Toob Bring FTTP Broadband to 18000 Southampton Council Residents

The Southampton City Council in Hampshire and UK ISP toob have today signed a new wayleave (legal land / property access) agreement, which will enable the provider to extend their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 18,000 council residents in houses and flats.

The operator, which was originally backed by an investment of £75m from funds advised by the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and recently secured “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here), is currently aiming to cover 1 million premises across the South of England by 2027 (mostly in Surrey and Hampshire).

As part of that work they’ve already invested £50m to build across 100,000 premises in the city of Southampton, which is now nearly complete. But until now, this deployment has not been able to include the city’s many social housing residents, although all that has just changed.

The provider will now spend the next 18-months extending their full fibre infrastructure to cater for the 18,000 council housing residents that the new agreement will enable them to serve.

Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:

“Over the last two years we have all become very aware of the importance of fast and reliable broadband. Whether you have been trying to study or work from home, start a new business or simply enjoy the latest box-set, fast and reliable broadband has become essential.

Full-fibre is the fastest and most reliable broadband technology and I am delighted that we will be able to offer our services to the Housing tenants in Southampton.

As a company, we exist to provide this vital service to the communities in which we operate and I hope that by providing access to our service to the Housing tenants in Southampton we are able to play our role in bridging the digital divide.”

Councillor Spiros Vassiliou said:

“We are delighted to be working with toob to allow Southampton Housing residents access to the latest full fibre broadband technology. It will help increase access to high quality internet connectivity across Southampton.

We want to ensure that communities in Southampton benefit from increased choice of broadband providers to enable them to have good access to the internet and flourish. This will help create economic, social and cultural benefits and create neighbourhoods where people want to live. By working with toob and giving Housing tenants in Southampton access to the broadband technology, we are widening accessibility to improve digital inclusion which supports our new Council administrations ongoing policy to Get Southampton Moving.”

Customers of the provider typically pay just £25 per month for the first 18-months of service (£29 thereafter) to get an unlimited 900Mbps (symmetric) broadband package with an included wireless router, which comes with free installation.

The operator is also building or planning to build across various other cities and towns, such Aldershot, Eastleigh and Chandler’s Ford. Not to mention the Surrey towns of Camberley and Frimley, as well as other locations such as Ash, Farnborough, Green, Guildford, Mytchett, West Byfleet and Woking (here).