Spalding, Long Sutton, Holbeach, Bourne and Market Deeping to get gigabit broadband

People in Spalding, Long Sutton, Holbeach, Bourne and Market Deeping are set to get access to gigabit broadband, with a new firm now saying its ready to rollout full-fibre connections in the area.

Lightspeed Broadband is setting up an HQ in Spalding to deliver the project - which it says should deliver fast and reliable connections to homes and businesses from the end of this year.

Although further details are not yet available, it's thought customers would purchase their broadband through Lightspeed rather than traditional service providers such as Sky, BT or TalkTalk.

Last year we revealed that South Holland suffers from some of the slowest broadband in the country, with customers in the district facing connections that are barely half the national average speed.

Lightspeed says its connections will be 15 times faster than the national average - which would mean almost 30 times faster for homes in South Holland.

It says upload and download speeds will be up to 1000 Mbps 'enabling professional home working, streaming online entertainment, high speed gaming, home schooling and video calling, with no buffering'.

Specialist fibre infrastructure contractors, Plancast and RCU Solutions, have been appointed to work on the scheme - which will have build teams based in Stamford, King's Lynn and Boston.

One hundred engineers have been deployed and 30 jobs have been created - and the firm has promised to try to minimise distribution during the rollout by using existing infrastructure where possible.

As well as the five towns in our area, Boston, King's Lynn, South Wootton, Skegness, Sleaford and Stamford are in line for gigabit broadband from Lightspeed.

Lightspeed aims to bring its fibre optic directly to 100,000 homes and businesses across the east of England by 2022, with ambitions to expand and reach 1 million homes by 2025.

The management team includes people who have previously worked with BT and TalkTalk and the firm is backed by an initial £55 million from an 'international investment consortium'.

Dave Axam, operations director at Lightspeed Broadband said: “These are exciting times for digital connectivity, and we are moving at light speed to bring Lightspeed Broadband to the east of England. Starting today in these ten towns, we are waking up the future of South Lincolnshire and West Norfolk by unlocking the digital and economic potential of these underserved communities.

"Together with our build partners, we will be working closely with the councils, highways authorities and local communities in each town to build the network. We want to build as environmentally kindly as we possibly can and we will be re-using existing underground ducts and telegraph poles, digging underground chambers, rather than using street cabinets, and using clean, electric vehicles. Inevitably there will be some build works, however we aim to minimise these are much as we can so there’s less disruption for residents.”

Stephen Brookes, onlincolnshire programme manager at Lincolnshire County Council, said: "The county council-led onlincolnshire programme has dramatically improved the county's broadband infrastructure over the last few years, and more people than ever before can now enjoy superfast speeds. These highly significant improvements on the back of a massive investment by Lightspeed will build on that good work, greatly benefiting those Lincolnshire towns included in the roll out, who will receive some of the fastest speeds in the county. Ultrafast speeds and the reliability gigabit broadband can offer will bring huge benefits to residents and businesses in these areas, and it's great to see Lightspeed progressing so quickly."

Resident will be told when works are due to start in their streets. Pricing details are not yet known.

See more information on www.lightspeed.co.uk