FullFibre Add 26 Locations to FTTP Broadband Rollout in England
Network builder FullFibre Limited has today added 26 new communities in the East and West Midlands of England to their rollout plan for a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network, which aims to cover “at least” 500,000 UK premises by the end of 2025.
The operator, which builds its service as a wholesale network via Fibre Heroes for other ISPs to harness (i.e. consumers should visit that site to check coverage), initially started their rollout in Leominster (Fastershire project), Ivybridge and South Hams during 2019. Since then they’ve also confirmed builds for 11 extra towns during March 2021 (here), then 13 in Sept 2021 (here), 19 more during Oct 2021 (here) and another 2 were added last month (here).
The latest 26 communities to join this list reflect a coverage plan for almost 80,000 additional premises, which will require around 750,000 metres of new fibre to be deployed. The operator is currently targetting a total of 80+ towns across the United Kingdom, with more expected to be announced in the not too distant future.
The organisation claims to prioritise towns that have been “previously overlooked by larger corporations who have deemed these areas ‘unprofitable’,” although it should be said that some of their planned locations are already being served, or will soon be reached, by gigabit-capable rivals.
FullFibre Limited’s 26 New Communities
Midlands West
Church Stretton, Much WenlockMidlands East
Southam, Kibworth, Fleckney, Ashbourne, Lutterworth, Market Bosworth, Thrapston, Stoney Stanton, Sapcote, Southwell, Barrow upon Soar, Moira, Markfield, Woodford Halse, Byfield, Barton-under-Needwood, Alrewas, Asfordby, Bottesford, Kingsbury, Kineton, New and Old Arley, and Shenstone
Oliver Helm, CEO of FullFibre, said:
“Faster broadband connections are being successfully rolled out across the UK but small towns can often get left behind, so we delighted to be announcing the extension of our network into these areas. Better connectivity in more rural locations will make a real difference to residents and businesses at a time when access to the internet has never been more important.”
A number of ISPs currently sell FTTP broadband packages over FullFibre’s network, such as Air Broadband, BeFibre and Squirrel Internet. One of the cheapest is Air Broadband, which seems to charge from £25 per month for a 110Mbps package (15Mbps upload) on an 18-month contract term and that goes up to £35 for their 550Mbps (50Mbps upload) tier.
The other ISPs also offer a faster 900Mbps package for around £49-£51 per month. Installation is usually free.
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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Its really great to see more fibre being rolled out.
I’m hoping the plans will be fully symmetrical, as I need more upload speed.
Really surprised to see that they are covering Kibworth,Fleckney and Lutterworth all of which has Openreach fibre rollouts in progress and CityFibre to start before end of year. All of which have 5G from EE and 3
Yet they miss out Market Harborough the largest town in the area and Openreach are not looking at the area for major rollout until 2024 and CityFibre similar timeframe also no 5G coverage from any provider
Fleckney, Kibworth and Lutterworth don’t currently have any fibre builds underway. They aren’t part of the cityfibre rollout and openreach have put them in the “by December 2026 category” which means they haven’t properly committed to actually building them at all. There is no 3 5g coverage in any of them and there is no EE 5g in Lutterworth and the EE 5g coverage is to poor for most of the population of fleckney and Kibworth to even use.
On the other hand Market Harborough currently has 1gig virgin and the cityfibre and openreach fibre builds have both been planned and are likely to start work very soon.
Not sure why you say Lutterworth has the above. As a resident we are limited to about 30mbps max and connections have gotten worse and worse as new developments have gone up connecting to the same cabinets.
There are two masts in Lutterworth, the O2/EE/Vodafone one and the Three one in the town centre. Neither have 5G and during peak times often throttle down to sub 5mbps speeds as there just isn’t enough capacity. This is from experience using them right underneath the mast(s). Use the O2 mast at 3am and you’ll see 60mbps. Contrast that to the Three mast adjacent to the A5 and it hits almost 100mbps. Which is probably the reason there hasn’t been a 5G rollout in the town, despite having more customers than the surrounding villages, for whatever reason there just isn’t the capacity.
I can’t speak for villages around the area, but for many areas of Lutterworth the service across both mobile and ‘landline’ is insanely bad. This work can’t come soon enough.
The infrastructure is in dire need of updating, we are already at the point where most residents in my area almost have speeds low enough to allow cancelation of services(28mbps for most, and even then the connections are unstable having to reset often due to the number of line errors).
Freddie- Not sure what phone you are using for EE but I get strong 5G coverage in Kibworth and Fleckney using both N78 and N28 and CityFibre have been round planning network in Kibworth as I have seen and spoken to them myself.
Openreach are further ahead due to start their build in June with core network upgrades taking place currently to increase the capacity back to Market Harborough which will be the headend where as in actual Market Harborough there has been a couple of retro builds to Ashley Way area and Lathkill street and a Community fibre project for estate opposite Leisure centre but nothing else is planned.
Please install Up North
Wow! Market Bosworth! Only a stones throw from Twycross exchange that has no plans from anyone including Openreach to fttp up! Maybe Twycross is next?
Ok, not wearing any PPE, no safety barriers, no courtesy board, no fire extinguisher or first aid kit.
It’s a full on audit fail.
They’re working in a a cabinet not Chernobyl. Get a grip.