Oakley Green, Fifield and District Community Association Ltd
Communications
Update report 22 - Oct 2020 - GIGACLEAR
Gigaclear are working in partnership with Superfast Berkshire to provide ultrafast full fibre broadband to homes and businesses. This is fibre to every property unlike BT Openreach who just have fibre to their local cabinet and then slow copper wires to premises from there.

Our area has been split into two projects, Fifield North and Fifield South as Gigaclear call them. The projects will deliver full fibre capability to every premise, residential and business, with Superfast speeds up to 1000 megabits per second. There has been and will continue to be some disruption on local public highways during the build phase.

Fifield North Project began in February 2020 and includes Drift Road, Fifield Lane, Forest Green Road, Oakley Green Road and Dedworth Road. Major ducting is all installed, apart from some lanes which are private and easements are still being arranged and the eastern end of Oakley Green Road which will be installed over school holidays when there is less traffic. The Control Centre has been built inside a big green cabinet opposite Braywood Memorial Hall. Connection Boxes have been installed on the public highway outside every premise ready for connection later. Fibre Optic Cable will be “blown through” soon. There is room in the ducting for other providers. Gigaclear will install their fibre optic cables inside their part of the ducting first . We expect these to start to become live in the next 3 to 6 months in this part of the project.

Fifield South Project began a few weeks ago and involves 14 km of fibre optic cabling connecting all 655 Premises. Ducting is now installed in Coningsby Lane and will be installed in Fifield Road during September and October. Stewart Close, Meadow Way and Manor Grove will be installed at the end of October. Then later the A308 West, Huxtable Gardens, Oakley Gardens, Tithe Barn Drive, Monkey Island Lane to Monkey Island, Weirbank, A308 East and Water Oakley to Oakley Court Hotel. All completed by Q3 2021 about a year from now. Properties in Fifield close to the Control Centre at the Memorial Hall could be connected up much earlier.

What happens next? Once your area is made live you will be invited to connect up from the small black box on the public highway to your property. There may be a charge if they are a long way apart. Gigaclear has a number of internet packages to choose from - the faster the service, the more expensive it is. But we will not be restricted to use Gigaclear. The network installed will be "Open Access" so any Internet Service Provider (ISP), that wishes to, may provide services in our area and can compete. Currently there are 8 other companies involved. To receive build updates and notification when your connection is live, please register your interest with Gigaclear.