It is sometimes assumed that rural areas especially a hamlet by the sea would not have great broadband internet.
In this case its quite the opposite when I found out for a client they can get Full Fibre broadband at the seaside!
Its always worth checking!
I have recently spent a couple of weekends down in a hamlet by the sea in the county of Ceredigion west Wales.
My client recently moved to the area and reached out to me to get a suitable broadband deal.
I quickly found out by doing my usual checks that the property had access to Full Fibre (FTTP) broadband on the Openreach network!
This was a nice surprise and indeed in Wales there has been a healthy roll out of Full Fibre by Openreach and other alt-nets giving very good coverage even to the hardest to reach areas.
It is crazy to think that this rural coastal area has better broadband then I currently get in an urban area of Shrewsbury (which will change when Fibre Heroes goes live).
This just goes to show that no matter where you live its always worth checking if you can get Full Fibre which you can do by using the handy guide on our Get GTTP page and contact us if you get stuck!
Finding the right provider
After finding out Full Fibre was available at the property next step was to find a suitable Internet Provider something we have wrote about on here
Based on the clients requirements I recommended Aquiss based in my home county of Shropshire I found their pricing to be good value for money and their support friendly and prompt.
Aquiss offer a range of broadband packages on the Openreach network for both business customers and residential for Hybrid Fibre aka Fibre to the Cabinet and Full Fibre.
All packages come with a static IP address as standard which was a requirement of the client and also you provide your own router which means you can choose a Router that suits your needs.
I was pleased when reaching out to Aquiss to check if they served this property I got a prompt response despite it being late in the evening and they were good at answering my questions on behalf of the client.
The package we went for was the ‘PURE FIBRE 160’ which is 150mbps down and 30mbps up residential package.
Over a 12 month contract it worked out as £35 per month with current offers with no upfront costs unlike many other providers which wanted to charge £50 activation.
Order and install
The ordering process was painless and this was in part thanks to the fact the property already had Fibre installed to it by the previous owner and therefore it had an existing Optical Network Termination unit which is the box that converts the fibre optic light signal into an electrical one which connects to your router.
With this being the case all that we required was the Serial number which is printed on the front of the ONT which I have blanked out for security.
With the ONT serial number it was a simple case of going to Aquiss website and going though their easy to use order process entering the ONT serial number and other details like payment details etc and within 2 working days the internet service was activated without the need for any engineer!
With the service activated I went back down and installed a suitable router logged in to the internet connection with the username and password details provided by Aquiss and we were connected to the internet!
Doing a speed test within seconds jumped to 150mbps down and 30mbps up with good latency and the static IP address provided works a treat.
I really would recommend Aquiss to anyone using the Openreach network as they have been fantastic.
Making the most of the Fibre
As per our previous blog which gives handy tips on getting the most from your Full Fibre connection I of course ensured the client was setup to make the most of their connection.
As well as installing a suitable router we also installed some hard wired Cat 6 network links though the house where needed which can fully support upto 10Gbps but in our case we stuck to 1Gbps equipment which is more than sufficient for the 150mbps internet link and will even support the current max 900mbps speed offered on the Openreach network.
I also installed a mesh WiFi system to ensure wireless clients could enjoy the ultrafast speeds as well as a smart tv ready for streaming 4k!
Overall it was great to get an ultrafast Full Fibre service running for my client in a property where the sea is just a stones throw away!
Huge thank you to Aquiss for your excellent service and fast activation and to Openreach for installing the infrastructure in these otherwise underserved areas.
If you would like to get full fibre broadband let us know and we can help see what you can get today and in the near future.