Jurassic Fibre Extend FTTP Rollout in Somerset, Devon and Dorset

Broadband ISP Jurassic Fibre, which is currently deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South West England, has today announced a large expansion of their rollout to include multiple new locations across Somerset, Devon and Dorset.

The provider is currently being supported by an investment of £250 million from Fern Trading Limited, which is helping to fuel the operator’s ambition to cover 350,000 premises across the region by the end of 2024 (here and here).

However, until now a lot of Jurassic Fibre’s prior deployment announcements have been quite piecemeal, but that has today changed as they appear to be ramping-up a gear. The provider has thus put out separate announcements for Somerset, Devon and Dorset, although we’ve attempted to summarise those below.

Devon

The towns are Bideford, Teignmouth, Crediton, Seaton, Colyton and Axminster as well as many of the surrounding villages are being included. The first premises will be released to market in these locations later this year.

Taking into account the existing coverage in Sowton and the villages to the East of Exeter, Exmouth, Honiton, Barnstaple, Sidmouth and Okehampton, JF claims to be “firmly on target” to extend its network to cover over 200,000 homes and businesses across Devon in the near future.

Jurassic Fibre’s privately funded build programme includes approximately 15,000 premises in hard-to-reach locations, representing a potential saving to the tax payer of circa £10m.

Somerset

The towns are Glastonbury, Street, Chard, Crewkerne and Ilminster, as well as many of the surrounding villages, have been included. The first premises will be released to market in these locations later this year.

Taking into account the existing coverage in Wellington, Taunton, Bridgwater, all which are now live, as well as Yeovil and Wincanton which are expected to go live shortly, JF says they’re on target to extend their network to cover over 200,000 homes and businesses across Somerset in the near future. The rollout includes over 6,000 hard to reach premises in rural locations.

Dorset

The locations of Dorchester, Weymouth, Lyme Regis, Charmouth and Bridport, as well as many of the surrounding villages and hamlets, all of which have been under served for many years with poor connectivity, have now been included into their rollout plan.

The ISP will be releasing their privately funded FTTP broadband to homes and businesses later this year, taking their homes passed footprint in Dorset to over 75,000 on completion.

Customers typically pay from £25 per month for an unlimited 30Mbps (10Mbps upload) package and that goes up to £95 for their top 950Mbps (200Mbps upload) tier on a monthly rolling contract. Standard installation is free, and their business plans offer speeds of up to 10Gbps.

Michael Maltby, JF CEO and Founder, said:

“We are pleased to extend our ultrafast broadband network to even more locations … connecting many hard-to-reach rural locations. We expect to make further announcements soon, as our expansion gains momentum.

For too long, the South West has been overlooked when it comes to digital infrastructure and we want to provide ultrafast connections to even the most hard to reach locations across the region.”

Sadly, the provider hasn’t said how many premises they’ve already covered, but they do appear to be ramping-up quite quickly and we now have a better idea of how their deployment splits down by county.