Thousands of homes in Zeelandic Flanders get super-fast fibre broadband thanks to DELTA Fiber and Circet

The project: laying over 125 km of fibre optic cabling in a corner of the Netherlands. Completed in under a year by a project group including 4 Circet colleagues. With a team of an average of 40 ground workers, technicians and fire optic cable blowing technicians, we brought lightning-fast internet to the Belgian-Dutch border.

What exactly did this project involve? 

Pieter: “We were asked by DELTA Fiber to lay fibre cabling in 6 border towns. Because even those who live in a corner of the country are entitled to super-fast Internet. A project team of 4 led an average of 40 employees to achieve that goal.”

“We started with the engineering phase, calculation and stakeholder management. But of course, the biggest work was laying all the fibre cabling: digging the trenches, blowing and welding the cables, etc.”

What was the biggest challenge?

Pieter: “Without a doubt the distance our people had to travel to get to the sites. Our civil engineering teams all come from the Randstad area: they had to travel daily for at least two hours there and another two hours back by car, through the Westerschelde tunnel. The excavation work itself was not easy either because of the hard clay soil.”

“In such circumstances, you need to create the best possible working environment. Brief your subcontractors well. Ensure that all facilities are in good working order. Coordinate your project well with the municipality and ensure that all materials are in stock. If you can’t move forward, your day is lost.”

“We had to double our planning efforts because of the distances.
If you can’t move forward in such locations, your day is lost.” 

- Project Manager Pieter Provoost

How did the residents feel about this project?

Pieter: “Very positive. There were excavation works in all village centres to bring the network into the homes. This caused inconvenience, but on the other hand, every resident received their connection from DELTA Fiber for free.”

“We organised residents’ meetings in different villages together with DELTA Fiber. This created a support base for the project. If you inform citizens properly about what’s going to happen and answer their questions, you’ll take away a lot of doubt.”

“By organising residents’ meetings,
we created a large support base for the project.” 

- Project Manager Pieter Provoost

Why was this a vital project for Circet?

Pieter: “Despite the great distances, this project was profitable. With tight planning, clear briefings and good follow-up with the local authorities, we’ve completed it within budget. This project is proof that we can also take on challenging projects, and that we are a reliable partner for telecom projects on a large scale.”

How was contact with DELTA Fiber?

Pieter: “Our client has been satisfied to date. DELTA Fiber put a lot of trust in us: ultimately, a DELTA Fiber project manager attended only one of the four residents’ meetings we organised. After that, we were allowed to manage those meetings ourselves.”

“We’ve tried to take care of everything for DELTA Fiber as much as possible. They were able to easily manage the project remotely, which saved them a lot of time. Plus, there wasn’t need for much checking: the client realised quickly that we delivered quality work and gave us the freedom to finish our project on time. We’d like to keep working that way in the future.”