Network operator Netomnia has today added the town of Horwich (Bolton) and the village of Bamber Bridge (Lancashire) to their ongoing UK rollout of a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP – XGS-PON) based broadband ISP network in England.
The operator, which last year secured £123m of funding (here) and has so far covered over 90,000 UK premises across various towns, ultimately aims to reach 1 million UK homes and businesses by the end of 2023, which is very ambitious for such a timescale. Netomnia often faces competition from gigabit-capable rivals in some of the areas they target.
As part of that they’ve just announced an investment of £16m to cover around 53,000 premises in the town of Horwich, which is being complemented by another £12.6m to cover 42,000 premises in Bamber Bridge. The figures for premises passed in both locations are curious, since Horwich only has a population of 20,000 and Bamber Bridge is pushing 14,000 – we understand the build will thus include surrounding areas too.
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The service itself is typically supplied to consumers via UK ISP partner YouFibre, which offers unlimited usage, symmetrical speeds, a Wi-Fi router, free installation and 24/7 UK based support. Customers pay from £22 per month on an 18-month term for their unlimited 50Mbps package, which rises to £40 if you want their top 900Mbps plan. At present, there’s also a special offer that gives the first 3 months of service for free.
UPDATE 3:33pm
Netomnia have informed us that their coverage has grown to 115,000 premises passed.
They must be the only network currently deploying XGS-PON as the standard?
Nope, some others are. CommunityFibre, Trooli, zzoomm and more are.
They have now started their rollout in Frome which is great. Hopefully not too long to wait.
Is it common to type your postcode into their checker to be told you area isn’t in our plans? Does that mean it isn’t currently or most likely won’t be full stop.
It’s a shame the map doesn’t have shaded areas like Cityfibre or Openreach to postcodes they are targeting.
It means you aren’t planned yet. If they knew they were planning on covering you you’d be in the plans.
Have a nose at https://bidb.uk to see what’s upcoming for you.