Experiences with Gigaclear Broadband

[Ayjay]

I would be grateful for advice from other T6Fers on any experiences with Gigaclear. My BT contract is now up and whilst they've generally been good, they're getting increasingly expensive when compared to introductory offers from Gigaclear who recently finished their fibre network in the village that I live in - they're also promising very fast broadband speed (up to 900 Mbps) but i would probably go for the 500 Mbps package which is still considerably faster that the maximum of 73 Mbps that we currently get from BT. The first question is are there any other Gigaclear users here on T6F and how are they working? The second question is how much say did you have in the actual installation from their black box in the pavement outside the house to the router socket inside? I ask that as IMHO, the only really practical place for hole in the wall to the router socket is roughly where the current BT cable comes in but that might not be the simplest (and thus cheapest) route preferred by Gigaclear (or their contractor). As usual any advice / opinions would be much appreciated.

 

[soldas]

Have you thought about Starlink? £300 for a dish. Then £75 for unlimited usage a month. Can see pricey but I've found the service flawless.

No.major install just one cable from the dash to the house for power. And the dish just needs a clear view north.

Not for everyone but might be worth a look.

 

[Stay Frosty]

We've got City Fibre here in Northampton and that comes overhead like the old copper pair telephone lines from the same old telegraph poles.
If you ask the engineers nicely and do a bit of legwork first with by installing a bit of pvc flexible conduit (I did) then they'll most likely put the entry point and router where you want it rather than where it's easiest for them to install by the front door.

 

[Sackmycook]

We alternate between Plusnet and BT each year.....stay as 'new customers'....keeps the price low

No experience of Gigaclear, sorry

 

[Ayjay]

Have you thought about Starlink? £300 for a dish. Then £75 for unlimited usage a month.

@soldas. Thanks for the suggestion but no thanks.

Anybody else please? Somebody on here must be with Gigaclear!

 

[Stay Frosty]

Without trying to sound like a pessimist you most likely won't get near to the 900Mbs these companies shout about but anything above 30Mbs seems to stream the BBC I player and 4k YouTube content but here as soon as the poxy kids get out of school in the afternoon the speeds get a bit flakey.
You sound like you're worrying about the install but if you're there when the Gatling Boys ride into town you should be able to steer that a bit. I'm a pushover but a bit of back and forth should see them put one of their pre made off fibre runs used to put the gubbins roughly where you would like it to go although they do use at least one dedicated twin skt not one doubled up with TVs etc.

 

[Ayjay]

@Stay Frosty. Thanks for that. I appreciate what you say but I've no intention of going for the 900Mbps package anyway (as I said above, I'll probably have 500). That said, a mate of mine who lives in a small village in Herefordshire had Gigaclear connected to his new house about 6 months ago and has been pleased with their service so far - they do get a few outages (which very rarely happens with my current BT connection) but they are mostly due to maintenance work and notified in advance. Interestingly he pays for the 300 Mbps package and when I was there a couple of weeks ago, I connected to his network and did a speed test which registered 530 Mbps down and up. Also, I fully intend being here and point them in the right direction when they turn up to do any installation work (i'm not a pushover- they seem to send in a sub-contractor to go from the black box on the pavement to the house wall and then someone else on anther day to do the actual connection to the system. Again, thanks.

 

[gavp]

We’ve had gigaclear here for last three or four years.

Now on 600mb, first contract was 200mb, found renewal offer not great but calling got better speed for less, same as many other things.

Overall can’t complain, never had a drop in service for longer than an hour or two and last one of those a long time ago.

Lack of competition is the biggest issue, alternative of going back to copper fibre to the box definitely isn’t an option.

 

[Nugs]

Cant speak highly enough of Gigaclear. When i lived in the Blackdown Hills area of Devon, BT was the only option for years before the rollout of rural broadband. Used to get 2-3mb....... yes you read that right, literally couldn't even stream anything, it barely coped with sending emails and searching the internet.
Took the Gigaclear 200mb package for 24 months and it was faultless, no drops, good customer service and not a bad router.
When it came to fitting, they carry out a installation survey before fitting, and will advise you that if there is an excessive run from their black box to interior termination, there will be an additional charge, although when they came to install mine, they didn't fancy drilling through 2 foot of flint and cob wall so they waived the excess.
Overall very happy with them.

 

[Ayjay]

….alternative of going back to copper fibre to the box definitely isn’t an option.

Just out of interest, why not? Thanks for the input.

 

[gavp]

Just out of interest, why not? Thanks for the input.

Distance to the box is nearly a mile then it’s copper, makes a big difference to the speed. The fastest speed here using that method is still only 30mbps