Gigaclear Review

Gigaclear broadband often provide a lifeline to remote and rural homes in South and Central England that may have otherwise been left behind.

The independent full fibre network focuses specifically in rural and underserved areas, with a 90% coverage rate in areas with no other full fibre providers.

With plans to cover one million premises by 2027, Gigaclear is also now working in parts of Yorkshire, bringing their gigabit-capable broadband to even more homes.

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At a glance

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Who is Gigaclear broadband best for?

Gigaclear bring full fibre broadband to homes in rural towns and villages who may otherwise be overlooked by larger players.

As such, Gigaclear is best suited to households looking for a faster and more reliable broadband connection than is offered by older fibre to the cabinet, and copper phone line networking.

Because Gigaclear install fibre optic cables directly into a customer's home, distance from the nearest telephone exchange or street cabinet, which often poses a problem for more remote homes, doesn't slow down the speed of service or increase the likelihood of faults as seen in older quality cabling.

Customers can choose from a range of broadband speeds, both with highly competitive pricing and good routers. So, Gigaclear is suited for homes who:

• Want a more reliable broadband connection
• Want to stream TV content, including in HD and 4K Ultra HD
• Carry out online gaming, including downloading large gaming files or playing in the cloud
• Working from home, even where multiple people are going online at the same time
• Both small and larger households, with either low-cost superfast plans, or gigabit-capable options available

The recent addition of a digital home phone line also makes Gigaclear more suited to homes where mobile reception may be poor, as customers can now make and receive calls over their broadband line.

Smaller homes and households will find the Superfast 200 and Ultrafast 300 plans suitable, while larger homes or those with more occupants can benefit from the increased speeds, bandwidth and bundled Smart WiFi add-on provided by the Ultrafast 600 and Hyperfast 900 packages.

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Gigaclear broadband packages

Summary: Gigaclear offer four full fibre broadband packages with the option of a digital home phone line.

Gigaclear offer a choice of four broadband packages, with download speeds ranging from 200Mbps to 830Mbps at peak times.

These ultrafast broadband speeds are possible because Gigaclear install their own fibre optic cables directly to a customer's home.

Prices for Gigaclear broadband are also highly competitive, with their Superfast 200 and Ultrafast 300 costing just £17 per month for the first 18 months.

Gigaclear broadband comes with an 18-month minimum contract term, which is fairly standard, and setup and installation is also free.

While they previously offered fixed prices, Gigaclear have started imposing annual price rises on contracts taken out since 1st March 2022. Broadband contracts now state packages are subject to annual price rises of Consumer Price Index (CPI) + 3.5%.

Prices go up in October however, which is different to most providers who tend to increase prices in April. This clause is worth being aware of, as even existing customers re-contracting with Gigaclear will now be subject to these increases.

There is no line rental required for Gigaclear broadband, but they now provide customers the option of a digital home phone line for just £3 extra a month. This includes free calls to UK landlines, or customers can upgrade for off-peak UK mobile calls at £6, or anytime calls for £9 a month.

For households where Gigaclear is the only full fibre provider, which is likely to be the majority, they could provide a lifeline of decent quality broadband.

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How does Gigaclear broadband compare?

Summary: Gigaclear coverage is largely in areas with no other full fibre broadband options, but their prices are still highly competitive.

Gigaclear won the Choose Broadband Award for Rural Coverage in 2023 primarily because they focus on connecting underserved areas where no other providers are working.

In fact, at the start of 2023 they claimed 90% of their existing footprint was in areas where they were the only full fibre provider. That means, for most people who can get Gigaclear, they may be the only ultrafast option available to them.

However, we can still look at what customers could be paying elsewhere if they were served by Openreach full fibre which is resold by companies like BT, Plusnet, Sky, and TalkTalk.

Looking at their entry-level Superfast 200 plan, we can see it's currently much cheaper than equivalent deals from budget rivals Shell Energy Broadband and Vodafone.

Gigaclear's Superfast 200 plan is also cheaper than similar speed deals from Virgin Media, as well as slower plans from Plusnet, TalkTalk, and BT.

The recent addition of a home phone line increases Gigaclear's market position, especially considering they operate in rural areas which are likely to struggle from mobile signal.

Some full fibre providers reselling Openreach FTTP are no longer offering a home phone line at all, which tends to include the cheaper providers like Shell Energy Broadband, Plusnet and TalkTalk, while BT customers have to pay an extra £5.

