Experience with Fibre Broadband to the House

Fibre Broadband is now an option for most of Wellington Heath.  Gigaclear have laid fibre infrastucture under our roads. If you have a small black panel by the roadside, you are now eligible to have fibre installed. 

As Gigaclear laid the fibre, they are currently the only real option of getting fibre installed for the foreseeable future.  

From the link above, you will see that they offer various speed packages up to 900Mbps.  The actual speeds you receive at the router and any device directly connected to the router by ethernet cable will be what you ordered, both down and up links.  On wifi devices you will get slower speeds  but still much better than copper can provide.

The faster options also provide a mesh repeater facility, which is another wifi router in your house to increase your range.  The entire mesh appears as a single wifi network so you don't need to worry about where you are in the house or garden.  I have a thick stone wall dividing my house and have found this solution to be perfect.

Installation is very easy and quick.  The installers will lay the fibre to the entry point of your choice and connect you to the desktop tower in the image.

Wifi devices need to discover the network and join with the supplied password.

There is only a single ethernet connection on the tower, so you will likely need an 'unmanaged' switch to expand to 3, 7 or higher ports.  These devices are available for £10-£20 and simply plug in and work.  Mine is the black box on the right.

Basic setup can be achieved by just switching things on, there is an app to manage the router but it requires little attention.

VOIP (Telephone)

Voice over IP telephone is now an option also.  Gigaclear recommend a company called Vonage.

Once again, installation is simple and there is a useful web profile where you can manage things easily.

Installation comes with a generic phone number, however, you can apply to have your old landline transferred.  This is advisable since many emergency services use phone area codes to help trace and track.  Transfer takes a couple of weeks.

VOIP phones offer many additional features such as running an app to use your mobile as an extra 'landline' receiver, from anywhere.

Basic VOIPs are about £10 per month.

Migration of your existing devices

So far I have migrated a wifi printer, TV and PVR ethernet connection, hifi amplifier plus several computers and phones.  All device dependent and straightforward.

I'm happy to advise and help.

Richard Lee-Buxton.  01531 635116