Ecom Make Progress Deploying FTTP Broadband to Rural Buckinghamshire

Alternative network ISP Ecom (Electronic Communities) appears to be making good progress on their rollout of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in rural Buckinghamshire (England), which is now in the process of moving on toward Ledburn and aspires to cover 1,000 premises by the end of 2019.

The provider built its very first “full fibre” network all the way back in 2014 to serve a business park (Interchange Park) in Newport Pagnell, which was conducted alongside Colocker (part owned by Ecom’s MD). Since then their FTTP network has grown to include around 250 homes and businesses in Whitchurch and some surrounding areas (e.g. Dunton, Creslow).

As a smaller provider, as well as one that is largely reliant on its own private investment and some Gigabit Connection Vouchers from the the UK Government, Ecom’s pace has been gradual but confident. Indeed they recently connected up a new FTTP cabinet just north of the Parish of Mentmore (that parish includes the rural hamlets of Crafton and Ledburn).

The new cabinet is largely intended to serve the local Oakwood Enterprise Park but Ecom is already in the process of pressing on to connect some of the surrounding homes and farms, before potentially moving into Ledburn as part of their demand-led deployment (the ISP hopes to attract more interest before confirming that). All of these are in challenging rural areas.

Chris Wilkie, MD of Ecom, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“I’ve not done a count up for a while but I guess around 250 properties now passed, all ‘gigabit capable’, 300/50mbps entry level package at £36 inc VAT, up to 10G available although the latter is ‘by arrangement’ (i.e. we don’t list a price for it). I hope to be at 1000 properties by the end of the year.

I have spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money in learning the skills and processes, buying the plant and equipment, and recruiting the right people to push forward fast and obviously we are going through the ‘code powers’ [Ofcom] process as part of this.

I am now actively seeking investment capital to ramp-up the speed of deployment and have just taken on a CFO who is leading that for me. Groundworks are expensive, as I’m sure you know, and funding of that is really the only thing in the way of a big deployment speed increase.”

Ecom’s future rollout plans are of course subject to change, although Chris suggests that the larger village of Mentmore may be skipped because a lot of FTTC (VDSL2) is already present. Instead the ISP is considering other targets such as Crafton (fits in with their geographical direction of travel) and along the Wing / Cublington Road where there are more business units and farms (this all makes sense as the Ledburn part of their network could then be joined up with the Cublington section, somewhere near Wing). Highmoor Cross in Oxfordshire is also a potential target.

As a smaller ISP Ecom seem to be building quite a sizeable network asset for themselves. Chris added that the provider peers at LINX and part owns the Colocker site at Milton Keynes, as well as wholly owning Creslow Park, the former MI6 secure comms site where Ecom is based. Creslow Park sits roughly in the middle of their FTTP patch and so can act as somewhat of a central hub.

Residents on the new network are typically offered packages from 300Mbps (£36 inc. VAT per month) and all the way up to 1Gbps (200Mbps upload) for £96 per month on a 12 month term. Meanwhile installation costs are generally covered by the Government’s Gigabit Voucher Schemes.