Swish Fibre Yorkshire makes it fast in York area

Swish Fibre has launched in the county and is busily seeking customers in settlements west of York for a service that will eventually reach 10Gbps.

The company has this week been leafletting homes in Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton, Tockwith, Great Ouseburn, Little Ouseburn and Cattal.

In August, Swish Fibre launched in Yorkshire, with its Knaresborough-based engineers rolling out broadband across the county as part of a £250million investment.

Staff are active in South Milford, Hillam, Kirbymoorside, Broughbridge, Hammerton, Brompton, Strensall and Stamford Bridge.

In the next 3-6 months, the broadband will be made available in Hunmanby, Earby, Barwick, Riccall and Eggborough.

Swish Fibre co-founder Alistair Goulden says his company already offers services in the South of England.

Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

Alistair describes his company as a ‘challenger’ against established networks, who he hopes to beat by offering ‘state-of-the-art, best fibre networks.’

“Broadband is a key enabler for growth both for business as well as people’s social life. People will also invent stuff on it that we don’t even know about,” he said.

The fibre consists of data that passes through glass and is said to be more energy efficient than old copper technology.

It can cope with speeds of 10Gbps, but currently speeds are limited by what routers can handle.

For now, it means the company offers services of 150 Mbps, its most popular 400 Mbps, plus a 900 Mbps offering.

In tests, the firm has hit 9500Mbps, and it hopes to showcase a 5Gbps in a few months.

It expects 10Gbps to become commonly used in the next ‘5,10,20’ years once people have a need for it.

At present, some 40,000 premises across the county can access the fibre, in places as diverse as Riccall and Boroughbridge.

The first customer recently signed-up in Sherburn-in-Elmet and over 1,000 have signed up in the company’s soft launch.

Knaresborough-based managing director Bob Snowdon has been “under the radar” building up the company, which is now actively seeking customers.

Alistair says Swish Fibre has been seeking ‘gaps’ in coverage, the smaller settlements like Strensall, Catterick and Bedale, which tend to be overlooked. Gigabit broadband is already available in York.

“We will use this footprint to see how we can grow across Yorkshire,” he added.

Swish is one of several providers building full fibre networks across the UK to help meet a government target of 85% of premises having Gigabit broadband by 2025, with universal coverage by 2030.

It is also working with the with the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme which offers funding to cover the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband to eligible residents and businesses based in some of our most isolated locations.

For more information go to www.swishyorkshire.com and www.swishfibre.com