Team bringing full fibre broadband to Lincolnshire announce location of new HQ

Dave Carter, Build Director at Lightspeed Broadband (front), with Simon Stone, Retailer Director at Springfields, and Sean Milligan, Build Manager at Lightspeed Broadband (back) in front of Lightspeed Broadband’s new headquarters, Fulney Hall, which Lightspeed will sensitively restore.

Internet service provider Lightspeed Broadband has announced that it will be moving into the Grade II listed Fulney Hall in Spalding South Holland, as it rolls out its full fibre broadband to bring a gigabit internet connection directly to residents and businesses across the East of England.

The 2000 sq ft hall occupies a high-profile position on Holbeach Road, close to Springfields Retail Outlet.

It will be the focus of all Lightspeed’s operations, including infrastructure build, network, and customer service operations, as well as other head office departments, with 30 people being based there and local jobs being created. Having stood empty for a number of years, the company plans to restore the building to its former glory and to create a space where local people can try out gigabit internet speeds for themselves.

With plans to connect 100,000 homes and businesses by 2022 and ambitions to expand to reach 1 million homes by 2025, Lightspeed started the roll out of its gigabit internet network last month in partnership with build partners, Plancast and RCU Solutions, mobilising more than one hundred engineers across ten towns in South Lincolnshire and West Norfolk.

Homes and businesses in Boston, Bourne, Holbeach, King’s Lynn and South Wootton, Long Sutton, Market Deeping, Skegness, Sleaford, Spalding and Stamford will be able to benefit from ultrafast upload and download speeds of up to 1000 Mbps, 15 times faster than the UK average broadband speed*, which will enable professional home working, streaming online entertainment, high speed gaming, home schooling and video calling, with no buffering.

Dave Axam, Chief Operating Officer, Lightspeed Broadband, said: “We are very excited that we will be basing all our operations in Spalding, at Fulney Hall. It’s the ideal base for our growing team and it’s clearly an important part of South Holland’s heritage. We’re looking forward to sensitively restoring the wonderful old building in keeping with its history and getting involved with the local community.

Spalding is positioned at the very heart of our area and work has started on building our full fibre network in the town. We are moving at ‘light speed’ to bring a gigabit full fibre connection directly to local residents and businesses across South Lincolnshire and West Norfolk.”

Cour Gary Porter, Leader of South Holland District Council, commented: “We’re delighted that Lightspeed have chosen to base their operations in the heart of the District, helping to create local jobs and bringing a historic and valued building back into use.

"Their exciting plans to bring superfast broadband to South Holland will provide a real boost to our residents and businesses across our towns and villages, using existing infrastructure where possible to ensure less impact on our street scene. We look forward to seeing their business develop further in the coming months.”

Commenting on the benefits to the local area, Pat Doody, Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: "We are delighted to be working with Lightspeed in southern Lincolnshire as it rolls out its next-generation broadband and supporting our business and communities to build back better from the pandemic.

We are all acutely aware how vital a reliable broadband connection is for businesses, workers and schools. The programme means thousands of homes and businesses in Lincolnshire will soon be benefiting from gigabit speeds, with new local jobs created in the process as well as an HQ in Spalding.”

Simon Stone Retail Director, Springfields Outlet & Leisure, said: “Springfields is one of the most tech-enabled shopping destinations in the UK, so we're really pleased to welcome Lightspeed Broadband as our new neighbour.”

Local residents will start to see more of the Lightspeed team in the Spalding area as the network is being built and it is expected that the first homes and businesses will be able to connect later this year. Lightspeed will be offering a range of affordable packages directly to consumers and businesses to cover all their internet and Wi-Fi needs. For further information and to register interest see www.lightspeed.co.uk