County Broadband Update FTTP Rollout in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire

Aldham-based rural UK ISP County Broadband has issued a couple of updates on their rollout plan for a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in remote parts of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, which adds a few new villages to their existing deployment and confirms the delivery time-scale.

Just to recap. The provider, which is deploying across the rural East of England region (Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire etc.), is currently being fuelled by an investment of £46m from Aviva and they aim to cover 20,000 premises by the end of 2020. We already know many of the villages that have or are due to benefit from this, but the provider has recently issued a progress update to confirm a few more.

A total of 6,500 premises across 33 rural villages in the Breckland and South Norfolk areas have been earmarked to receive the service by spring 2021 (18 of these have already met the demand-led sign-up target for them to proceed). Similarly, in South Cambridgeshire, another 24 villages will be connected in 2021, totalling around 9,400 premises.

The above is on top of their existing build in Essex and other areas.

Lloyd Felton, CEO of County Broadband, said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our creaking copper infrastructure that is stifling productivity and holding back innovation at such a critical time.

Boris Johnson has told the nation to remote work but some of us, like in rural Cambridgeshire [and Norfolk], can’t even have a Zoom call. We need the new networks now more than ever.

That’s why we’re driving our plans to build Hyperfast full-fibre networks in these initial villages with great gusto.”

As it stands CB’s current rollout plan for Norfolk and Cambridgeshire is as follows (some of these ‘confirmed’ deployments will be live by Spring 2021, but others will take longer).

South Norfolk

18 Confirmed Villages
(Build to begin by late October 2020)

Aslacton, Banham, Bressingham, Bunwell, Carleton Rode, Forncett, Great Moulton, Kenninghall, Needham, North Lopham, Old Buckenham, Pulham Market, Pulham St. Mary, Shelfanger, Starston, Tibenham, Wacton, and Winfarthing.

15 Future Villages
(Expected to hit enough sign-ups by early 2021)

Blo’ Norton, Bridgham, Carbrooke, Caston, Great Hockham, Harling, New Buckenham, Quidenham, Roudham & Larling, South Lopham, Tacolneston, Shropham, Stow Bedon, Snetterton and Wretham.

South Cambridgeshire

8 Confirmed Villages
(Build has already started in Fowlmere, Newton and Thriplow)

Fowlmere, Newton, Thriplow, Broughton, Great Eversden, Little Eversden, Orwell and Whaddon.

16 Future Villages
(Expected to hit enough sign-ups in the near future)

Abington Pigotts, Barrington, Bassingbourn Cum Kneesworth, Bourn, Guilden Morden, Harston, Haslingfield, Kingston, Litlington, Little Gransden, Longstowe, Meldreth, Shepreth, Steeple Morden, Toft, and Waresley-cum-Tetworth.

Prices for CB’s service can vary between different areas, although in one of their Essex deployments new customers will typically pay from £28 per month (excluding discounts) for an unlimited symmetric speed 50Mbps service with a bundled wireless router, then £48 for 300Mbps, £55 for 600Mbps and £80 for 900Mbps. Otherwise the costs reflect the rural nature of CB’s deployment, which is inherently more expensive to build.