TrueSpeed Get £75m Investment to Extend FTTP Broadband in the South West

Ultrafast “Full Fibre” ISP TrueSpeed Communications, which has been deploying a new 100Mbps+ Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to rural areas in North East Somerset (England), has managed to attract a huge investment of £75m from Aviva Investors to help expand their network.

So far TrueSpeed has already deployed into the village of Priston and they’re currently expanding their network into nearby Compton Dando, Stanton Drew and Stanton Wick (Chew Valley). The demand-led expansion is also targeting Woolard, Publow, Pensford, Chew Magna, Chew Stoke and Bishop Sutton, among others.

The provider has previously hinted that it would like to go even further and build across other parts of rural South West England, with counties such as Devon, Wiltshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire all being mentioned (here). However such a roll-out would require a significant increase in the company’s money supply and once again the lure of “full fibre” infrastructure appears to have attracted precisely what is needed.

Evan Wienburg, TrueSpeed CEO, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“This is brilliant news for the residents and businesses in our region. This significant investment will enable TrueSpeed to roll out the full fibre network infrastructure and services the region has needed and will provide our customers with a high quality broadband and data capabilities for the first time. This brand new infrastructure will be capable of handling the speed requirements of our customers now and in the future at a competitive price and with a regional service focus.

My whole team is very much looking forward to working with Aviva Investors and delivering some of the fastest and most reliable internet found anywhere in the world. Fast, Fair, Forever!”

Sean McLachlan, Aviva’s Senior Director of Infrastructure Equity, said:

“Aviva Investors is pleased to support the rollout of TrueSpeed’s ultrafast FTTP network. There is a clear and growing demand for this essential infrastructure across the country, in particular rural locations. The funding Aviva Investors is providing will allow TrueSpeed and its management team to accelerate its business plan and network expansion to provide world class infrastructure to users who are currently underserved.”

The investment from Aviva’s global asset management business should enable TrueSpeed to both accelerate their rate of deployment and to put their network within reach of up to 75,000 homes and businesses in the region (assuming they can benefit from the below changes), although one recent slide suggested they were aspiring to reach 103,000 premises passed (the timescales for all this are unknown).

Such a deployment will no doubt benefit from the Government’s proposed 100% business rates relief on new 5G Mobile and “full-fibre” (FTTH/P) broadband networks (estimated to be worth £60m) over a 5-year period (here). It’s also possible that they might be able to access additional investment through the new £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (here).