WightFibre has announced that 57,000 premises on the Isle of Wight can now receive its full-fibre broadband service.
Cables have already been laid to a further 10,000 homes with service to those homes scheduled to become available in the next eight months. This means WightFibre’s Gigabit Island Project is nearing completion with over 560km of trenches dug to date out of an expected total of 600km.
To date, the UK government has allocated £10 million in funding as part of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for the Isle of Wight to extend coverage to 24,000 eligible premises in hard-to-reach places.
Building Digital UK (BDUK) is the UK government Executive Agency responsible for the roll out of gigabit-capable broadband in hard-to-reach areas of the UK. BDUK Chair Simon Blagden and Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely visited WightFibre in Totland Bay and Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight to see some of the areas that have benefitted from voucher funding.
John Irvine, CEO of WightFibre, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Simon Blagden to the Island to show off our great progress to date.
“Our new full-fibre, future-proof network is second to none on the planet and this, coupled with our very high levels of customer care, is giving customers what they want – fast reliable broadband that just works.”
Thanks to the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, WightFibre’s Gigabit Island Project is already underway in harder-to-reach places on the Island all of which have voucher eligible premises. This includes Havenstreet, Wroxall, Chale, and Mottistone, Service recently became available in Totland Bay, Freshwater Bay, Bembridge, Whitwell, Alverstone and St Helens.
Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure Sir John Whittingdale said:
“Having a fast, reliable internet connection is vital for everything from staying in touch with friends and family to growing a local business. That’s why levelling up connectivity and delivering high-speed broadband to underserved areas is one of our top priorities.
“I’m delighted tens of thousands of homes and businesses on the Isle of Wight will now be able to reap the benefits of high-speed connectivity, thanks to our £10 million investment in gigabit broadband vouchers.”
BDUK Chair Simon Blagden said:
“We’re rolling out the government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit to bring lightning-fast broadband across the UK including to the Isle of Wight. We’re seeing great progress to connect hard-to-reach communities and I’m delighted to see firsthand how homes and businesses across the Island are benefiting from improved connectivity thanks to government funding.”
Isle of Wight MP, Bob Seely, said:
“This major achievement will be important for the Island for years to come. It will be invaluable especially for education, jobs and investment.
“As part of delivering this programme – and getting a better deal for the Island – we persuaded the Conservative Government to invest up to an additional £9 million pounds to support the fibre-to-premises plans from WightFibre. That has ensured that a much larger part of the Island can be covered than would be commercially viable.
“When we’re finished, much of the Island will have some of the best connectivity and fastest broadband speeds anywhere in the world. Most rural parts of the UK won’t have the fibre-to-premises as we do on the Island for many years.
“I’m delighted that Simon Blagden from the Department Science, Innovation and Technology’s Building Digital UK group was here to see what that investment is delivering.
The UK government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) can help people in hard-to-reach communities upgrade their broadband connections. Eligible homes and businesses can apply for up to £4,500 to cover the costs of a gigabit-capable
Not in Merstone yet why .We are out of the way which the gov money was for
Well done Wight fibre for destroying all our roads that had been recently repaired
No, that money has gone into the shareholder’s pockets…
“giving customers what they want – fast reliable broadband that just works.”
really,…
for my adddress, in march 2020, they said 12-18 months (even though my neighbours, 2 houses away each side have had it for years)
that was 3 1/2 years ago and they still can give no date when I can get it
ironically, their web site says “register your interest and to be one of the first to receive service in your area”
Ha, Ha, Ha,
at this rate even BT will beat them to it
useless bunch of tvvats
Openreach also employ Numpties
BT is rolling out their fibre all over- quicker and neater- pole to house.No digging up drive/garden…
Yes and if you are a pensioner bt are doing broadband and free phone calls for £15 per month ! Nice
the only thing they seem to have succeeded in doing, is destroying the pavements.
look at the bottom of union street in ryde on the right hand side – the previously laid paving stones now have a thick, long and wavy tarmac line through the middle of it.
which one of the imbeciles thought that this sort of sloppy workmanship would be acceptable.
they need to be made to ensure that evidence of the work they have done, is not noticeable on the surface afterwards.
Probly wanted the stone for their own driveway;)
Brilliant but the pavements are F&?@ED
Does not mention the digging up of existing cables in Shalfleet destroying the existing service for days!! Also advised by OpenReach that they are not authorised to use these new ducts for their fibre service, or replacing the existing service, yet others can use the OpenReach structure!! Something wrong there. Where’s the competition?
