Connecting rural British business with ultra-fast broadband
There’s no doubt that online technology is the future in modern homes and businesses, but what happens when the network just isn’t strong enough? This is the dilemma that those living and working in more remote rural locations are facing. City dwellers often have a choice of different networks, giving a good chance of a high quality broadband service. They’re also likely to have decent mobile broadband as an alternative.  In fact, the UK is high on the global scale for the best broadband in urban areas.  Sadly, this isn’t the case in rural regions. The government has recently spent £1.2 billion to extend to 95% of properties in the UK access to 24 Mbps per second broadband speed by the end of 2017. The majority of funding has been spent upgrading internet speeds for residents living in the more highly populated rural areas. While these speeds have been boosted from 20 Mbps to 24 Mbps or above, in line with the government’s objectives, many rural properties with a terrible 2 Mbps connection will not have experienced a change. These remaining 5% from rural areas are the ones getting left behind.  But ironically, it’s the rural areas where demand is highest. Although the Cloud allows employees and businesses to work from just about anywhere, it requires good quality, reliable access to the internet to use the service. In rural regions where broadband is poor, it makes working from home (or from a rural business) with modern cloud applications near impossible. Gigaclear provides ultrafast broadband networks in rural communities that haven’t benefitted from the latest upgrade. The all new pure fibre network, built in parallel to the existing copper network, can achieve speeds up to 40 times faster than the UK average. As a result, properties in the deepest countryside have broadband speed that’s faster than central London, with the ability to Skype Singapore, download large documents and surf the web all at the same time, in record speed and without a glitch. In the last five years Gigaclear has given 26 communities broadband speeds up to 1,000 Mbps.  Gigaclear is empowering rural Britain with ultra-fast broadband and getting people better connected. Venturefest's new, larger networking zone on 29th June will be generously sponsored by Gigaclear. Book a meeting with Gigaclear and find out more about their ultrafast broadband services.

Latest news

The future of Venturefest

The future of Venturefest

After 23 years of successful operation, Venturefest Oxford is entering a new era. READ MORE

Research, industry, and AGI

Research, industry, and AGI

A transfer of knowledge to industry is a good thing:  One purpose of a university is to benefit society by disseminating knowledge, and one way this can be done is by commercialising research. Universities and research institutions are a dynamo for entrepreneurship, and for innovation in large companies. READ MORE

For success in product development – start at square zero

For success in product development – start at square zero

When it comes to the commercial success of a technology-led product, there are a number of factors that come into play along the development journey. Have the regulatory requirements been met? Can the design be produced at a viable cost? Is it possible to ensure the quality of the manufacturing process? The list goes on. READ MORE

Make connections that lead to new investments, new businesses and new ideas in the high-tech sector in Oxfordshire.