ISP Zzoomm Picks Henley-on-Thames for First UK Full Fibre Rollout
Oxford-based UK ISP Zzoomm, which aspires to cover 1 million UK homes with a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network by the end of 2024 (here), has confirmed that some 6,800 premises in the town of Henley-on-Thames (Oxfordshire) will be the first to benefit from their rollout.
The provider has previously stated that their deployment would be targeted toward smaller cities (e.g. Hastings, Amersham, Weymouth and Huntingdon) and the suburbs of larger cities (e.g. London and Birmingham). Such areas tend not to figure into the initial “full fibre” plans of bigger rivals and that may help Zzoomm to build a first-mover advantage.
Apparently their rollout is still set to begin at the end of summer and they aim to complete the work in Henley-on-Thames during the second half (H2) of 2020. Interestingly the operator said it would be recruiting its own regional and field teams locally rather than subcontracting out the build and maintenance of the network, which is a costly and complicated thing for a start-up to do.
As part of this effort the ISP also intends to open a regional office in the centre of Henley within the very near future.
Matthew Hare, Zzoomm’s CEO, said:
“We’re delighted to be launching our network in Henley, a vibrant town with a strong community. Zzoomm’s new full fibre network brings a new competitive offering for both homes and businesses, delivering more choice, more speed and more opportunity.
Our full fibre will offer from 100Mbps to 10Gbps, so you can pick the speed that suits you, leaving behind the limitations of the old copper network.
Henley’s home to lots of creative and entrepreneurial businesses and businesspeople. Full fibre means more opportunities for those businesses to harness new technology, cloud computing and home working.
And we are making Henley our home too. We want to give our customers the best possible experience and to build a partnership with the local community in Henley. So we will be opening an office and recruiting teams locally. Full fibre for Henley from Zzoomm means more jobs in Henley.”
As previously reported, Zzoomm has based their network off ADTRAN‘s latest XGS-PON technology and they’ve also signed a £2.5m supply deal with fibre optic firm Hexatronic UK. We look forward to seeing the first packages and prices emerge in the near future, which seem likely to be quite aggressively positioned in order to attract take-up away from rivals.
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 and Linkedin.
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That’s going to be an expensive build. Can’t see local authority or residents being especially appreciative of streetworks.
that will be interesting in Henley
Perhaps they haven’t raised enough cash yet to sign up with a digging firm.
It’s an absolute nightmare. Digging up all pavements, noise works on Saturday, no letters telling us about works on Saturday. Personally I don’t want it. All labourers are European.
We all who live in the uk are European because the UK belongs to Europe which is a continent. But alongside Europeans (British and foreign) there are also Indians, Africans, afro Carrabeans, Asian and every other type of Human being that u could imagine working a hard job to feed their families with a honest days work.. we are coming to Henley, we are digging up your rd, you will know that we are there and you will probably have to put the kettle on every morning and give us tea and biscuits to get us through the day so we can leave your people with a future proofed isp solution that will help future generations if u are not really moving with the times and stuck in an old stuck up toffee nosed mentality thinking that the great british empire stands alone as a continent on its own more superiour than the rest of the world where really the empire only went out to divide and conquer And exploit the vast world for the benefit of a minority on a small island… yes that is why u are probably selfish .. because unfortunately that train of thought is hereditary and ur feeling are true and unwelcoming.. unfortunately u will be a minority in ur own heritage country because the world u left behind is coming back and mixing with ur children so u have no identity left within the next few generations and so it should….#reapwhatusoe, #watchwhatyouspeak
Dravin Drain – sorry this is Henley, they are often toffee nosed. They want their world to run cheaply and efficiently without ever seeing the little people who make that possible. Please don’t take it personally they even regard those of us us who live in neighbouring villages and have to drop our offspring at the college as incoming Hoi Polloi (a phrase once used on the local paper’s letters page!) It has been hideously disruptive and a bit of a shock but you seem to be powering through the work so hopefully the pain will be over very soon. The person making the decisions needs to be told you need more than one portaloo precariously positioned on a busy hill.
I agree,no notification of work being undertaken,no word on closures of roads,just dirty looks from workers that dont understand or simply ignore if you ask a question..
Not how things should be done.
We got a card through the letterbox explaining who they are, what they’re doing and apologising for the inconvenience. Whenever possible the workers would go out of their way to move road barriers to let us pass. Never a dirty look, always very courteous. And wherever they have dug they left a very smooth clean finish road with brand new road markings. No complaints, they’ve done what they could to bring new technology to the area with minimum disruption, I’m sorry you had a different experience to ours.
Great to see this network investment going on in Henley. We as a community need to get behind innovative companies like this. It will be great for the town to have a leading edge network and great for jobs. I will definitely be supporting this and I wish ZZoomm all the best in this venture.
If I’m going to move with the times I will chose a respectable company, you blocked our footpaths to our houses, your cut our telephone lines and denied it, you damaged a vehicle and denied it, you use a public field as a toilet, you were rude to a female bus driver, all of the above comes with evidence.
Is Dravin an employee of zzoomm.
Liz is not in the minority at all. A lot of British feel the same as her. People like you who like to urinate in public places is normality for you. Walking around our town in pairs or groups looking to steal from us. I’ve seen too many of your kind doing bodge jobs and putting professional local people out of work, cost cutting every single opportunity. My god if my children were to mix with yours. If they did I hope you bring them up with dignity and respect.