Rural Broadband ISPs

asdv

I live in area poorly served by landline connections and many of us get only around 1-3MB speeds on a good day. The choice of alternative providers is limited.

Recently Gigaclear installed a Fibre-to-the-Door service in the area but they only offer premium services, starting at Unlimited 50MB for £45/month (incl £7/month VOIP calls) which is unaffordable for many people and the speed is way beyond our needs.

Since our area was left out of the government Broadband Britain funding scheme, presumably because Gigaclear provided the new infrastructure, is there no obligation for Gigaclear to offer a service for the whole community and not just to the wealthiest households ?

MBuckingham_2

I should start by saying I'm a Gigaclear customer so might be biased.

If BT were to bring FTTC to your area then the only way to get faster speeds is to move over to a FTTC service such as BT Infinity. For existing customers the cost per month according to USwitch is £27 per month plus £16.99 for the line rental. That's £43.99 which is in the same ball-park as Gigaclear.

If you are NOT an existing BT customer then you will get it cheaper for the first year but then the price will rise. You would also get BT Sport which may be something you're interested in.

All in all it seems Gigaclear is a good deal and one that is already available to you. It would seem that BT doesn't want to bring FTTC to your area unless they receive a subsidy from the tax payer.

asdv

I don't think comparing with BT or USwitch prices generally, is useful thanks. They just don't tell the whole story and is why we use sites like MSE to help out.

Most people who can get FTTC have options costing £25/month (or less) for eg. "upto 38MB" including basic phoning from other providers.

I'd be happy to pay £25/month for even a quarter of that speed, as it would be the same price I am paying now but 5 times the speed I get now.

My point is that I don't understand why Gigaclear seem to be allowed to do what BT were once were able to do before their monoploy was ended many years ago - charge what they like.

ChiefGrasscutter

Because Gigaclear is a niche commercial company.
They canvass the locals - if 30% or more sign up then they will build the network.
If they don't get the 30% they go elsewhere....and you will be left with your 1Mbps.
Regarldess of whether or not a particular house has signed up they put a connection 'pot' at the front boundary of every house so they can take the service at a later date - so it is "offered to all"

It is quite expensive I agree but they need to get back the VERY considerable investment they made in putting in the fibre network in the first place.
So they need to "price it up" to make it's installation viable in the first place...and we are talking of £1m+ install costs here for a substantial village.

From what you say enough people in your village (over 30%) regard this price for the fast Broadband acceptable and so Gigaclear has installed it for you all should you wish to take the service: so its not just the 'wealthy few'.

It is also a FAR superior service to BT's in that everyone no matter where they are in the village no matter how far they are gets the same speed availability. There is no speed reduction with distance effect like there is with BT system as the fibre comes into your home.

You have got the order sequence totally back to front. The reason Gigaclear has brought the service to your area is precisely because your areas has been excluded from the BT/BDUK roll out by your local council - because I'd guess your area is deemed by the county council BDUK office an unviable waste of public money which could be better spent elsewhere at present - though this may change in the future.
Again Gigaclear are a commercial company and they see an opportunity to make a business out of supplying your village with superfast broadband given that BDUK/BT are not and the residents want it.

It was/is quite open to you as villagers to have paid BT collectively out of your own pockets to provide FTTC upgrade for you if BDUK are not going to and some desperate villages in the UK have done this.

So the end point is that upgrading your village was going to cost someone a lot of money. The only question that was left is who was going to do it and who is going to pay.

Note that if your village already had FTTC from BT in place and operational then Gigaclear would not have been interested in expanding into your area.

MBuckingham_2

I don't see how Gigaclear are a monopoly. You've got the choice of dozens of broadband providers that use the current Openreach network; but they will all be slow. Or you can choose Gigaclear. Many people only have Openreach.

I did try to find the price for Plusnet FTTC because they have a reputation for low prices, but their web site isn't too clear as to what the cost is after the first 6 months. As far as I can tell it's £35.94 for 38Mbps and free phone calls at anytime. But unless Openreach update the network in your area you can't get it. I haven't seen FTTC below £25 apart from introductory offers.

There have been cases where BT have upgraded the local cabinet if the local community helps towards the cost. Maybe that's a possibility.

asdv

Gigaclear seem very much like a monopoly here because 1-3MB can't really be described as broadband these days and because they don't have to lease it to anybody.

I suppose I have to be thankful I have the connection on hand to use when they are bought out by BT or whoever.

Iain_L

1-3 Mbps certainly fits the definition of broadband, but maybe not your expectation. Your broadband options include your current setup, satellite, and Gigaclear so they certainly aren't a monopoly.

Being stuck on a max of 512kbps from my outdated exchange I do feel for you, and have to say I wish Gigaclear operated up here in Scotland, because they would quickly get the 30% uptake they want from those connected to my exchange.

Remember to factor the lack of fixed landline in the charges, although I'm not sure what impact that would have on services such as Sky.

fishybusiness

Recently Gigaclear installed a Fibre-to-the-Door service in the area but they only offer premium services, starting at Unlimited 50MB for £45/month (incl £7/month VOIP calls) which is unaffordable for many people and the speed is way beyond our needs.

Don't know what the problem is really, we have fibre £35 a month plus line rental so not cheap by traditional broadband standards. It is only recent too, as we live in rural village.

Many of the smaller ISP's are charging about the same money as Gigaclear when you add it all up.

Your 1 to 3 meg is good enough for browsing and the odd download, if you want to more, you will have to pay for it.

I'd be happy to pay £25/month for even a quarter of that speed, as it would be the same price I am paying now but 5 times the speed I get now.

Perhaps that is the bottom line, you want more speed for the same price.

Most people who can get FTTC have options costing £25/month (or less) for eg. "upto 38MB" including basic phoning from other providers.

Only a handful of providers? Plus the traffic limit is low, rather goes against the philosophy of moving over to fibre?

asdv

fishybusiness wrote: »

Perhaps that is the bottom line, you want more speed for the same price.

It doesn't seem unreasonable to want something approaching the service level of the vast majority of residents in the county get, particularly in a village only 4 miles from the centre of a city.

From what you say enough people in your village (over 30%) regard this price for the fast Broadband acceptable and so Gigaclear has installed it for you all should you wish to take the service: so its not just the 'wealthy few'.

How can it not be for the wealthy few? It's a Premium/Business service costing hundreds (thousands over just a few years) of pounds more. Gigaclear only operate in carefully picked areas where the right balance of these people live.

If you aren't a Plusnet customer and you're not off the beaten track there's a £7/month deal going until Tuesday http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband#pbb

Owain_Moneysaver

asdv wrote: »

Recently Gigaclear installed a Fibre-to-the-Door service in the area but they only offer premium services, starting at Unlimited 50MB for £45/month

I can't see anything in their terms and conditions and acceptable use policy which prohibit you sharing a connection with a neighbour.

In fact their Terms say

Under no circumstances should the Customer give the PIN numbers and passwords to anybody else (unless the Customer they happy for them to use the Customer’s account and add charges on to the Customer’s account).

which is fairly clear that the customer CAN allow other people to use the same account.

Gloomendoom

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

I can't see anything in their terms and conditions and acceptable use policy which prohibit you sharing a connection with a neighbour.

I was thinking the same thing. Get two or three people together and it could work out quite cheap.