ISP Upp Sign Makehappen to Support Norfolk UK FTTP Rollout

Broadband ISP and network builder Upp, which is investing £1bn to cover 1 million premises in East England with their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network by 2025, has signed civil engineering firm makehappen to help support their existing rollout in the Norfolk area.

The initial rollout is currently targeting towns across Norfolk and Lincolnshire, with Stamford (Lincolnshire) and Diss (Norfolk) being among the first to benefit (their engineers have also been spotted in Bourne and Market Deeping). A total of 50 towns (c.300,000 homes) in the two counties are now expected to benefit from all this by the end of 2022.

Earlier this month, Upp gave their project a big boost by announcing that civil engineering firm Light Source had been signed to support their rollout in Lincolnshire (here). Now the same is about to happen for Norfolk, where the Makehappen Group will be stepping in to conduct much of the work.

Upp’s Chief Operations Officer, Eryl Stafford, said:

“Much like the team at Upp, Makehappen are changing the face of the UK’s fibre network and we are thrilled to be working closely with them. It’s fantastic to see the positive impact of our broadband across the county.”

Executive Chairman of Makehappen, Chris Hart, said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Upp to bring their next level broadband to Norfolk. It’s refreshing to work with such a forward-thinking client who like Makehappen, believe in a collaborative way of working. I look forward to a long a healthy relationship together.”

The operator has set itself a pretty ambitious deployment target, particularly since their initial aim will be to go from a goal of just 30,000 premises by the end of 2021 to 300,000 by the end of 2022. Precious few operators have shown that they can scale-up their builds that fast, although Upp clearly has plenty of funding to throw at it. With so many competitive alternative networks about now, the faster you can build, the better.

Upp currently offer both a 300Mbps and 900Mbps (symmetric speeds) product at £40 and £60 per month, respectively, across 12 months of service. The first 3 months of service are free, as well as free setup and installation. You can also expect to receive a Linksys Velop Whole Home Intelligent Mesh WiFi 6 (AX4200) router, alongside UK support.