F&W Networks Expands FTTP Broadband Rollout in Horsham
Earlier this year F&W Networks, supported by retail UK ISP division Hey!Broadband, began to deploy a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (here) to cover 5,000 premises around the town centre of Horsham (West Sussex). The good news is that they’re extending this to another 10,000 homes.
The long-term aspiration of the Altrincham-based full fibre builder F&WN is to cover over 1 million UK premises by 2024 (here), although this isn’t all via FTTP. In locations where full fibre infrastructure is not viable then the provider has indicated that they would consider deploying a 100Mbps Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband network instead.
As it stands today the operator’s focus is still fixed on completing their deployment in the market town of Horsham, which began in January 2020. However by the sounds of it (WS County Times) they will soon (over the next 3 months) be starting their Phase Two roll-out in the area, which looks set to cover another 10,000 premises. At present though we can’t see details of any planned roadworks.
Marta Comas, CEO of Hey!Broadband, said:
“The interest in our initial provision of fibre broadband in Horsham has been amazing. And, with the feedback we are getting on Trustpilot, we know we are getting it right.
Lockdown did put a delay on our second roll out phase, but as we continue to connect the next 10,000 homes across Horsham, the interest logged on our website will be used to prioritise those homes and businesses that have already made initial contact.”
Customers can expect unlimited packages that cost from £35 per month for speeds of 250Mbps (50Mbps upload) or £40 for 1000Mbps (symmetrical upload), which comes with unlimited usage, a wireless router, an 18-month contract term, parental controls and free installation.
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 10k houses with good cheap connectivity.
Be hard for OR or VM to wean those customers away at that price point and symmetric.
Let’s hope the network quality is up standard as I don’t see anyone else bothering to fibre up round there after this is done.
Not sure of their real progress though. The current 5,000 is a big number but using a selection of Postcodes in the various parts of Horsham I am not picking up availability on Hey!Broadband.
Their startup prices are very competive, especially the small differential to Giga/Sym and they have shelved the installation fee currently. However they will need to be as Horsham already has a good smattering of G.FAST and OR Fibre First is already underway across the town to cover all areas so it will interesting to see if this works for out them.
Openreach and Cityfibre have both announced builds in Horsham….
Hey, FW and Maestro don’t have the money on their balance sheet to do 5000, 10000 or 1 Million
I can see the white fibre boxes on the poles in streets near ours, and if I enter a postcode from one of these streets I am invited to place an order. I haven’t yet been able to make out any existing connections from these boxes to any houses though…
Frustratingly, our slightly newer (1960s) street has its BT lines delivered by ducts, not poles, and so we do not seem to be within F&W/HeyB!’s focus currently, as I imagine it’s more of a pain to install via ducts?
Hey! have announced this same service as imminent switch on in the Gerrards Cross and Chalfont St Peter areas in South Buckinghamshire.
My order is in and I was told that they would be ready to connect their service to my property by the end of August….but as I can’t see any evidence of this new infrastructure being deployed, below or above ground I’m not confident the service will be ready anytime soon.
No FTTP from any other provider available so I’m quite excited if this does indeed happen.
They have been installing cable through ducts in Heath Way Horsham RH12 over the last couple of days. A BT Openreach engineer turned up to speak to the workers. I asked him what was going on. He told me that the government were allowing Hey Broadband to use BT’S network. He wasn’t too happy about it & said they were keeping an eye on them!
From roadworks.org it looks like f&w networks are currently working in old broadbridge Heath area rh12 3tn along with areas of north Horsham. Very interesting with both cityfibre and bt also having plans for the area.
Thanks to roadworks.org, I can see F&W (HeyBroadband) installing their infrastructure all over Gerrards Cross. Exciting!