UK's Best Rural Broadband provider is...
19 Nov 2020
Gigaclear has been officially acknowledged as the country’s Best Rural ISP at the 2020 ISPA Awards.
Can you get Gigaclear where you live?
Gigaclear, the rural broadband provider that is currently building one of the UK’s largest full-fibre networks, was founded in 2010 to provide full fibre connectivity to some of the most underserved communities in the country, where existing internet speeds can be as slow as 1Mbps. Over the last ten years it has connected communities across 22 different counties to its network, which currently covers130,000 rural homes and businesses.
The company’s work, undertaken both commercially and in partnership with BDUK, ensures that children in rural areas have access to modern educational tools, allows rural businesses to diversify and staff to work from home, gives elderly people the chance to socialise and stay in contact with distant friends and family, as well as opening up all modern entertainment opportunities to those living in rural areas.
These benefits, the importance of which have been underlined by the COVID-19 pandemic, are what led the ISPA Awards to recognise Gigaclear as the country’s best rural ISP.
Gareth Williams, CEO of Gigaclear, says, “These awards are like the Oscars of UK broadband and it means so much to us all to be acknowledged for our work undertaking one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the country to connect people who have essentially been failed by the market and left behind with dial-up equivalent internet speeds.
“I think everyone can appreciate how much more miserable and mentally challenging this pandemic would have been if we weren’t able to continue working from home, or stay in contact with friends and family via video calling apps, or keep ourselves entertained with streaming services and our children’s education on track with online learning resources. Unfortunately, there are still communities in rural areas that do not have access to those things. We’re working to reach them if we can.”
In selecting a winner, the ISPA Awards also considered the complex engineering challenges Gigaclear has had to overcome to reach rural communities, such as drilling under the River Severn, as well as the company’s
innovative partnership with Linksys, a leader in wireless connectivity, to offer a Smart Mesh WiFi system designed to overcome the unique challenges of using WiFi in rural properties.
Gareth Williams continues, “We are very passionate about what we do, and I can’t tell you how proud we are to be recognised for it.”
BEST Rural ISP 2020” is a trade mark of the Internet Services Providers’ Association, used under licence.