UK ISP Entanet and Cityfibre Prepare to Unveil New Full Fibre FTTP Services

Communications provider Entanet, which was acquired by urban fibre optic developer Cityfibre in July 2017 for a cash consideration of £29 million (here), will unveil a range of new “full fibre” (FTTP) based internet access and “unbeatable” business Ethernet services next month.

Cityfibre’s move to gobble Entanet gave them access to a much bigger wholesale network (i.e. they supply a number of smaller ISPs and are home to 1,500 channel partners, as well as plenty of businesses) and naturally they’ve been busy seeking to marry the two sides together. Apparently the first fruits of this are due to be unveiled at the Channel Live event, which will be held at the NEC in Birmingham on September 12th-13th.

Darren Farnden, Entanet’s Head of Marketing, said:

“We’re really excited to promote our new union with CityFibre to Channel Live visitors. We want them to leave with a very clear understanding of the enormity of the opportunity they’re now able to grasp and why this extends far beyond new products and Ethernet prices significantly below what they’re used to.

It’s a chance to join the full fibre revolution and help shape the digital future of businesses right across the UK. We’ll also share how our all-new hosted voice service enables resellers to differentiate themselves in a crowded ‘me-too’ VoIP market.”

Today Cityfibre has a Gigabit capable “full fibre” (FTTP) network in part of 42 UK cities and large towns, which is expected to reach 50 by 2020 and is mostly focused upon catering for businesses or the public sector (except in York and Bournemouth where some homes have been reached).

The operator has separately also pledged to commence the construction of an ultrafast 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) residential broadband network in 5 – 10 towns and cities during 2018. ISPreview.co.uk has previously been told that first phase of Cityfibre’s proposed FTTH roll-out will focus on at least 5 of their existing cities, with the ambition of expanding to 10 cities, potentially passing 1 million premises.

Cityfibre suggests that its mid-term target to reach 50 UK towns and cities could conceivably also provide an opportunity to deliver FTTH to “no less than 5 million premises” by 2025, although we’re still awaiting some concrete details.