ISP Grain Begins Rollout of FTTP Broadband in Newport, Wales

The city of Newport in South Wales has become the latest area to be targeted by Grain‘s UK rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network. Some of the first streets to benefit in phase one include those around Caerleon Road and Durham Road (e.g. Constance Street, Orchard Street and Stockton Road).

The provider, which has been boosted by a recent £75m equity investment from Equitix (here), ultimately aims to cover 300,000 UK premises and their rollout programme is currently planned to run for 5-years until around 2026. Some of their existing deployment areas include Liverpool, Accrington, Grimsby, Scarborough, Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness and Blackburn.

Customers can expect to pay from just £14.99 per month for a symmetric speed 50Mbps package, which goes up to £44.99 for their top 900Mbps plan. All of these packages come with a 12-month minimum contract term, free installation and bundled router. Suffice to say that the goal of such aggressive pricing is often to attract rapid take-up, stealing customers away from rivals.

Tracy Karam, Head of Customer Experience for Grain, said:

“The response from residents and businesses has been very positive, with many already signing up to the service before work on their street has even been completed.

Our service has become even more popular in recent months, as customers rely more and more on fast, reliable and secure network for working, learning, gaming, and entertainment. We are pleased to be rolling out our offer prices to the residents of Newport, allowing them to access true full-fibre at unbeatable prices.”

However, the move, which comes only a couple of days after they also began expanding across Leicester in England (here), won’t be without its challenges. A number of gigabit-capable broadband rivals are already present or starting to expand in Newport, such as Virgin Media (dominant gigabit operator) and Openreach.

On top of that, it’s possible that Ogi’s major new FTTP rollout across South Wales may also tackle some parts of Newport, and Country Connect are operating nearby the city too.