Full Fibre Ltd Name Next 11 UK Towns for FTTP Broadband

Full Fibre Limited, which is currently building a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network to cover “at least” 500,000 UK premises by 2025, has today named the next batch of 11 rural and semi-urban towns to benefit from their rollout (reflecting a coverage increase of c.100,000 premises).

The provider, which operates its network as a wholesale platform via iNeedFibre for other UK ISPs to harness (e.g. SWS, HFL Broadband, Connect Me to 2 Full Fibre, ANLX, Air Broadband, Cloud Wireless and fibrehop), has already started to go live across thousands of premises in locations such as Leominster (Fastershire project), Ivybridge and South Hams.

By comparison, today’s announcement will extend that to cover 100,000 premises across 11 “additional” locations, where the majority of premises will be able to access their gigabit internet services “within the next 12 months“. We note that Leominster and Shrewsbury are both mentioned in this list, despite already having been announced.

As before, the focus tends to be on “forgotten market towns” and areas (i.e. often those with between 5,000 and 40,000 premises), initially in the West Midlands, Central and South West of England, that might otherwise be left behind by the national FTTP rollout.

The 11 Locations
Leominster
Shrewsbury
Bayston Hill
Ross-on-Wye
Oswestry
Wem
Droitwich
Stourport-on-Severn
Malmesbury
Cam and Dursley

Full Fibre CEO, Oliver Helm, said:

“Businesses across Britain, and the amazing people working for them, need access to ultrafast internet connections, at work and at home, to enable them to compete nationally and internationally, but those outside dense urban areas and major cities are being disadvantaged by the lack of investment in their digital infrastructure.

Full Fibre recognises the national necessity for both residents and businesses to upgrade to ultrafast fibre services, if they are to embrace modern digital services and educational tools. These chosen areas are currently restricted to ageing copper connections, not meeting with the needs of modern, homeworking families.

It’s vital that everyone in a community gets access to ultrafast, reliable services and the opportunities that come with it.”

The company’s announcement coincides with both Ofcom’s new regulatory changes to incentivise fibre rollout (here) and the Government’s updated plans to invest £5bn in delivering gigabit broadband across the country (here). Full Fibre’s investment in these new areas, including some of those mentioned in the Government announcement, should help to accelerate their access to gigabit broadband.