Full Fibre UK ISP YouFibre Sees Rapid Growth to 2500 Customers
UK ISP YouFibre has today announced that their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which is being built by network partner Netomnia, has seen rapid growth over the past few months – leaping from 1,000 customers in June 2021 to 2,500 now.
Just to put this into some context. Netomnia has so far covered 50,000 premises (20,000 of those were added in just the past couple of months) and £150m has been set aside to help cover 14 initial towns (c.500,000 premises). The work supports their long-term ambition to reach 1 million UK premises by 2024 (here and here).
Customers in these areas typically pay from £20 per month on an 18-month term for their unlimited symmetric speed 50Mbps package (£22 post-contract), which rises to just £50 if you want their top 1000Mbps plan. Such low pricing is clearly intended to help grow take-up by pulling consumers away from rivals. A static IP address, Mesh Wi-Fi and phone service are optional (mesh WiFi is included by default with their 1000Mbps plan).
Ryan Battle, MD of YouFibre, said:
“Achieving this number of customers in such a short space of time is exceptional. The broadband industry has overcharged and underdelivered for too long, we have broken the mould by providing faster connections and a better service at lower prices. Everyone should have affordable access to fast internet, so a whole household can seamlessly work, live and play online.
This approach has given us a real advantage and made YouFibre the most attractive internet service provider option for customers in the areas we currently work in. We’re taking our service to even more towns over the next year and will be announcing these shortly.”
Admittedly, 2,500 out of 50,000 premises passed reflects a take-up of just 5%, but that’s not so relevant for a brand-new network that is in the early process of ramping-up its build and is not adopting on a demand-led deployment model. During the rapid rollout phase the pace of build will often accelerate well beyond the pace of adoption and thus the only way to truly measure take-up is to look back at areas where the network has been present for 2-3 years (YouFibre/Netomnia are too new for that).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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**IF** they can get Ashford sorted before my VM contract expires in December, they’ll gain another customer 🙂
Just get yourself a short-term contract (i.e. 1 month) with another provider until YF are in your area, then no long-term obligations. 🙂
Good idea but I live so far away from my available BT cabinet I would take a serious hit in speed if I did that. I work from home all the time so speed and stability is pretty important. Damn cloud working and conference calls 🙂
Unless YF can give a confirmed install date before my renewal I will probably (reluctantly) resign with VM.
I registered interest with youfibre for Ashford. Had call from the sales rep a week or so ago. My part of Ashford sometime next year. Also said would help to buyout existing VM contract
Just keep it rolling for a few month and see what happens or go onto a VM rolling contract
Hi Mark, we anticipate that we will be installing our first customer in Ashford early November. I would recommend following Danny’s advice and rolling over to a monthly contract rather than re-contracting. Then you’ll be able to switch over to YouFibre as soon as it’s available on your street. I promise it will be worthwhile switching over! Have you placed a pre-order?
Hi Ryan (YouFibre), do you have a list of post codes going live in November? I am sure it’s worth the wait but VM inflate the costs by approximately 25% (for me) outside the fixed contract.
Hi Mark, if you’d like to drop us a DM on Facebook or send an email to hello@youfibre.com I can certainly look into what date we anticipate your area to be ready.
Thanks Ryan, sent a DM on FB.
Netomnia pulling fibre through existing ducting in my street right now 🙂
Do we know what the equivalent take up rate is for Openreach FTTP?
Agree it’s early for YouFibre/Netomnia but 5% isn’t encouraging. Compeition will only increase and it’s going to be vital for them to build early market share.
It takes time to install homes after they are passed so it may be that they have a large amount of early adopters in their towns that are currently waiting with their booked timeslots
Hi David, I have to disagree that 5% isn’t encouraging. There are loads of factors when it comes to calculating up-take, such as the average age of the network. In our older areas, we have a much higher market share and it continues to grow. I believe that we are the fastest ISP to reach 1k customers and the fact that we’ve more than doubled our customer base in such a short space of time shows that we are definitely on the right track. But we’re not stopping there, watch this space…
I’m beginning to loose hope of YouFibre sorting out the dispute with locals in my area about poles, They seem to be getting no where. I guess I’ll have to sick with 4G Broadband for the time being.
Andy.
Hi Andy, I completely understand your frustration. Unfortunately this is a dispute between Netomnia and the local residents, as they are the ones building the infrastructure and dealing with the complaints regarding poles. Netomnia are now assessing other viable ways to get these areas connected.
Wish they roll out in Telford, Shropshire
Registered with them today for Ashford. Was told my area will be live in November
Sounds good Matt. If that’s the case for me too then it’s bye bye Virgin Media 🙂
don’t hold your breath, I was told (in June) end August / beginning of September, still no sign, as project is on hold due to residents complaining about poles. But, I hope it does happen for you.
Hi Matt, glad you’ve registered with us. We’re looking forward to getting you connected to our ultrafast speeds!
Ryan – it’s not as if you and Netomnia are different so don’t blame them. You’re one and the same! Same directors, same owners, same everything!
Poor take-up. Burning a lot of money.
Hi my address in King’s Lynn was supposed to go live in August we are now I November and still not connected my contract with BT runs out this month if I don’t renew its going to start costing me lots what’s going on lots of promises and and no proper explanation is this how it’s always going to be?
How convenient no reply to my post.