Alternative UK network ISP Jurassic Fibre has announced that the next location to benefit from their ongoing rollout of a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network will be the small South Somerset (England) town of Wincanton, as well as some of its surrounding areas.
The provider is being supported by a £250 million commitment from Fern Trading Limited, which is helping to fuel the operator’s ambition to cover 350,000 premises across South West England by the end of 2024 (here and here).
The latest addition to this rollout list, Wincanton, is home to just over 5,000 people and more locations in Somerset are shortly to be announced as the provider ramps-up their rollout. Meanwhile, Jurassic Fibre’s first customers in Bridgwater have just gone live, which makes that the first location in Somerset to become serviceable with full fibre broadband on their network (they’re also deploying in Devon and Dorset).
Michael Maltby, CEO and Founder of Jurassic Fibre, said:
“We’re very pleased to welcome customers in Bridgwater to our award-winning network. This latest announcement shows our speed and commitment to connect more people and businesses to our best-in-class broadband, at a time when it is really needed.
Through building our own cutting-edge network, Jurassic Fibre is investing in the digital plumbing of the South West, which will deliver both social and economic benefits to its communities for years to come.”
Customers typically pay from £25 per month (first 2 months free) for an unlimited 30Mbps (10Mbps upload) package on JF and that goes up to £95 for their top 950Mbps (200Mbps upload) tier on a short monthly rolling contract. Standard installation is free.
Horrible speeds horrible prices also really slow company and you can’t believe a word they say. If you call yourself FULL FTTP then give symmetrical speeds. This is not A copper broadband. You can get GFAST with 300mbps and 50mbps upload. So things like this shouldn’t exist. You make bad business image to yourself.
A lot of providers offering symmetric speeds are also in fact using asymmetric style GPON solutions, so are promising something that might not actually be deliverable while relying on the fact that upstream remains significantly less important to most people (i.e. you’re unlikely to notice or push it like you do the downstream).
There are different pros and cons between GPON and PtP Fibre, so it’s not as clear-cut as saying that one is absolutely the best approach for every operator. The key challenge in both cases is still in getting the fibre itself into the ground. Also take note that very few people can get G.fast at the top speed due to copper line signal deterioration over distance.
Also, these prices seem fine?
£25 a month for 30mb with first two months free (so effectively ~£20/month if you stay for a year) or 300Mb for £50 a month (~40/month over a year) are better value than you’d get out of BT or Sky for example?
If you are concerned by the poor uploads then consider that openreach offer as low as 11.5% upload to download ratio, while these guys are 20% at worst.
Seriously, this is all fine/better than BT!
Aren’t BT doing 500Mb at £50? I believe TalkTalk have a offer going of £35 for 500Mb. The thing people on here forget is plenty of people get just fine speeds and don’t care how it gets to the house. If someone is getting 40-80Mb on Vodafone for £22pm then why would they care Jurassic are doing FTTP at all? Bridgwater is well served with speeds so this rollout will be very telling for Jurassic on take up.
@Mark Jackson – I understand and respect what you’re saying but if we apply that train of thought to both directions, technically most (If not all) ISPs offering 950Mbps downstream on consumer-grade packages using GPON (As well as PtP) would be promising something which might actually not be deliverable. Unless each customer has 950Mbps dedicated to them out to the internet.
Most/all consumer packages are sold on a best-efforts basis, so it’s difficult to see (and for some, accept) the justification for the lower upstream speeds when other providers are offering it, most using the same technology.
I think the disappointment for some with Jurassic comes from them not only offering some of the slowest upstream speeds compared to some other FTTP ISPs, but doing it whilst charging one of the highest consumer FTTP prices on the market.
I realize Jurassic are deploying their network in smaller towns and villages which would naturally lead to a slightly higher price in the first place, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that their slowest package is £25 (30Mbps/10Mbps) and their highest is £95 (950/200Mbps). That’s a massive difference and a low speed on their slowest package.
It may seem like an overly simplistic way of thinking of things but unless they are inviting a percentage of loss-leaders to their business (Unlikely given their situation), their lowest £25/m package must eventually cover the cost of maintaining the actual fibre to the premises (And their share of the network); so technically anything over that figure would be paying for the increase in bandwidth.
With that in mind, comparing the lowest-tier & top-tier price difference to other providers, it’s very clear the top-tier prices are pretty high!
In any case, I wish them all the best and success with their rollout! It’s about time some competition comes to this area, now and in the future from Virgin as-well.
[admin note: comment made by same poster as Yamamotoooo above – removed for trolling / spam]
What about finishing Yeovil. – Welcoming people in Bridgwater that they started months after Yeovil but we’re still waiting.
Dates keep getting moved.
Bridgwater already had lots and lots of fibre pre-installed underground.
Taunton and Yeovil both need lots of work.
Someone, anyone bring some fttp to Frome….
Frome has VM.