ISP VISPA Set to Rollout FTTP Broadband to 10,000 UK Homes

Manchester-based UK ISP VISPA has today revealed a little bit of extra detail about their tentative plan to deploy their own gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which over the next 18-months will aim to cover 10,000 homes.

The provider first unofficially revealed the plan as part of last November’s request for Code Powers from Ofcom (here), which are often sought by new and existing operators in order to help speed-up the deployment of new networks and cut costs by reducing the number of licenses needed for related street works across the United Kingdom.

The good news is that VISPA, with a little help from telecoms legal specialist Trenches Law, has now had their application approved and revealed that they initially plan to cover 10,000 homes with FTTP broadband over the next year and a half. But sadly we don’t yet know precisely where this will take place, although they have previously built their own Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network around parts of Cheshire.

James Ormerod, Vispa’s MD, said:

“We’d previously shied away from applying for Code powers, believing the process to be complex and cost prohibitive. However, we soon learnt that we satisfied much of what Ofcom was looking for – not least because of our trusted heritage, our customer focus and our commitment to fair pricing.

So, we joined forces with Trenches Law to get the ball rolling, leveraging the expertise of managing director Sharon McDermott – former head of legal at Virgin Media Business – to shape the application, mediate and support us during the public consultation process.”

We hope to get some further details in the near future.