Alternative network ISP Grain has today named a list of 11 additional UK cities and towns that will shortly benefit from a rollout of their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which includes a number of aggressively competitive areas where rivals are already deploying similarly capable infrastructure.
The provider, which is being supported by an equity investment of £75m from Equitix (here), has already revealed network expansion plans for parts of Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, Accrington, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Scarborough, Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness, Hartlepool, Newport, Sunderland and Blackburn, among others.
Suffice to say, Grain has already built somewhat of a reputation for targeting towns that already have or will soon have several gigabit-capable broadband rivals present (this seems to be an intentional strategy), and the latest additions to their aforementioned deployment plan appear to be no different. As a result of today’s announcement, the operator is now aiming to build in a total of 26 towns and cities across the UK.
We should add that this is on top of their existing presence across over 100 new housing developments, which was their original focus before the recent expansion.
Grain’s Next 11 Full Fibre Build Locations
Birmingham
Bolton
Bradford
Burnley
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Newcastle
North Shields
Oldham
Plymouth
Swindon
The catch is that we don’t currently know how many premises will be reached in each location or how long the individual builds will take to complete. A lot of the areas they’ve been announcing are also quite new to their plan, and so their actual live network coverage is currently still relatively small, at least for now.
Tracy Karam, Head of Customer Experience for Grain, said:
“The response from residents and businesses to what we are offering has been very positive, with many signing up to our service before work on their street has even been started.
Our service has become even more popular in recent months, as customers rely more and more on a fast, reliable and secure network for working, learning, gaming, and entertainment. We are pleased to be rolling out our offer prices to many new areas, allowing them to experience the benefits of full fibre at unbeatable prices.”
Once live, customers can expect to pay from just £25 per month for a symmetric speed 50Mbps package, which goes up to £55 for their top 900Mbps plan. All of these packages come with an 18-month minimum contract term, unlimited usage, free installation, router and a pledge to ensure “no in-contract price rises.”
Curiously, Grain seems to have removed the package prices from their front page, although you can still see them if you run a postcode check in a LIVE area. The provider also currently has a special promotion running until the end of this month, which will give you symmetric speeds of 100Mbps for just £16.99 per month on a 12-month term.
Why over build an area where you need to fight others for the customers when you could easily go elsewhere without gigabit and take all the customers.
Obviously they feel commercial viability.
I’ve never understood it either. When you have towns with zero options other than FTTC, surely you will get better take up than in a city with VM/Openreach FTTP/1 or more Altnets? Yes its slightly less dense but not by much! I get some overbuild but its getting silly when some sites have 3 possible 1gb providers and I’d double what I pay for 100mbps service.
Because it’s cheaper and the time to get back the investment is lower…
I’m sorry I just don’t see that argument Vince. Lets say it takes £300 per property in a dense city vs £500 in slightly less dense town how can that make financial sense when 90%+ of those in the city just won’t take up the service as they have something comparable already vs maybe 80% in the town. Just the sheer lack of competition, any competition (other than FTTC) – surely makes it easier to get sign ups even if they cost a bit more per property passed? (I’m not talking about some sprawling village here – a town with estates!)
I can only assume when writing up plans for investors these Altnets just assume they will be able to pinch way more customers than they actually managed too.
Newcastle and North Shields?, so we are going to have CityFibre, Openreach, Grain and in certain parts Virgin Media all laying Fibre Cables underground the same streets offering FTTP? So will we have multiple ONTs going into our houses too?
I guess all competition is good. But if Cityfibre actually get their fingers out and switch it on Newcastle will be served with 900mbs down and up very soon. And Openreach are laying at an incredible pace here now. They are going all through Heaton ontowards Byker right now so that will likely be done by May 2022. And when that is it seems odd why anyone would consider someone else starting to build from scratch again?
You could end up with multiple ONTs, but only if you chose to do so by switching to one of the networks (assuming they’re available to your house).
Think its even more in Bradford. They have there own Bradford based AltNet, along with Openreach, CityFibre, Grain, Virgin and I think there is one other as well. That surely is going to become a headache for roadworks / ducting.
“Suffice to say, Grain has already built somewhat of a reputation for targeting towns that already have or will soon have several gigabit-capable broadband rivals present (this seems to be an intentional strategy)”…..Could it be they are just leasing the use of the brand new ducting from whoever did the hard work and just putting their cables through it on the cheap? Seems a good idea if so.
They are laying new ducting, not using existing.
Interesting comments – see my updated thoughts on this conundrum at https://bit.ly/3nlXZAc
UK towns? They look like they’re all just in England rather than other parts of the UK