Looking at faster packages, the best value for money is currently found on their Ultrafast 600 plan, with their Hyperfast 900 costing more than rival deals.

Gigaclear Ultrafast 600 is cheaper than equivalent deals from Plusnet, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, BT, and Shell Energy Broadband:

Overall, as we've mentioned, it's unlikely customers who can get Gigaclear will have another full fibre broadband provider to choose from. However, it's still welcome to know the prices we're paying are competitive and offering value for money.

Read more about rural broadband options in our main guide.

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How fast is Gigaclear broadband?

Summary: Gigaclear offer ultrafast and gigabit-capable broadband speeds, with symmetrical uploads and a fast latency rate.

For most of the households in Gigaclear's footprint area, broadband speeds will be vastly faster than anything achievable through a part-fibre or copper phone line connection.

Distance from the local telephone exchange or street cabinet does not affect Gigaclear broadband connections as the fibre optic cable is installed directly to a customer's home.

Full fibre to the home broadband is much better at delivering advertised speeds, as well as being more reliable due to better quality cabling.

Gigaclear offer all customers on their network broadband speeds up to 830Mbps at peak times, with the slowest tier still offering superfast speeds of 200Mbps.

Advertised average speeds must be received by at least 50% of a provider's customer base, so we know these speeds are a good indication of what a customer will actually get.

Ofcom's latest broadband speed research included Gigaclear for the first time, reporting on real world speed tests for their Ultrafast 300 plan:

Gigaclear had the fastest latency rate in the research when compared to full fibre and cable connections from BT, Sky, and Virgin Media.

They also had the fastest upload speeds, with their Ultrafast 300 plan delivering average upload speeds of 336.52Mbps, compared to the second fastest, which was BT's Full Fibre 900 plan delivering average uploads of just 109.97Mbps.

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Broadband router

Summary: Gigaclear work with Linksys to provide customers with one of the latest WiFi 6 enabled Velop routers.

Gigaclear broadband packages come with either a Linksys Velop dual-band router or a Linksys Velop tri-band router.

New customers now get the WiFi 6 version of these routers, while existing customers were previously provided with WiFi 5 devices.

The Linksys WHW0301GC-UK is a Velop node developed specifically for Gigaclear, and offers:

• WiFi 6 support (802.11ax) and all previous WIFI protocols
• Dual or tri-band wireless channels (2.4GHz and 5GHz channels)
• 3 x extra 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports for wired connections
• Intelligent Mesh allows additional Velop nodes to be used to extend the wireless network seamlessly around a home
• Built-in parental controls and optional guest network
• MU-MIMO technology
• Coverage of 6,000 square feet (approx.)
• WPA2 / WPA3 security

Along with new support for the latest WiFi 6 protocol, the new Linksys Velop routers for Gigaclear also include more Ethernet LAN ports for wired connections, and updated security to WPA3 as well.

Gigaclear customers who choose the Hyperfast 900 package will get the tri-band version of the router, which boasts an additional 5GHz channel for improved speeds with more wireless bandwidth.

Smart WiFi

Gigaclear's Smart WiFi add-on service allows customers to get additional Linksys Velop routers to use as wireless network nodes to boost wireless coverage seamlessly around their home.

While the Smart WiFi plan provides a WiFi guarantee of at least 10Mbps in every room, it varies slightly from other providers in that customers need to choose a Smart WiFi plan based on the size of their property.

So, the number of additional nodes provided to a customer depends on the Smart WiFi plan they choose, and then, if they aren't getting the minimum guaranteed speed of 10Mbps in every room they can cancel the add-on without incurring early termination charges, but no additional nodes will be sent out.

Both the Ultrafast 600 and Hyperfast 900 plans include Smart WiFi for free, which provides customers with one additional Linksys Velop router to improve wireless coverage around their home.

Customers on Superfast 200 and Ultrafast 300 can pay an extra £6 per month for Smart WiFi with one node, and Ultrafast 600 and Hyperfast 900 customers can choose to pay an extra £6 per month for Smart WiFi Plus to effectively get an additional two nodes.

Overall, the Linksys Velop routers are powerful devices, and Gigaclear's Smart WiFi plan offers good value for money, being one of the cheapest whole home WiFi guarantees.

