We have just had optic fibre installed in our rural outpost. Installed by a Gigaclear sub contractor LiteAcess. The damage (largely unnecessary as its done by careless parking and working of plant) they have done to our verges and drives is unbelievable - particularly when 90% of cable is embedded in roads. Tarmac trenches becoming the new potholes. The battle to get repairs to damage verges is ongoing and after intense effort is making progress. However not started yet. They trash grass and repair with seeding so should only take 6 months to get it back to the "as you found it condition" in the contract. Then there is the Gigaclear Service Offering which, with voice over IP )VoIP)for telephone works out at circa twice a comparable BT or Plus net like for like service. However BT and Plus net cannot have access to the Gigaclear
"open network". The competition is achieved by Gigaclear listing 7 other small ISP providers. Contacted them all and, because of what Gigaclear charge the other ISP, its impossible for them to compete.
So in summary: A taxpayer/govt/ subsidised installation. All installation is sunk costs (no pun intended). A basic superfast broad band offering twice the big players, no viable competition.
BUT! a big tick for the Government in rolling out superfast country wide. I predict the take up will be less than 10%.. Still collating data to blitz Ofcom and Council who let the contract.
