Netomnia Add 4 Hertfordshire Towns to 2023 UK Full Fibre Rollout
Network operator Netomnia, which is supported by UK ISP YouFibre, has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve quietly added another 4 towns – this time in Hertfordshire (England) – to the 2023 rollout plan for their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network (currently covers 410,000 premises, up from 300k in Nov 2022).
The operator, which is currently present in parts of 35 towns and cities (with many more in-planning), ultimately aims to reach 1 million premises across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by the end of 2023. Indeed, they already revealed their full coverage plan for this year, but the good news is that they’ve just added another 4 towns to the list.
The four new towns are all in Hertfordshire and appear to neighbouring locations (credits to one of our readers, Nathan for spotting them), which stem from existing deployments. But as usual, many of these locations already have or will soon have competition from various gigabit-capable rivals (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media etc.).
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The 4 New Hertfordshire Towns (Population)
➤ Stevenage (90,000)
➤ Hitchin (36,000)
➤ Letchworth (34,000)
➤ Baldock (10,000)
The service, once live, is typically supplied to consumers via YouFibre, which offers unlimited usage, symmetrical speeds, a Wi-Fi router, free installation and 24/7 UK based support. Customers pay from just £21 per month on a 24-month term for their unlimited 150Mbps package (£25 thereafter), which rises to just £29.99 if you want their top 920Mbps plan (£40 thereafter). The latter is also on an offer of £1 a month for the first 3 months.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Great news for the residents but as usual, places that already can get FTTP seem to get priority over other areas that are restricted to Virgin Media or Openreach FTTC.
Indeed as Mark has pointed out in the article; “But as usual, many of these locations already have or will soon have competition from various gigabit-capable rivals (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media etc.).” surely in the aim of rolling out FTTP nationwide that instead of concentrating on overbuilding where it already exists and creating competition, it be faster and more effective to just concentrate on rolling out of FTTP everywhere and not just where it’s already existing.
If no one rolled out where outofreach and virgins claimed a stake then there would pretty much be nowhere to build. Competition and choice is good, especially when outofreachs plans are incredibly vague with their “up to 2026” target. Besides Netomnia had already claimed these on their website a year ago
Netomnia are looking to make money not to roll out FTTP everywhere as quickly as possible. Part of the UK is either going to be Openreach only or, briefly, Openreach and an expensive altnet.
Not always though. I’m in a weird location where there’s fibre being rolled out across all of my town except my telephone exchange (Cheriton – Folkestone) with the other 3 being covered which surrounds us. There’s no technical reason why OR aren’t covering my exchange (all the new build estates have FTTP and there’s OR poles and ducts everywhere) but even despite a complaint to my MP who contacted OR, they aren’t interested in the 5000 residential premises on my exchange. Saw STL the other day opening the OR chambers and working on the OR poles in my area. We currently have a choice of VM HFC or nothing for gigabit. The VM network is pants here.
Someone has to be first, someone last and the rest in some order in between.
John, thats the point …. everyone complained that Openreach didnt deploy FTTP and then they still complain that they are putting it around the country and there isnt many places left for Alt-nets .
Further evidence that this many Alt-nets are simply not required
This is because of the way Netomnia build out their network. They rely on areas with the easiest PIA (Openreach Phyiscal Infrastructure Access product) to run fibres in already existing duct infrastructure. So, if OR already have ducts to your house, you’ll likely get Netomnia. Additionally, if you are fed by a pole, Netomnia will build all the way to the pole.
However, if there’s anything other than “green” PIA, or no ducts, or no poles to your house – forget having Netomnia because they’ll only build once Openreach have built it. It’s the cheapest way to get a foothold in a town, but just infuriates those who are waiting for full fibre. It essentially means no matter what, you’re waiting for Openreach or someone else to come and deploy.
They also overbuilt in my town where there was already massive Openreach and VM coverage, but won’t touch my street and some surrounding areas and there’s NO FTTP option whatsoever. It makes absolutely no sense to me – surely you’d make more money in the areas where there is no FTTP?
What do I know…
Netomnia tried using poles in DiG areas and got burned. They ended up removing the poles after complaints from residents, councillors and MP.
At their price point they’ll never make the money back from DiG areas. They charge £29 a month for symmetrical gigabit. Some altnets more willing to do more digging that buys you nothing, not even their lowest speed service.
Some AltNets build way more than Netomnia do, though.
They also charge more, and build other bits of the network on the cheap. An altnet using street-side OLTs backhauled by a single gigabit EAD each come to mind.
I’ve no problem with companies charge more if it means my address would be included. Not sure what the problem with street side OLT’s is though? No different from FTTC DSLAM’s. Can’t comment on single EAD’s either, I don’t know what all AltNets are doing on that front.
That map has my town of Sheffield coloured in. Openreach provide FTTP to some of the town by not my end yet – with same estimate of ‘sometime in the next four years’. Am I right in saying Netomnia won’t provide to my area if OR don’t?
If you have ducts already for your existing telephoy or are pole fed you should be fine.
I’m pole fed currently but no sign of Openreach serving my property or street. Also last message should have said Shefford not Sheffield, damn auto correct.
And at the opposite side of Hertfordshire, they’ve quietly dropped my town out of the pink area….
I live in the pink area, and they have no plans to roll out for us. Stinks of bluster ☹️