At present Scotland doesn’t have too many alternative full fibre networks to call their own, but a relatively new ISP called GigaAir has a plan to change all that by deploying their own gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to homes and businesses north of the border.
The provider was spotted after it made a request for Code Powers from Ofcom, which is something that network operators often do in order to help to speed up the deployment of new fibre optic networks and cut costs by reducing the number of licenses needed for street works.
As part of that the ISP said they planned to build a new FTTP network to “predominantly” serve multi-tenanted buildings (MDU) and a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network for homes and businesses in both rural and urban parts of Scotland (the wireless side of this would place kit on “building rooftops and street side masts and cabinets“).
The operator will also try to make some use of Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles to run their own fibre (PIA). The provider’s website doesn’t at present appear to list any live network deployments (it only seems to be showing expressions of interest), but we have seen some mentions of them working with EdenConcepts in Ayrshire, and they’re taking orders on one site in central Glasgow.
Once live, customers can expect to pay from just £12.99 per month for their entry-level 50Mbps package and that goes up to £60 (discounted to £45) for their top 1Gbps tier on a 12-month term. Confusingly they claim to offer a “free installation and router,” but then directly below that the activation fee is listed as £150. Customers can also expect to receive a “free Negem Premium TV with Premier Sports.”
According to the company details, GigaAir’s sole director is Alan Cameron, who has a history of working in engineering and IT support roles/businesses since 2005. We look forward to learning more about their rollout plans in the future.