Engineering work is getting underway this month to connect more than 1,200 homes in Cottesmore to full fibre broadband - part of a multi-million-pound infrastructure investment in Rutland by telecoms company Gigaclear. 

Work in the village is due to be completed next summer, with the first residents having access in the spring. 

Senior Project Manager Glynn Richardson said: "We're already extending our network to more than 5,000 homes and businesses in Oakham, Uppingham, Lyddington and Bisbrooke and now we're moving northwards in the county.

"There are many great benefits to living in rural communities such as Cottesmore but having access to the fastest broadband speeds is not necessarily an obvious one. That's because people living in large towns and cities, on average, enjoy much faster speeds than people in rural locations. However, Gigaclear's mission is to address this gap. 

"We're investing millions of pounds in Rutland to ensure its rural residents are just as able to work from home, stream online entertainment, scroll and gameplay as people living in more urban areas." 

During the engineering work, Gigaclear will be utilising existing Openreach ducts and poles wherever possible in order to minimise disruption. For more information, head online.

Gigaclear has been designing, building and operating new gigabit, full fibre networks since 2011 during which time it has firmly established itself as the largest rural, full fibre alternative network (altnet) in the UK.