Canterbury-based Orbital Internet Group has secured a national contract to provide almost 13,000 holiday homes in Britain with high-speed broadband.
The multi-million pound deal will be carried out on behalf of Park Holidays UK, one of Britain’s largest holiday park groups.
Orbital, which employs 50 staff, will be ensuring that the leisure group’s customers can surf and stream in the fast-lane when they stay in its holiday lodges and caravans.
The major project will involve Orbital, formed 22 years ago by communications specialist Darren Brown, installing private routers in each of the firm’s holiday properties.
Park Holidays UK says the project, which is due for completion early next year, will give it a huge competitive edge for wooing families to its 31 seaside holiday parks.
“Nobody wants to put up with slow broadband on holiday, but many British parks are based in areas where people struggle with slow download speeds,” said Orbital’s Darren Brown.
“In this day and age, holiday makers require superfast broadband wherever they are.
“The traditional approach of transmitting WiFi across the park is rarely successful as holiday homes are often well insulated and resist the penetration of the signals.
“But by connecting each unit to fibre broadband, guests can stream Netflix movies or FaceTime their friends without the irritation of constant buffering,” said Darren.
The technology, developed by Orbital for its Vfast brand, will be a mix of fibre optic cabling directly to the holiday homes, and high-speed WiMax wireless broadband.
The fibre connections are currently capable of providing up to 330 megabits to each holiday unit, and have the potential to deliver even higher speeds in the future.
Over the past two decades, Orbital has grown to become one of the South East’s largest providers of high-speed internet to commercial, public sector and domestic residential customers.
Clients range from streaming giant Amazon to Kent local authorities, and recent expansion has also seen it clinch contracts from businesses based in the USA, Canada, Italy and France.
The company has also developed a super-fast broadband service which can be received by a mix of technologies, including fibre and wireless, by organisations and private householders in the South East.
The high speed wireless network is fed from Orbital’s own fibre infrastructure based inside Openreach telephone exchanges and regional data centres.
Employing around 50 staff in Kent, Devon and Suffolk, the Orbital Internet Group has picked up a series of top business awards over the years.
It was also the most recent winner of the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce Technology Business of the Year award for its innovative solutions to helping businesses stay competitive.
There is more information about the company on its website at www.orbital.net – and its new holiday park group client has its website at www.ParkHolidays.com