It would be interesting to know how many of the 57,000 premises the service is AVAILABLE to have actually signed up?
Not many at their prices…I thought Virgin Media cable was expensive….
I would not have it for free or BT.
I get
“ We are in your area and we expect the service to be available in the coming months. “
This has been the same message when I first checked last year!
56,999 homes. I WON’T BE HAVING WIGHTFIBRE
Your loss.
It is fast, stable, doesn’t slow down at peak times and has excellent local support.
But costs more than other companies.
Nope.
Actually cheaper than BT’s copper broadband, and with a monthly rolling contract, too (no lock-in).
Try some basic fact checking before posting in future. Less chance of looking like a plinker.
And isn’t f’ing available!!!!
They have p@ssed me off for nearly 4 years with all the upheaval.
I will never forget the disruption caused by these Cowboys.
I have wasted gallons and gallons of fuel due to Wightfibre with all their
Disruption, having to drive miles due to Road Closures etc
Any figures on how many of the 57 thousand potential properties have taken them up on it? It always baffles me on why in a world that seems to me wireless everything, they thought it would be a great idea to destroy our rds and pavements causing nothing but misery and lay a cable?
Are they going to go back and repair all the roads and pavements that they have made a mess of ???
Surely an inspector had to sign off the state of the work when they ended?
Brown envelope job!
Awesome. The 900mbps fibre is a great enabler for my work in IT. That’s how you secure six-figure earners working from home to move in and add to IOW economy. Without fast fibre it would be impossible for me to even consider the island when I was ready to move out of London.
BT Fibre? You’re the exception… most people are happy with 30 Mbps..
At the moment I get 39Mbps download and 9Mbps upload, fast enough for any homeowner. I also get free mobile and landline phone calls all for £25 per month.
OK Grandpa.
39Mbps is sufficient speed to run my Xbox, smart TV, Google devices, Samsung Tab A, Ipad, 3d printers, laptop.
All run together seamlessly. NOWBROADBAND. £25pm including unlimited landlines and mobile calls. OK Nipper.
Is that with BT?
No NOW broadband
Yeah but I’m not talking about homeowners but rather us working from home in tech fields.
Need to download 100s of GBs of data for local analysis? Take a snapshot of your 2TB corporate drive and send it to cloud? Send a commit with few GBs of assets or videos for a game you’re working on every hour or so? Have a call and stream your HD camera and share 4K screen while your partner does the same at her job? Maybe do it wirelessly from a garden so you get plenty of speed loss on top of it all?
It’s always better for this to take less than more time, it adds up throughout a day. 30mbps would be acceptable if I was forced to use it by life circumstances but with WFH I can choose to live anywhere and so choose locations with faster speeds
Oh, sure thing it’s enough for most – I’m just talking about me and my friends. If we had a choice between a place with 30mbps and 900mbps then that’s a clear advantage for one of them.
I have had to relocate to Fareham as I have been told that I will not be connected due to my rural location, fibre is connected to a second home 300 mtrs from my warehouse, the real reason is because Wight fibre will not cross a bridle way.
So why not move to somewhere just the other side of the supposed bridle way….???
They managed to knock down a section of my Mother in Laws garden wall and even though they said they would repair it nothing has happened even though over a year has passed, loads of promises but no action
Is that Bob Seeley? Yes, hi Bob. Just heard that someone opened a packet of crisps and it might be another fantastic photo opportunity for you. Got to keep your profile up because latest polls suggest the islanders think that you are no better than dog dirt. We are aiming for horse dung. That should get you re-elected because the oppposition are just rat turds.
Was gonna subscribe, but now I see Bob is involved, I won’t be.
After all the disruption on the roads and the total disregard for islanders when (and where) they have planned the work, along with the botched reinstatement work on footpaths and roads,I wouldn’t go anywhere near Wight Fibre. As for nearing completion, why are they still digging up Ryde and other towns and planning to start in Havenstreet again on 14 August for 2 weeks (which no doubt will end up being longer again) and St John’s Road Ryde 23 August for a week both very busy island roads in the middle of the summer holiday.
Just had Wightfibre fitted in Colwell. Excellent fast WiFi and their customer service is extremely helpful. Compared with Virgin which I had in London, Wightfibre is much, much better.
Full fiber 100 is only £16.50 per month so is cheaper than most to be honest