New UK AltNet Provider AllPoints Fibre to Build FTTP Broadband

A new London-based alternative network builder called AllPoints Fibre (APF), which is being backed by investment from the Fern Trading Group (advised by Octopus Investments), has today joined the UK market with a plan to deploy a new “open access” wholesale Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network that other ISPs can harness.

The new approach came to light after the operator got in touch with ISPreview.co.uk and notified us of their planned request for Code Powers from Ofcom, which is often adopted to help speed-up deployments of new fibre optic infrastructure and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licenses needed for street works. It can also help facilitate access to run fibre via Openreach’s existing ducts and poles (PIA).

APF itself was incorporated in August 2021 and recently allotted £2m worth of shares. At present, their website is just a holding page (a new corporate website could launch as soon as today), although it confirms that they intend to offer broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps to end-users (e.g. homes), as well as faster options for business clients and other entities along the route of the network.

According to Steve Lightley, APF’s Head of Commercial, the provider will not be announcing their executive team or board until 2022. But many of their currently listed Directors on Companies House do have a lot of experience in the industry, as well as some with active Directorship attachments to Fern’s other FTTP builders and ISPs (particularly Giganet / M12 and Jurassic Fibre).

Naturally, we were keen to learn more from Steve about the operator’s rollout plan, investment level and targets, but for now the operator is still establishing itself and is not yet ready to share any specific details. However, it’s fairly safe to say that they won’t be building in the same locations as Fern’s other networks (see above), and we wouldn’t be surprised if those same providers also ended up benefitting from access to AFP’s network.

The challenge for APF is that they’ll be entering an already very crowded market, where most of the low-hanging (build) fruit has already been taken. As a result, we’re increasingly seeing more and more examples of AltNets overbuilding each other, as well as the established giants of Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media (VMO2), which tends to push up the investment risk.

However, the Fern Trading Group now has plenty of experience of this market, and hopefully that will enable them to focus APF’s efforts towards the bits that others may have missed or overlooked. The provider also expects to harness some of the government’s gigabit broadband vouchers in rural areas, where viable.