South Holland broadband upgrade now being carried out
Work to upgrade South Holland’s slow broadband network is under way - with the project due to be carried out over the summer.
Lightspeed Broadband has teams in place across South Lincolnshire in its bid to offer 1GB broadband to homes from the autumn.
Those speeds would be 25 times faster than the current average in South Holland - which has historically suffered some of England’s slowest internet connections.
Lightspeed is using existing telegraph poles - and has attached their brackets to many of these in the district for their fibre equipment - and underground ducts to avoid disruption for residents and motorists.
Homes will be able to be connected directly from the telegraph poles with Lightspeed’s fibre optic line following the route of the customers’ old copper phone line.
Lightspeed’s teams can also be seen out ‘sub ducting’, where they lay their own infrastructure in existing underground ducts.
They’ll then connect all their overhead and underground network up and back to the Spalding telephone exchange.
Chief operating officer Dave Axam said: “We have got so many teams out now - you will also see a lot of sub contractors.
“We expect to be done in late summer.
“What we are trying to do is get ahead and get as much built as we can - then in the autumn we will have thousands of people able to join and fewer people disappointed.”
Lightspeed’s regional headquarters will be the Grade II listed Fulney Hall in Spalding - with 30 jobs based there.
Spalding, Holbeach, Long Sutton, Bourne and Market Deeping are among the ten towns to get gigabit broadband infrastructure from Lightspeed.
South Holland District Council leader Lord Gary Porter commented: “It was good to have a tour around their new offices recently to see where they intend to set up the heart of their south Lincolnshire operation.
"The extra jobs Lightspeed will bring to the local economy is another sign that the private sector thinks that South Holland is a great place to do business. The relatively discreet way they install their technology is in stark contrast to some IT companies and I urge those companies to learn from Lightspeed’s example.”
Mr Axam said: “We are delighted to be working closely with the team at South Holland District Council as we continue to roll out our full fibre broadband network.
"It’s very exciting to see our network build progressing at ‘light speed’. We are re-using existing underground ducts and telegraph poles, so we can build our network with very little disruption and connect customers to our service quickly, with customers being able to connect from this autumn.”
