UK-based County Broadband, a fibre network operator focused on deploying its infrastructure in rural communities, has announced that an additional five villages in South Cambridgeshire have joined its full-fibre network. The ISP says the expansion is part of its plans to accelerate rollout across the East of England.
Private Investment
The alternative network (alt-net) provider aims to bring full-fibre broadband to 500k rural and remote locations in the East of England by 2027 after obtaining GBP 146 million in private investment from Aviva Investors. The provider is dedicated to designing, constructing, and implementing the necessary infrastructure.
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Network Expansion
Announcing the expansion, County Broadband said five villages comprising approximately 2,000 premises - Abington Pigotts, Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth, Litlington, Longstowe, and Toft - have joined its fiber network after projects recently completed. This takes the total number of villages connected to County Broadband's full-fibre network across South Cambridgeshire to 18. The thirteen villages connected earlier are Barrington, Fowlmere, Great Eversden, Harston, Haslingfield, Kingston, Little Eversden, Meldreth, Newton, Orwell, Shepreth, Thriplow, and Whaddon.
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James Salmon, Director of Sales and New Territories at County Broadband, commented on the expansion: "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, are now benefitting 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 Cambridgeshire over the coming months and years."
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Full Fibre Infrastructure Deployed
County Broadband is deploying Full-Fibre broadband based on fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure, where fibre optic cables are installed directly into the premise to provide download, and upload speeds up to 1,000 Mbps. The speeds can be further upgraded to over 10,000 Mbps, making the infrastructure future-proof.
Full-Fibre, whose speeds are 11 times faster, is replacing Victorian fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) copper networks, considered unreliable superfast broadband, which the government has confirmed are no longer suitable.
The rural community provider plans to bring full-fibre broadband to over 60 villages in South Cambridgeshire, with most expected to be complete by year-end.
