FTTP Broadband ISP Zzoomm Extends Network to Cheshire UK

Alternative UK ISP Zzoomm has announced that their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network will next be expanded into Cheshire (England), specifically tens of thousands of homes and businesses within the large railway town and civil parish of Crewe.

At present the operator, which is backed by an “initial” investment of £100m from Oaktree Capital Management (here), already has a number of active deployments in semi-rural towns and parishes across parts of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire and North Yorkshire (e.g. Henley-on-Thames, Hereford, Ascot and Thirsk).

The latest location to join that list is Crewe in Cheshire, which is also expected to result in the creation of more than 150 new jobs in civils, construction and administration. The announcement states that construction of the new network, which should eventually cover 52,000 premises, is due to start sometime in 2021 (they also mention a figure of 37,000 premises, but we’ve been informed that 52K is the best to use).

Residential customers can expect to pay from £29 per month for a 100Mbps package and that goes up to £99 if you want their top 2Gbps tier, which also happens to be one of the fastest home packages available.

Matthew Hare, Zzoomm’s CEO, said:

“The construction of our brilliant fast network in Crewe is a watershed. For the first time, homes and businesses in Crewe will have a choice of network. And what a choice: brilliant Full Fibre for fast, reliable broadband at home and at work. We cannot wait to bring our Zzoomm service to the residents and business owners Crewe who have had to endure slow and unreliable connections and questionable customer service for too long.

Lockdown has accelerated the move to more flexible working arrangements. It has boosted our demand for online entertainment and distance learning. Zzoomm’s new Full Fibre network delivers for residents and businesses. Our network will help catapult Crewe into the forefront of the best-connected towns in the Midlands, the UK and the world.”

The town looks like a pretty good bet, not least because no other operators appear to have confirmed a solid rollout plan for the location. Openreach do have a few tiny patches of FTTP in the town already, but most of their local build is a mix of slower hybrid fibre FTTC (VDSL2) and G.fast technology. We do however note that the ITS Technology Group has a fibre network in the area, but it only covers the main business and commercial estate.