Freedom Fibre Pick Xantaro to Boost Shropshire UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout

Network operator Freedom Fibre has today announced that they’ve chosen network solutions provider Xantaro and their related “Cabinet-as-a-Service” street cabinet solution to help “accelerate” their ongoing roll-out of a full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in Shropshire (England). This is being conducted alongside fixed and IP services from Nokia.

In case anybody has forgotten, Freedom Fibre currently holds the £24 million (state aid) LOT 25.02 Project Gigabit contract (here) to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes in North Shropshire (England). The first homes and businesses on this network started to go live in October 2024 (building began in March 2024) and the 3-year deployment is roughly due to complete by around mid-2026.

As part of today’s complementary collaboration, Xantaro have implemented their “Golden Cab” concept — taking street cabinets to a staging facility for testing before field deployment. This proof-of-concept approach is said to help ensure the Nokia kit is fully tested and configured, ready to be installed with minimal disruption.

In addition to the physical cabinet services, Xantaro is also providing its professional services team, the High Level Design (HLD) and Low Level Design (LLD) for the active network, including the configuration of the network elements and the installation and commissioning of the Nokia Altiplano management platform.

David Hough, Network Operations Director at Freedom Fibre, said:

“We sought a partner that could provide an end-to-end solution and Xantaro brings a wealth of experience to the table. Their agility, responsiveness, and strong ties across Nokia will help us accelerate our network rollout and support our ambition to become one of the top five altnets in the UK.”

The service that Freedom Fibre provides is typically offered via wholesale to a variety of supporting broadband ISPs, such as TalkTalk, iDNET, Home Telecom, Fusion Fibre Group, Squirrel Internet, Yayzi etc.

Xantaro is currently supporting over 40 other altnets across the UK to build networks for hard-to-reach and underserved communities.