Full fibre broadband extended to Barmoor Castle holiday park in Northumberland

Alnwick-based Alncom has added another 350 properties to the coverage of its gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network.

It was made possible by extending its existing fibre in Lowick to cater for the nearby holiday site of Barmoor Castle Country Park.

The Barmoor Castle site was originally connected via a shared WiFi network, but this didn’t work particularly well due to all the nearby caravans acting like a Faraday cage.

In 2019, Alncom converted the Wifi network to a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service, with each lodge connecting via its own access point and router. This was a big improvement.

The latest change flows from the fact that Alncom last year completed the rollout of their FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises) broadband network to Lowick, so it seemed only logical to extend that fibre to the holiday site.

The timing was well planned, as the park was in the process of undergoing an extension from 250 to 350 pitches.

Fibre has now been ducted to each pitch and the FWA network removed. Each customer now receives speeds of 100Mbps (symmetric) for £25 per month.

Barmoor Castle Country Park owner Jamie Lamb said: “We appeal to people because of our rural setting but sadly this can be a little bit testing – historically with internet connection.

"This has been a total game-changer for us because people can treat it as a home from home. You can stream and watch TV, you can work and keep the kids entertained with all their gadgets.”

Alncom managing director Stephen Pinchen said: “As rural fibre experts, we’re proud of our hard working team, who go above and beyond to connect some of the most rural and hard to reach homes and businesses in Northumberland and the North East, transforming lives and businesses. The company’s vision is to bridge the digital divide that has long plagued rural regions like Northumberland”.

Alncom is currently aiming to build their full fibre network to cover 50,000 premises in the North East of England (already achieving 25,000), mostly across rural parts of Northumberland, County Durham and the Scottish Borders – and they also have an existing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network.