Lit Fibre Extend FTTP Broadband Rollout to Sudbury and Evesham
UK ISP Lit Fibre, which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to reach 500,000 homes by 2026, has announced that the next two towns to benefit from their rollout will be Sudbury (Suffolk) and Evesham (Worcestershire). But aggressive competition will soon follow.
The provider, which is partly supported by an unspecified equity investment from Newlight Partners LP, has already started to go live across the towns of Corsham and Chippenham in Wiltshire, as well as Cirencester (Gloucestershire) and Bishop’s Stortford (Hertfordshire). Today’s addition of two new towns means that their initial build plan will cater for over 100,000 homes, with more to follow.
However, despite the build in Sudbury and Evesham only just beginning, Lit Fibre still anticipates that they will be able to connect their first local customers by the end of 2021. Homes on their network typically pay from £24.50 per month on a 12-month term (£30 thereafter) for their unlimited 100Mbps package (includes a free install, symmetric speeds and a Wi-Fi 6 router), which rises to £50 (£65 thereafter) for 900Mbps (average).
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The provider’s CEO, Tom Williams, is a familiar name on these pages as he is the former COO of Hyperoptic (until January 2019). Prior to that, he was also the MD of BE Unlimited and the head of O2’s unbundled copper broadband and phone rollout, which gives him a fair bit of experience in this field.
Tom Williams, CEO of Lit Fibre, said:
“It’s fantastic to announce we’re live in Cirencester and Bishop’s Stortford so soon after our first homes went live in Chippenham. We know how much the residents of these towns have been waiting for full fibre and want to move off the unreliability of copper cables.
We’re really pleased to also let the residents of Sudbury and Evesham know we will be lighting their area up really soon with our high-quality network delivering world-class broadband speeds.”
Not unlike some of their other towns, Lit Fibre looks set to face aggressive competition from gigabit-capable broadband rivals in their two latest location additions. For example, alternative UK network provider County Broadband began their rollout in Sudbury last month (here) and it’s also named on Openreach’s FTTP rollout plan for the future.
The story is much the same in Evesham, which is listed on the rollout plans for both Openreach and FullFibre Limited. The latter is currently starting work in the area. In theory, dense urban cities should be able to support up to 3-4 gigabit capable rivals, although such a model may struggle to work as well in smaller towns.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Looking forward to this. The reviews of CB and some first hand customers of theirs doesn’t paint a pretty picture. BT is on the way but as someone who uploads more than downloads a symmetrical services sounds the better option until the new pon is deployed.
Good point. 100% excellent rating on Trustpilot for Lit and only 45% for County.
All these so called towns and no sign of Padstow and Cornwall what a joke
This Cornwall – https://labs2.thinkbroadband.com/local/E06000052 – with 43.72% FTTP compared with 28.64% for the entire UK? That one?
The Padstow already announced as part of the first half of the Openreach FTTP program despite a population of less than 2,500? That Padstow?
There are cities and large towns of 100,000 nowhere on the plans. Padstow is hardly being mistreated.
Have you tried a local campaign to push interest? Have you tried to speak with local residents and businesses to push up the understanding on what faster internet could off the metropolis which is Padstow?
I assume No to both of these? Without interest why is any company going to waste time, effort and capital with no profitable returns? BT have said fibre for all by 2030 so either do something to get the AltNets to notice you or wait it out.
People only have themselves to blame sometimes.
padstow exchange of 1800 premises that already has some FTTP already through previous BDUk programmes — have you actually checked to see at an address level whether you can get FTTP
Padstein has had FTTP for years!
Heh. Openreach, FullFibre and now Lit are coming for Evesham?
After years of nothing, I’ll believe it when I see it. Just one will do me.
I was thinking exactly the same Packet Loss until I saw one of their gangs working the other day on Cheltenham Road. I stopped by and spoke to one of the engineers and they’re well on their way. Should be live this month he said.
Lit Fibre have commenced their roll out in Great Cornard
Latest update from Lit Fibre for Sudbury/Great Cornard is they plan to have the first homes live in February
They are doing work in Great Cornard today, so progress is being made.
Had a twitter convo over the weekend, appears there may be a blocked duct somewhere so gone from Feb to early Spring
Was really hoping they would be delivering to Ballingdon area as seen hi-viz Lit workers but still no sign of install or go live date from their website
A press release claim that a few streets in Sudbury have gone live but their web site still say not available. Progress seems to be slow but there is no real information from them