Cable broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has completed their community driven project to roll-out a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 12 rural villages in the Test and Dun Valleys of Hampshire and Wiltshire, which since starting in 2018 (here) has now covered a total of 4,000 local homes and businesses.

As first reported in 2017 (here), local residents had spent years campaigning to get Virgin Media’s broadband network into the area (TVNeed4Speed) and that was partly because the operator already owned an old cable duct along the Test Way, which is now being used as a springboard to provide a “genuine all-fibre network” via their latest FTTP infrastructure.

Rural homes across the UK could be set to enjoy a connectivity boost thanks to a new partnership between Linksys and Gigaclear.

The rural broadband provider has announced a tie-up with the router firmts to offer an in-home Smart WiFi “mesh home” system that should allow customers to enjoy faster speeds and more reliable connectivity.

Gigaclear says that the new platform will overcome many of the unique challenges that appear when connecting rural properties, including metal, mirrors, concrete, impenetrable stone walls, large rooms and unusual property layouts.

Its network essentially casts a ‘WiFi bubble’ over an area, giving users the chance to get online and work from home, stream TV or movies, or just catch up with friends, family and co-workers. 

The network, based on Linksys Velop routers, can be extended throughout the home by adding a series of interconnected nodes to expand WiFi coverage, as opposed to traditional boosters, which simply relay the signal.

It explains. “No visitor to Sheffield can have failed to notice them. Perched high on the rise overlooking Sheffield station, Park Hill flats have been variously described as a fortress, a prison block and by almost everyone as a blot on the landscape. And yet, 50 years ago tomorrow on 16 June 1961, it all seemed so different as Hugh Gaitskell, the leader of the Opposition, arrived in Sheffield to open the newly built Park Hill council estate. The first residents had already moved in but a new batch was about to arrive as Gaitskell unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion.”

We recently finished a report on the rural economy of Sheffield and I reflected that you could just about look from these flats into the Peak District National Park. Makes me reflect on the interconnectedness of rural and urban England and the importance of understanding their interdependence as much as their differences.