Carillion Telent a 60:40 joint venture has been awarded a major contract with rural broadband specialist Gigaclear to bring ultrafast, full fibre broadband to more than 80,000 properties in some of the most rural parts of Devon and Somerset.
The work will start immediately, and Carillion Telent will be implementing Gigaclear’s network using narrow trenching technology, which speeds up installation, whilst minimising the impact of the work on the local community. The first customers will come on stream in early 2018 and the full roll out will be complete by the end of 2019. Gigaclear’s network will give homes and businesses in the area access to speeds of up to 1Gbps (1,000Mbps), where previously they have struggled with speeds as low as 1Mbps.
Mark Plato, CEO, Telent comments: “We are delighted the joint venture has been awarded the contract by Gigaclear to deliver its ultrafast pure fibre broadband to the Premise (FTTP) project in the South West region.” This is a significant win for Carillion Telent who have been providing civils, cabling and poling infrastructure solutions within the telecoms arena since 2009 and boast more than 35 years combined experience.
“We are delighted to be part of a project that will be both socially and economically transformative for the community by delivering speeds up to 28 times faster than the UK average.”
Brett Shepherd, Gigaclear’s Chief Operating Officer, added: “This new contract with Carillion Telent will enable Gigaclear to roll out the latest and very best broadband technology to tens of thousands of households and businesses across the South West.”
“Our investment in full fibre not only brings the area into the 21st Century, it stands as an example of the kind of future proofed technology that is vital to ensure the continued development of the UK’s digital economy.”