Leadon Life 1 | Page 20

BROADBAND UPDATE

From Jon Brierley, Community Broadband Champion

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For almost a year now I have been looking at different options to bring superfast broadband to our area, liaising with different infrastructure partners and assisting them to understand our needs.

At first it seemed to be a task that would be without reward. I had been promised a number of times that we are to have broadband enabled only to find out at the last minute that we would not. However, the possibility of some ultrafast service may finally be just over the horizon.

Towards the end of 2016 a number of providers tendered to Fastershire for the contract to bring superfast broadband to our area and beyond. Gigaclear (broadband provider) got the backing of both Gloucestershire and Herefordshire councils as their preferred supplier.

The process of awarding the contract and subsequent rollout plan is in its final stages and back with the councils for governance with a view to making an announcement sometime in February. So look out for further news next month, in the meantime it may help if anybody interested could register their interest at www.gigaclear.com.