The Fusion Fibre Group (formerly FACTCO), which is a rural ISP and UK full fibre network builder, has announced that their much delayed deployment across the small commuter village of Stocksfield in Northumberland (this also includes homes in Mickley) has finally started to go live after suffering three years of “unexpected hurdles“.
The previous article (here) covers some of the difficulties faced by the deployment, which were at least partly related to Project Gigabit’s wider suspension of its Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme in the county (this has affected quite a few voucher based deployments). Suffice to say that several deployment targets were missed, and the roll-out ended up taking significantly longer than originally envisaged to complete.
The good news today is that, after finally making the network live in February, the Fusion Fibre Group has been busy bringing full fibre to local homes and businesses. The Guessburn Estate is one of Stocksfield’s first areas with full fibre connectivity to benefit from this.
Residents in the area were given the opportunity to find out more about the first phase of the new service roll out at an event which took place at Stocksfield Community Centre on Tuesday 19th March. The next release of live properties is currently expected in May, and further events will be held for residents.
Gary Spooner, Fusion Fibre Group’s Head of National Sales, said:
“Although the network build presented its fair share of challenges, witnessing the positive reaction to vastly improved speeds has been incredibly rewarding for the whole team. This upgrade wouldn’t have been possible without the support of County Councillor for Stocksfield and Mickley Anne Dale.”
In fairness, building a new FTTP broadband network, particularly for smaller and more rural communities, is often a very slow, disruptive and expensive process. Delays are not uncommon in such areas, although operators do need to have a good level of local communication to ensure that residents and businesses are kept fully informed about progress.
According to past updates, the completed build should eventually reach “close to 700 premises” across the area.