First Customers Live on New BeFibre UK FTTP Broadband Network

The first broadband customers on ISP BeFibre‘s new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is being built across parts of the UK by network operator Digital Infrastructure, have today gone live in the Essex (England) town of Brentwood – one of their original build locations.

Just to recap. BeFibre and Digital Infrastructure burst onto the market last year with a plan to cover 1 million premises across 80 UK towns and cities by the end of 2027 (here), starting with a goal to deliver 200,000 as Ready for Service (RFS) premises by the end of 2022.

The provider’s first deployment began for 38,000 homes in the Cheshire town of Crewe – supported by Aberla Utilities as part of a 5-year contract. The town of Brentwood (14,000 premises) followed that, with others in Worcester, Clacton on Sea, Hattersley, Ingatestone, Nantwich, Oundle, Maltby, Dinnington, Hyde, Heysham and Skelmersdale also being announced.

In addition, they’re also working to reach Stalybridge, Ramsbottom, Heswall, Dinnington, Glossop and Gamesley, Thornton and Hambleton, Mossley, Wickersley, Hadfield and Hollingworth in the North of England. Meanwhile, Gloucester’s Bowden Hall, plus Uppingham, Corby North and Oakham in the centre of England, are also on their 2022 roadmap.

The good news is that their initial rollout has been making good progress and, as a result, the first customers are now starting to go live. The first ever customer, connected with BeFibre’s broadband in Brentwood, was Tania Burton. She lives in Gresham Road with her 7-year-old daughter Harlow, son Grayson, aged 7 months, and mum, Karen Gorman, aged 59.

Tania Burton (39) said:

“I wasn’t happy with my current broadband provider at all. The service kept dropping out and it was so slow and clunky which was absolute chaos when trying to work from home, especially during the pandemic.

I saw members of the BeFibre team working in my street and they were so genuine and friendly when I spoke to them. I signed-up straight away for a free trial because I loved their approach and how honest they were.

The switch-over was easy too, and I had no idea I was the first customer connected in the area – that was a lovely surprise!”

Charlie Ruddy, BeFibre and Digital Infrastructure CEO, said:

“We’re so proud of the progress we’ve made and are delighted with the feedback we’ve received from Tania Burton and other residents who no longer suffer from poor service and broken promises from their broadband providers.

Having sponsored Brentwood’s Concert for Ukraine too, we’re really keen to keep communicating with the area’s residents to see how we can help them even further. We’d welcome local communities and groups to get in touch.”

As more Brentwood residents continue to be connected as part of a 2022 phased programme, several additional towns and cities across the UK are also now being made ready for service, including the neighbouring areas of Clacton on Sea, Pilgrims Hatch and Ingatestone.

As usual with urban-focused builds, some of DI / BeFibre’s build locations are also being targeted by gigabit-capable broadband rivals (e.g. in Crewe they’ll face deployments by Zzoomm and VXFIBER), as well as a few from the larger and more established players (e.g. Openreach, CityFibre and Virgin Media). Suffice to say, competition is expected to be aggressive.

Otherwise, customers of the BeFibre service can expect to pay from £29 per month on a 24-month term for an unlimited 150Mbps (symmetric) package with free installation, which rises to just £51 for their top 1Gbps tier. The first 3 months of service are currently free on all of their packages.