Truespeed Add 2 North Somerset Towns to FTTP Broadband Plan

Bath-based UK ISP Truespeed, which is focused on deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across rural parts of Somerset (England), has today begun the next phase of their expansion by adding the North Somerset seaside towns of Portishead and Clevedon to their rollout plan.

The operator, which has so far covered 200 communities around Somerset and last year confirmed that they held an “ambitious target to reach 500,000 properties within the next five years” (i.e. by the end of 2026), is currently being funded by £175m from Aviva Investors. But the provider has yet to say how many premises they’ve actually completed (the prior goal was 75,000 by the end of 2021).

Some £100m of that investment was added earlier this year and will enable Truespeed to begin the next phase of their expansion, which is said to focus on the North Somerset area. The first locations to benefit from this appear to be Portishead and Clevedon, which will see around 8,000 premises being covered by their “full fibre” network.

Planning and building works are already well underway in both areas, with the first customers expected to go live by early summer 2022. The operator said they were investing £9 million into the area to make this a reality, which equates to a per premises build cost of £1,125 for the two towns. But the ISP doesn’t say when they expect the builds to complete.

James Lowther, CEO of Truespeed, said:

“It’s astonishing how many people still struggle with sub-standard connectivity when reliable broadband is an everyday necessity. It’s why we’re working tirelessly on delivering the very best connectivity to give our customers peace of mind that all their broadband needs are taken care of.”

However, despite the comments from James above, Truespeed is not the only gigabit-capable broadband network present in this area. Openreach is currently in the process of rolling out FTTP across Portishead and there’s also a small presence from Hyperoptic and OFNL, while Clevedon has already been covered by Virgin Media’s infrastructure. Rural ISP Gigaclear also sits just outside both towns, but they’ve yet to say if they’ll enter.

Truspeed’s customers typically pay from £29.99 per month for a symmetric speed 80Mbps package on an 18-month contract term, which rises to £69.99 for their top 900Mbps tier (currently discounted to £54.99). The service also includes a free phone service, installation and a heavily restricted router.