High Speed Broadband
Overview
Project Gigabit is the government’s programme to enable hard-to-reach communities to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. Building Digital UK (BDUK) has carried out significant market engagement to identify potential areas for government intervention to roll out gigabit-capable broadband. This resulted in CityFibre being awarded the contract to install Broadband in West Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire.
BDUK, Lincolnshire County Council and Northamptonshire County Council worked collaboratively with the supplier on ensuring that network build commenceed as quickly as possible once the supplier had completed their detailed plans for this build. An amount of preparatory work was required to reach premises (for example, digging trenches, laying duct, installing fibre) prior to being able to access a service. This varied depending on geography and supplier. The first premises under this contract were anticipated to have access to gigabit-capable broadband by the end of 2025. Now that the gigabit-capable network is built, residents and businesses are able to request a connection from a broadband service provider to benefit from the faster speeds.
If your premises is not currently within the planned contract build, this may be for one of the following reasons:
- Gigabit-capable infrastructure currently exists in your area
- Your premises is outside of the scope of this project owing to cost or difficulty in reaching it with gigabit-capable infrastructure. The government is considering additional solutions for ‘Very Hard to Reach’ premises
Further information about Project Gigabit can be found on the BDUK website
What Now?
Firstly, no-one should panic and feel they need to make a decision just yet. Although CityFibre have released a list of its partners who it's working with on this project, the option to remain with your current provider is still available but you won't be able to take advantage of both the increase in line speed and the lower monthly charges.
Secondly, CityFibre only provide the fibre cables into the village whereas suppliers such as TalkTalk, Zen, 4th Utility etc. provide the actual service into your home so don't put too much stock into reading up on CityFibre when carrying out your research.
An element of research on your part will be required to determine the best supplier to choose, if at all any. Most of the village occupants currently have a service with BT but unfortunately, BT are not as yet providing an upgrade to High Speed Broadband until at least December 2026. In this case, occupants can stay with BT on the slower 30mbps until such time as the upgrade in 2026 or else, choose a new supplier now, and enjoy the benefits of 900mbps and most likely for a lower monthly tariff.
Speeds Explained
Data travelling along a cable is measured in bits per second. To try and demystify the numbers, there are 8 bits to a byte, 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes in a Megabyte and 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte and so you can appreciate that having a connection of 900mbps (mega bits per second) is confusing to say the least. Consequently, it's far easier to make an analogy as follows;
BT currently provide 30mbps or thereabouts. To download a standard length movie and save it to your hard drive would take 45 minutes, whereas
Our new providers offer 900mbps, allowing you to download the same movie in 15 seconds.
This is a common way of indicating just how fast your broadband connection is rated as the old style, but nonetheless, correct method is not for the faint hearted.
Conclusion
I have therefore taken time to visit each of the providers that we're able to choose from. Some of those on the list are not yet ready to provide the service but will do, similar to BT, in the near future. For those that are currently providing, I have drawn up a table of their speeds and current prices as of October 2025. Very few of them offer TV, Mobile and Broadband services as a package. The vast majority provide only Broadband services which you'll need to consider. I have looked into the reviews for each company and as expected, some have good customer reviews with a few bad ones thrown in, some have poor connectivity issues, some have slow installation issues etc.
Overall, none of them, based on feedback and reviews, are 100% perfect and naturally, one or two bad reviews shouldn't dissuade a provider being chosen when they have probably installed 20,000 connections across the county. The information below will at least allow you to see the price comparisons versus's what you're paying for at present and hopefully give you the opportunity in making an informed decision.
Most of you will have by now received either an email or a letter from CityFibre, offering details of the companies above. Here is a link to the same details so that you can begin your journey of decision making.
If anyone needs anything further information on this, please feel free to contact me. Dave Haydon