Over 8,000 homes and businesses across Colchester will be amongst the first to benefit from direct access to full fibre gigabit broadband connectivity thanks to an enterprising new partnership between Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd (CATL) and Swedish fibre operator, VX Fiber.
Image: library shot
Rural broadband provider County Broadband is on course to increase its workforce five-fold since the start of this year, from 16 to 79 by December and has ambitions to be a major player in the UK tech sector. New roles in technology, finance and community engagement have been created at the firm, based near Colchester, following a £46 million investment by Aviva Investors in 2018 to support its rollout of hyperfast full fibre broadband to rural East Anglia. Dozens of villages have given the go-ahead to have fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks installed with speeds of up to 1,000Mbps. HR manager Lewis Simington said: “With the current economic uncertainty, it’s reassuring and a huge boost to the local economy to be part of firm on an exciting growth journey, delivering an important new service to local communities.” Some 25 vacancies were advertised by the firm at the start of October.
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Colchester-based creative agency This Is Fever is the latest company to see a successful installation of full fibre gigabit speed broadband: “Having ultrafast broadband enables us to provide the best possible service to our clients here at This Is Fever. Getting our connection put in place was really straightforward. The entire project team made sure the installation went very smoothly. I’d happily recommend this service to other local businesses looking to improve their productivity.” said This is Fever MD, Ben Green.
Businesses in Colchester town centre continue to reap the rewards of ultrafast fibre broadband, thanks to an innovative scheme project managed by Colchester Amphora Trading (CATL) – one of the new private companies launched in 2018 by Colchester Borough Council.
The Nationwide Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) is now providing vouchers worth up to £2,500 for a small- or medium-sized business, or £500 for a residential property, to help with the costs of connecting to gigabit broadband.
The Government is helping local small businesses to improve their broadband by offering vouchers up to £3000 to improve connectivity. Colchester Borough Council is working with the Government to raise awareness among the local business community of this fantastic one-off opportunity.
How it works: An SME approaches a provider of gigabit connectivity, which then claims the voucher of up to £3k in value on its behalf. Once that is issued, work to make the connection can begin and you can enjoy connectivity faster than 99% of the UK and 89% of the EU – that’s 50x faster than current!
If you’re in business in Colchester and interested in improving your broadband to 1Gb both ways then drop an email to businessbroadband@colchester.gov.uk The Council will record your interest and help facilitate your contact with an appropriate Gigabit Broadband service provider.
It’s available to houses too at a value of up to £500 per premises, but it has to be part of a group project. That means that at least one SME must be included in the deployment; there is no minimum number of residential connections.
Available throughout the Borough from today!
Colchester Borough Council is delighted that its pioneering town centre dark fibre broadband project has been shortlisted for the 2017 Broadband Award. Deployed in 2016, the future-proof network offers businesses in the town centre up to gigabit speeds. The EU Broadband Award is run by the European Commission, and designed to showcase the best innovations in broadband technology across the member-states. Colchester has been short-listed from among 49 entries, in the category of ‘cost reduction and joint investment in a future-proof infrastructure’.