The only downside to Smart WiFi from Gigaclear is that it could become expensive for very large homes that have to pay for each additional node, whereas with Sky or Virgin Media for example, they include up to 3 nodes as standard.

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Customer service

Summary: Gigaclear don't feature in Ofcom's reports yet, but they do have an Excellent rating on Trustpilot.

Gigaclear don't have enough market share to feature in Ofcom's quarterly complaints figures, or annual comparing service quality report.

However, we can look at their reviews on Trustpilot reviews to get an indication of how the provider is performing for their existing customer base.

Gigaclear currently have an Excellent rating on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.4 out of 5 from over 12,400 reviews. 61% of customers rate Gigaclear Excellent, while 14% have rated them with just one star.

Having a look at the poorer reviews, problems mostly focus around:

• Slow installation process
• Engineer and installation problems

However, looking at the excellent ratings, reviewers were generally pleased with:

• Helpful customer services representatives
• Helpful engineers and installation
• Fast broadband speeds
• Easy contract renewals

When we reviewed Gigaclear in October 2021, they had an Average rating (3.6 out of 5) from almost 4,700 reviews. So, they do appear to be moving in the right direction and acquiring more positive reviews.

Gigaclear also respond to their negative reviews, although mainly to express apologies and ask for the reviewer to contact them directly.

On their website, Gigaclear say their UK-based customer service advisers are available at the following times:

• 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday
• 10am to 5pm, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays

There's also an extensive FAQs section on the website to troubleshoot common problems.

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Gigaclear availability

Gigaclear have passed 500,000 premises across 23 counties in England as of September 2023, with 450,000 of those ready for service.

The provider, who now has over 75,000 customers as of mid-2023, plans to connect a total of one million premises by 2027, so they look to be on track to reach this target.

While current coverage focuses in Southern England and the Midlands, in June 2023 they started rolling out fibre connections to homes and businesses in Yorkshire.

New Gigaclear areas in Yorkshire include Brayton, Cawood, Thorpe Willoughby and Hillam.

As we've mentioned, Gigaclear focus on connecting rural and underserved areas, and in early 2023 boasted 90% coverage in areas with no other full fibre provider.

They serve over 250 communities nationwide, and are currently most active across the following areas of the UK:

• Devon
• Somerset
• West Oxfordshire
• Herefordshire
• Gloucestershire
• Berkshire
• Essex
• Northamptonshire
• Wiltshire

A map taken from the website ThinkBroadband gives a more visual indication of their coverage:

If we zoom in a little closer, we can see the extent of the coverage in a particular area to understand how it handles the boundaries between urban and rural areas. In this instance, we zoomed in to the areas around Reading and Newbury:

As we can see, Gigaclear is present in villages and rural locations around Berkshire, but they don't stray into the busier urban areas.

Gigaclear rollouts are funded both privately and through Project Gigabit contracts. However, due to the nature of connecting rural areas, projects can sometimes be delayed.

For example, back in 2021 work in Herefordshire was highlighted as struggling with delivery challenges that required significant additional resources.

Potential customers who might have heard Gigaclear is coming to their area should really wait until their postcode is active before getting too excited.

It's possible to check availability for the provider on our main broadband comparison page, as well as see what other packages are available.

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Verdict: Is Gigaclear any good?

As a rural broadband specialist, Gigaclear bring speeds up to 830Mbps on average to locations which previously may have struggled to receive even the 10Mbps the Government believes is the minimum basic standard for broadband services in the UK.

This puts Gigaclear in a different category to other nationwide broadband providers we cover on Choose like TalkTalk and Plusnet because their services are so localised.

It's also highly likely to be the case that where Gigaclear are available, customers may not have many other options available to them, with Gigaclear's full fibre broadband the best service on offer.

Gigaclear's prices are also highly competitive, with the best value for money found on their Ultrafast 300 and Ultrafast 600 plans.

In terms of network speeds, Gigaclear also seem to be performing well when compared to other full fibre networks like BT Openreach as well as Virgin Media. Gigaclear offer symmetrical upload speeds, so these are much faster than rival providers, and Ofcom's recent research found Gigaclear network latency rates were also faster than on BT and Virgin Media.

Overall, Gigaclear won our Best Rural Coverage award in the Choose Broadband Awards for 2023, as they connect the homes otherwise overlooked by larger players. They've also picked up Best Rural ISP awards from the ISPA, including in 2020.