easyNetworks brings Gigabit Fibre to the Stansted Park Estate in only 12 weeks

The project has brought internet connection speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) to properties throughout the 1800 acres of estate, with no visible damage to the environment.

Earlier this year, Lord Bessborough, Chairman of the Trustees of the Stansted Park Foundation, had become increasingly unhappy with the provision of broadband services to the 35 properties on the estate tenanted by residents and businesses.

Where internet connections were available on the estate, tenants were experiencing low speeds and had become frustrated that they were unable to use the streaming apps that many of us rely on.

The income from these properties contributes significantly to the costs of conserving Stansted Forest, so it was vital that an internet provider was found that could dramatically improve connectivity while protecting the environment.

Despite the availability of funding, the challenge was still significant: to find a way to connect disparate properties spread across 1800 acres of ancient forest, farmland and landscaped parkland with a gigabit speed fibre-optic network while protecting the environment. easyNetworks met the challenge in only 12 weeks from start to finish, to the satisfaction of the tenants, businesses and trustees of the charitable foundation that manages the estate.

“Bespoke projects like these allow us to bring our engineering and project management skills together with our expertise in data cabling. Once we had cleared the hurdle of voucher funding, we got to work designing a future-proof gigabit network and carefully managing the contractors, in order to protect the grounds.”

The other secret weapon was a directional drilling rig, a very clever piece of machinery to drill horizontally under the ground up to distances of 60 metres, which we used to install a small duct under roads and from the main fibre route to each property, without any digging. Thanks to the skilled engineers and their care taken, it was not possible to identify any visible signs of the cable installation just two months after the completion of the project.

Lord Bessborough, Chairman of the Trustees of the Stansted Park Foundation reflected on the quality of the installation: 

“We were happy with the way the environment was protected because the contractor observed very careful procedures, didn’t go across fields, didn’t make holes in hedges… you wouldn’t be able to know where they had been now, so it’s been a very good tidy job.”

David Bennett, Director of Stansted Park Foundation, commented on working with easyNetworks:

“I found easyNetworks extremely easy and pragmatic to deal with. I was particularly impressed with the detailed planning that went on and the collaboration and communication with us at Stansted Park.”

The super-fast internet speeds (up to 1Gb per second) offered by the new network are popular with the tenants of Stansted Park such as Vanessa Shorten, who said: 

“My partner and I are both self-employed, so we rely heavily on the internet for our businesses. We’re delighted with the speed of the new connection – it’s amazing.”