Ogi Issue Progress Update on FTTP Broadband Rollout in Wales

Broadband ISP Ogi has just issued a brief progress update to celebrate the first year of their £200m effort to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across South Wales (here and here), which initially aims to cover 150,000 premises by the end of 2025 (they’ve almost completed 23,000).

At present Ogi, which was formerly known as Spectrum Internet and is currently being backed by Infracapital (i.e. the infrastructure investment arm of M&G Plc), says they’re still “on track” to deliver on the first phase (150,000 premises) of their rollout plan and “intend to accelerate” this rollout further. The operator has also created 165 “highly skilled jobs“, which doesn’t include the hundreds more being supported via their supply chains.

To date, the company states that they’ve “already connected” Haverfordwest, Rhoose, Llantwit Major, St Athan and Abergavenny, with its build now also getting underway in Johnston, Milford Haven, Dinas Powys and Monmouth: A further 8 other towns and villages are in the company’s sights before the end of 2022, yet none are named today (although their engineers have been spotted around Porthcawl).

Each community is said to “benefit from a capital injection of around £6m“, with the long-term economic impact from the company’s total first phase investment of £200m across south Wales estimated to be worth up to £1bn to the Welsh economy. But as usual, you should take such forecasts with a pinch of salt, since it remains perilously difficult to accurately model the economic impact of faster broadband speeds.

Ogi added that they’ve also opened four new offices this month to mark their first-year milestone – including premises in St Clears and Tongwynlais; a state-of-the-art network laboratory in Newport; and a flagship headquarters, ‘Tŷ Ogi’, in Cardiff’s historic Hodge House.

Ben Allwright, Ogi’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Right from the start, our ambition has been to become a leading Welsh telecoms company, and the last 12 months have certainly laid the foundations for that goal.

We’re continuously driven to bring next generation broadband to underserved areas across Wales. Ogi’s roll-out is bringing much needed connectivity to towns and villages from Pembrokeshire to Monmouthshire much faster than they’d otherwise be served, ensuring everybody has access to the same opportunities for a more prosperous and greener future.

Our team live and work in our rollout communities and are passionate about the possibilities that Gigabit-connectivity is bringing.”

The announcement itself didn’t mention it, but Ogi has informed us that they anticipate passing 23,000 premises by the end of this month (up from sharply from 4,565 households in Nov 2021), with sales penetration figures ahead of plan for this stage by 9%. Take-up is always suppressed during the early ramping-up phase of a new network build, since the rollout often goes faster than people can organically adopt it.

One other thing that isn’t covered in the announcement is Ogi’s pursuit of a dual strategy to build and unbundle, which enables them to offer cheaper FTTP broadband packages via Openreach’s network (i.e. in areas where they’ve yet to deploy their own fibre, to maximise coverage). A total of around 33 handover exchanges are expected to have been unbundled and backhauled by the end of 2022 (here) – plus a few Sub-Loop Unbundled (SLU) areas.

Otherwise, customers of the new service can expect to pay from £35 per month for an unlimited service with downloads of 150Mbps (15Mbps upload), free installation and an included wireless router (or a mesh system on their faster plans) – currently reduced to £25 per month for the first 6 months on a 24-month term. By comparison, Ogi’s top package will give you 900Mbps (90Mbps upload) for £65 per month (£55 for the first 6 months).

Ogi’s 150 packages include the Zyxel EX3301 router, while Ogi 300 and Ogi 900 packages include two Amazon eero routers (wifi mesh).