ISP Pembs WiFi Builds Own 1Gbps FTTH Broadband in Rural Wales

A little known fixed wireless ISP called Pembs WiFi has quietly begun to branch out by building their own 1000Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) “hyperfast broadband” network to cater for several rural villages in north Pembrokeshire (Wales, UK), which has its own layer2 capacity back to data centres in London.

At present the provider is already known to offer ultrafast Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) connectivity speeds of up to 150Mbps (download) to a number of small rural communities around the Welsh county, which typically only costs from £27 per month. But for that you also get a static IP address (+IPv6 /48 subnet) with unlimited usage, while the one-off installation fee is subject to survey and any ABC grants from the Welsh Government.

However this summer the provider decided to try and do what only a few have done before (B4RN, Gigaclear etc.) by setting out to build their very own “full fibre” (FTTH/P) broadband network. One of the first villages to start going live on this new infrastructure is Castlemorris, which is home to roughly 150 people.

ISPreview.co.uk understands that the soft dig work (i.e. cutting through easy soil in rural fields etc.) is also expected to reach several cottages around Penfeidr in the not too distant future. A spokesperson for the ISP has indicated that if all goes well then residents in the larger village of Mathry (population of c.600) could then be reached by the middle of 2019 (a significant amount of digging is required for that).

Sadly the provider’s website is frustratingly light on detail but we understand that the new FTTH service will cost £30 per month (plus £200 for installation), which comes attached to a 12 month contract term, static IP and unlimited usage allowance. As before, the installation fee can potentially be reduced to £0 where an ABC grant is utilised. Well done Pembs WiFi!