ISP Lightspeed Broadband in £300m UK FTTP Broadband Rollout

A new UK ISP called Lightspeed Broadband has emerged with a plan to invest £300m in order to deploy their new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, starting in towns across the East of England, to cover 100,000 homes by end of 2022 – followed by an ambition to reach 1 million by 2025.

The new provider isn’t just your typical start-up either as they’ve managed to secure backing from an international investment consortium, including AtmosClear Investments and Kompass Kapital, who focus on infrastructure projects. The deal includes an initial £55 million investment, albeit with the “opportunity” to raise this up to £300 million as work progresses.

In short, the first aim of covering 100,000 homes by the end of 2022 is already described as being “fully funded,” which is an impressive start for such a new player. But admittedly they are being managed by a team with plenty of experience in the telecoms sector (many are former BT and TalkTalk figures), including CEO Steve Haines, COO Dave Axam and CCO Joanne King.

Otherwise, the first areas to benefit from Lightspeed’s initial build, which we’re told is due to “start immediately,” will include several towns in South Lincolnshire and the “surrounding areas.”

Lightspeed Broadband’s Initial Rollout Plan (Towns)
Boston
Bourne
Holbeach
Kings Lynn (Norfolk)
Market Deeping
Skegness
Sleaford
Spalding
Stamford

One catch here is that some of these towns are already in the process of being covered by gigabit-capable broadband networks from rivals, such as Boston where Openreach have a fair bit of FTTP (they’ve also got a lot of the inferior G.fast technology in nearby Skegness). But existing coverage is patchy and some of the towns have no real gigabit connectivity options, which presents an opportunity for Lightspeed to grow a first mover advantage.

Steve Haines, CEO of Lightspeed Broadband, said:

“These are exciting times for digital connectivity, and we are delighted to be a part of it. We are making a commitment to deliver a Gigabit broadband experience to the heart of the east of England which will unlock the potential of the region.

The need for high-speed, reliable internet, is growing faster than ever as a result of the continually increasing demand for professional home working, multi-user high quality online entertainment, high speed gaming, home schooling and affordable multi-video, face-to-face call services.

We might appear to be the new guys on the block, but in reality, we are a life-long, experienced team of telecoms experts that have spent decades building and managing telecoms networks at BT. Collaborating with communities and local authorities we will start building immediately in market towns in South Lincolnshire, bringing thousands of homes and businesses access to essential the full fibre, ultra-reliable gigabit broadband they deserve, and then expanding across the region to meet customer needs.”

Matt Warman MP, UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure, said:

“It is our national mission to level up the country with next-generation broadband and build back better from the pandemic. While we’re investing a record £5 billion to ensure really hard to reach areas get connected, we want big ideas and investment from industry to build a truly 21st century Britain.

So it’s fantastic to see Lightspeed’s hard work and dedication mean thousands of homes and businesses in Lincolnshire will soon be benefitting from gigabit speeds, with new local jobs created in the process.”

Lightspeed added that they will aim to “reuse existing infrastructure wherever possible,” which is most likely a reference to the prospect of running some of their fibre optic cable’s through or over Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles (Physical Infrastructure Access); this is now a fairly common approach in the market, thanks to Ofcom’s changes to make PIA more flexible and accessible.

Assuming all goes to plan then the operator will aim start connecting customers “later this year” and they’ll then continue their future build into other counties, like Norfolk and the surrounding areas (Kings Lynn is already on their initial rollout list). But at this point they might well run up against some rivals in the alternative network space (e.g. County Broadband, B4RN and Symmetris are operating in parts of Norfolk too).

At the time of writing the ISP has not yet announced any package or price details for their related products, but we expect those details to surface closer to when the first customers are due to go live (it’ll probably take a few months of build before they get to this stage, so mid-2021 or later seems like a fair bet).