TrueSpeed Begin FTTP Fibre Optic Dig to North East Somerset Villages

The diggers have finally come out after TrueSpeed Communications confirmed that they had started the build of their new symmetric 100Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which will initially connect the rural village of Priston in North East Somerset (England).

Last month TrueSpeed’s Director of Community Engagement, Kevin Rudman, confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that their first “customer connections [are] expected to go live during April” and once that stage is completed then the provider will consider further expansion into the Chew Valley area and possibly even reaching parts of rural Wiltshire.

The village of Priston is currently home to around 230 people (80+ homes and businesses) and resides roughly 4 miles south west of Bath, which is where the new network starts. At present most of the local properties are said to have already signed-up to take the service when it arrives (i.e. it’s a demand led network that will go where there is the most interest).

ISPreview.co.uk understands that TrueSpeed are already making plans to connect communities such as Chew Stoke and Bishop Sutton, which could happen as soon as this summer.

It’s interesting to note that some of their target coverage area can already access an upgraded broadband connection using BTOpenreach’s Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC VDSL2) network.

However a quick check of central Priston shows that those ordering an FTTC service would have to suffer slow speeds of around 6-10Mbps, which while better than local ADSL performance (0.5-3.5Mbps) is still pretty poor by modern standards and definitely not up to the Government’s definition of “superfast” (24Mbps+).

By comparison local TrueSpeed homes will soon be able to take packages that start at 100Mbps (symmetrical) for £47.50 per month (includes a phone service) and a home based business product offering that runs at 150Mbps, although faster speeds are possible (the network is 10Gbps capable). But some of the details remain unclear; such where the funding is coming from.