GigaHubs

The GigaHubs project focuses on providing gigabit connectivity to rural public sector buildings like schools, GP surgeries, libraries, and other public spaces. GigaHubs is part-funded by BDUK and part-funded by Oxfordshire County Council (OCC). 

GigaHubs in Oxfordshire

The Digital Infrastructure Programme team at OCC secured funding from BDUK to install full fibre broadband infrastructure across various hard-to-reach public service sites in Oxfordshire as part of the GigaHubs project. 

Community Centres, Schools, and More 

As well as the £2m investment from DCMS, OCC agreed to add investment of £5m for this project. The added OCC investment in the GigaHubs project is primarily used to connect 53 community centres and village halls and marks the first of its type in the UK. The scope of the project includes:

  • Schools
  • GP Practices
  • Fire Stations
  • Libraries
  • Leisure Centres
  • Community Centres
  • Museums

The county council funding is fully sourced from income generated under our Better Broadband for Oxfordshire Programme, due to the very high take-up of superfast broadband services under the contract with BT Openreach.

Read the full press releases:

Oxfordshire GigaHubs project – Oxfordshire County Council

Oxfordshire County Council select Neos Networks – Neos Networks

Neos Networks on track to enable Oxfordshire’s Smart County ambitions – Neos Networks

Neos Networks connects more than 180 Oxford public service sites as part of Oxfordshire County Council’s GigaHubs project

Neos Networks Takes the Lead

Following a procurement, OCC selected Neos Networks as the provider. Neos is connecting 193 public service sites with gigabit-capable broadband. Neos has sub-contracted industry leaders like Openreach, Virgin Media Business, and Gigaclear to build, manage, and operate the new infrastructure. Neos, along with its dark fibre expertise, oversees the implementation. The project began in March 2022 and continues to progress, aiming to complete in September 2024.

The below map details all sites included within our GigaHubs project. This map includes 2 Layers found by clicking the “Layer List” icon (located in the top right-hand corner of the map). This allows for alternate views of the project, either by “Site Type” or by “Delivery Status”.

In addition to the Layers function, specific sites can be identified using the Filter function (also located in the top right-hand corner) and these can be broken down further by filtering on “District” also.

For any additional queries, these can be directed to the Digital Infrastructure Team using the contact form here.

The outcomes of Oxfordshire’s Public Sector Hub Sites Project will:

  • Provide significantly improved connectivity to 193 public service sites in mostly rural locations where fibre connectivity is difficult and expensive to provision.
  • Build upon Oxfordshire’s wider commitment to improve connectivity across the county through Oxfordshire County Council’s Digital Infrastructure Programme.
  • Help Oxfordshire County Council to realise its ambitions for equipping community centres to become ‘community working hubs’ offering enhanced community services, health and social care support, and reducing the need for people to travel further afield to access these services.
  • Assist Oxfordshire County Council in meeting its objective for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
  • Enable Oxfordshire County Council to migrate to lower cost, faster internet-based connections for its office buildings.
  • Help with digital inclusion for Oxfordshire residents as additional fibre broadband connections will be delivered around the targeted hub sites.

 

Please note, most public service sites that are not in scope for delivery under the GigaHubs project have been indicated as planned for full fibre infrastructure build in supplier commercial plans over the next three years. If you have any queries relating to this project, please contact the team via our contact page.

What Our Communities Are Saying

Tadmarton Village Hall

“The provision of Full Fibre to the Premises under the Gigahubs project has brought great benefits to Tadmarton Village Hall. We are always looking for ways to improve the services we offer and full fibre enables us to live stream films for our film club and stream YouTube dance and fitness videos for our Dance Fitness class without interruption due to poor connectivity. The wi-fi coverage throughout the hall is vastly improved. The excellent speeds and connectivity has enabled us to share our full fibre broadband with St Nicholas’ Church situated next to us, making it possible for them to live stream services via zoom to parishioners who are unable to attend in person. All this, along with the added bonus of 3 years free broadband costs! This will be a huge benefit to our community. Thank you.”

Snells Hall - East Hendred

“The Full Fibre connection that the hall now has through the GigaHubs project has proved a great enhancement over the previous broadband service, both in reliability and speed. Users of the hall have found the service very useful and having it has brought an end to the complaints about internet speed that we used to contend with. The service has made the hall more attractive, which is of course great news for the hall’s management committee.”

Hethe Village Hall

“There is a bit of a buzz around the village since Full Fibre broadband was delivered by the Oxfordshire Digital Infrastructure Team. This service is new to Hethe Village Hall, it allows classes and events run by the hall a new dimension to what they offer; for example, the gardening club can live stream meetings from guest presenters to both attendees in the hall and those who may not be able to attend in person. Yoga classes can YouTube yoga channels and the Parish Council can share the online planning applications for discussion, the list goes on. Many thanks it is a gamechanger.”

Weston-on-the-Green Memorial Village Hall

“As we look to diversify the opportunities for the local community to use the hall as well as attract the all-important commercial bookings that allow us to maintain the hall, excellent wi-fi is a vital offering. Not only does this service add value to those booking the hall, in an area with a notoriously bad phone signal, we know villagers regularly connect to the wi-fi from the gardens in order to make calls and use the internet, even when the hall isn’t open!”

Mollington Village Hall

“In an increasingly digital world, being connected is vital. We are now able to offer more services to our community – streaming of events, ability to access and download music to our events for booked parties has been of great benefit and something we couldn’t offer before. Making the connection accessible to people using the hall has enabled them to stay connected and use the hall in not only a different way than before, but much more regularly as well. We would like to create a hub for people that regularly work from home, so they don’t have to feel so isolated.
We have also installed a smart thermostat, which means we can control our heating remotely which will be much appreciated by those that attend on early wintry mornings. Now taking this a step further and we are investigating integrating our heating system with the bookings calendar and making the hall warm and welcoming automatically when we have a booking!”

Woodcote Community Centre

“We’re always looking for ways to improve our services and facilities for local groups and individuals who hire rooms in our premises. Being able to provide good Wi-Fi connection has become an increasingly important aspect of our bookings, so we are delighted with the new full fibre broadband that’s been recently installed.” – Karen Woolley, Woodcote Community Centre.

Faringdon Library

“The upgrade to our broadband service at Faringdon Library is having a noticeably positive benefit on service delivery. We are seeing much faster speeds on public computers, staff PCs, self-service kiosks, and public Wi-Fi connections. The improved Wi-Fi now supports flexible working, meetings and hotdesking for visiting staff.” – Mark McCree, Service Manager of the council’s library service.

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