Netomnia UK Expands Gigabit Broadband Rollout into Wales

Network builder Netomnia, which aims to deploy their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 1 million UK homes and businesses by the end of 2023 (here), has today announced that they’ve expanded their rollout from England and begun to enter their first location in Wales.

At present the network has already covered 75,000 UK premises – rising to 100,000 by the end of 2021 – and they have an initial funding pot of £123m. The first deployments are currently taking place across a number of towns including Ashford, Barrow-in-Furness, Boston, Canterbury, Cheltenham, Durham, Houghton le Spring, Kings Lynn, Peterlee, Spalding, Spennymoor, Stockton, Stroud, and Wisbech.

The good news today is that they’ve announced their first deployment town in Wales – Bridgend, which is home to a population of around 147,000. A total of more than 55,000 premises in the town are expected to be covered by their full fibre network, which will be delivered by local civil engineering partner GForce Telecoms.

The service itself will then be supplied to consumers via ISP partner YouFibre, which offers unlimited usage, symmetrical speeds, a Wi-Fi router and 24/7 UK based support. And there is no install fee, ‘activation’ fee or additional line rental to pay. Customers typically pay from £22 per month on an 18-month term for their unlimited 50Mbps package, which rises to £50 if you want their top 900Mbps plan.

Netomnia estimates that the first properties will go live on its infrastructure in Bridgend in Q1 next year.

Jeremy Chelot, Founder and CEO of Netomnia, said:

“We are very excited to be rolling out our ultrafast broadband service in Bridgend, the first of many towns we aim to work with in Wales as we build out our infrastructure across the UK.

Netomnia uses the latest technology to ensure consistently high speeds for households and businesses, whilst using existing infrastructure so that the network can be built with minimum disruption to everyday life.

The lockdowns we’ve all lived through over the past 20 months or so have shone a spotlight on the importance of a reliable, ultrafast network in every aspect of our lives including work, education, leisure and keeping in contact with friends and family. We are confident that our best in class full fibre network and ultrafast speeds will bring significant benefits to the local economy and overall wellbeing in Bridgend for many decades into the future.”

The provider will of course run up against some gigabit-capable broadband rivals in Bridgend, which is hardly surprising given that it’s a much larger town (one of their biggest builds so far). At present Virgin Media already covers the majority of the town, but they have left quite a big area unserved. Similarly, Openreach have also been busy deploying FTTP across the town, although it’s unclear precisely how many premises they’ll reach.