06 July 2016
A school in the Gloucestershire village of Chedworth is claimed to have become the best connected in Britain with internet speeds of more than 50Mb and access to speeds of up to 1Gbps – that’s up to 30 times faster than the national average.
St. Andrew’s Church of England primary school was connected as part of the Fastershire partnership between Gloucestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council with funding from central government’s Broadband Delivery UK matched by the local authorities.
The two councils have been working with Gigaclear on rolling out an ultrafast broadband service that is scheduled to benefit more than 6,500 homes and businesses across isolated parts of the Cotswolds by the end of 2017.
St. Andrew’s was 1,000th site to be connected in the Fastershire region, and is also the first school in Gloucestershire to go live with the ultrafast service. Earlier this year, the school invested in the latest IT to support the new ultrafast service. The cost of its connection as well as the new computer equipment was funded through a donation from local charity Chedworth Community Land Trust.
St. Andrew’s now has upload/download speeds that are 80/25 times faster than before but its monthly bills are said to have gone down.
“As a resident of the rural Cotswolds, I know how frustrating slow internet speeds can be – particularly for small businesses and organisations,” says Paul Hodgkinson, county councillor for Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach. “Now schools like St. Andrews are benefitting from no buffering and the kind of speeds we could only dream of a short while ago.”
Phase 1 of the Fastershire project is being carried out in partnership with BT. It will see around 90 per cent of Gloucestershire having access to fibre broadband, with all premises in the project area being able to access a minimum of 2Mbps.
The contract for phase 2 was awarded to Gigaclear. It will extend fibre coverage further across the county, starting with the Cotswolds.
Gigaclear announces first ultrafast network in the Cotswolds
