gigaclear offer there is a Q&A session in
Underriver Village Hall on 26th January (10:30am or 1:30pm).
Call Flow Solutions offers a cheaper service, starting at £8.99 for an up to
5 Mbps (5GB allowance) service rising to £22.99 for the unlimited up to 20 Mbps
service. As with many fixed wireless solutions the speed will vary according to
the topography and visibility of the central radio mast.
With two very different options on offer it will be interesting to see how
things develop, with residents in this area that is to east of the main part of
Sevenoaks which has a fair amount of FTTC coverage (no Virgin Media cable
broadband) there may enough latent demand for both solutions that is future
proof and for something that is cheaper to install, but still boosts speeds
beyond the below UK average speeds that the area appears to currently have.
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It will be interesting to see how well the Call Flow Solution will work in areas of undulating ground and plenty of trees.
I hope that the Gigaclear project proceeds.
these are all likley to be in Kent BDUK intervention and therefore so any commercail view could make then not market failure and not avaialble for state aid
suggest communities check to see what kent BDUK intentions are around these communities — interesting an number of these exchhanges are market 2 and would expect to be o be covered under BDUK
@fastman. KCC have not yet published details of what will be done with BDUK funding and will not do so for several months yet. They have said that nothing will be implemented before 2014. If Gigaclear can provide a service now without state aid, why can’t BT?