When we say we let nothing stand in the way of our customers’ networks, we mean it. So when Gigaclear approached us to help them complete a particularly difficult phase of Gloucestershire County Council’s Fastershire broadband project, we couldn’t wait to get stuck into the challenge.
The Fastershire broadband project aims to give more than 140,000 homes and businesses in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire access to a new ultrafast network. Whether that’s to check emails, download movies, hold video conferences or work from home, it’s connectivity that’s now, more than ever, hard to live without. The problem for Gigaclear was that 861 of these homes, in the villages of Longney and Framilode, had historically been avoided by other broadband providers because they were notoriously inaccessible.
Longney and Framilode are arguably two of Gloucestershire’s most remote and poorly connected villages. They are surrounded by the River Severn on the west side and the Gloucester to Sharpness canal on the east side, meaning there’s no way of connecting these communities without first navigating water. However, drilling under the canal was too difficult because of the stability constraints of the canal bank. Taking cables over the canal wasn’t possible either, because large ships use it. As a result, many residents on 'The Island' were reliant on satellite broadband, which was often disrupted by bad weather. The only way to deliver fast, dependable broadband was to drill under the River Severn. This was a significant feat of civil engineering and it would make Gigaclear the only broadband provider to ever attempt to do it. Just the kind of challenge we love!
Planning for the project with Gigaclear took close to 18 months. The River Severn has the second highest tidal range in the world and a conventional dig through this river is impossible. It also has a tidal bore that comes at certain times of the year and certain times of the month, so we had to plan and pick a window for the tunnelling many months in advance. The risks included the drill hitting rock or coming up somewhere it shouldn’t, flooding of the tunnel and even the river draining away. To calculate the depth of the dig, we used a range of surveying methods - from sending someone out in a boat to track the riverbed through to advanced sonar technology. We also completed a drone survey to dig and see how high the water table was.
The results told us that avoiding all potential hazards would involve drilling five metres below the River Severn; starting in Elmore Back and laying 6.5km of Gigaclear’s fibre cable through to Minsterworth. A horizontal directional drill, specifically a Vermeer drill with 133kn pullback force, had to be imported especially for the project. The risks and rewards were great. Previously, residents of Longney and Framilode suffered internet speeds of between 1Mbps and 3Mbps. Now, with the dig successfully completed, residents have access to Gigaclear’s network, making them among the best connected in Britain.
As a business based within rural Gloucestershire, we’re delighted to be working alongside Gigaclear to deliver ultrafast broadband and not just at Longney and Framilode. So far our experience, expertise and tenacity has helped to connect 106,000 properties. Over half of that number are now capable of achieving internet speeds up to 1Gbps. These upgrades will help to ensure that our rural communities can continue to thrive, and unlike copper, which has traditionally been used in broadband networks, pure fibre will last for centuries and can support varying bandwidths, meaning it is completely futureproof. This unique project has given us the opportunity to demonstrate the latest methodologies and see the positive impact it has on communities that have previously been avoided due to engineering difficulties - and in a post-Covid world, it’s easy to see just how important this is. According to The Office of National Statistics, in April 2020, 46.6% of people in employment did some work at home. Of those who did some work from home, 86.0% did so as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Our pioneering dig under the River Severn may be a broadband first, but whether we’re delivering gas, water, power or fibre networks, it’s unlikely to be the last time we find a way to overcome obstacles that have deterred or defeated other network installers.