Rural UK ISP Alncom Target 25000 Premises for FTTP Broadband

Alnwick-based ISP Alncom has today announced that they plan to extend the deployment of their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover a further 25,000 rural premises across parts of Northumberland, County Durham and the Scottish Borders.

At present, the provider already has a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network in Northumberland, which connects over 1,000 customers. In addition, they recently started to build their own full fibre network across Alnwick and other communities, which is using kit from ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 (TA5000) fibre access platform.

The full fibre rollout has already passed over 7,000 premises and their 1,000th fibre customer recently went live in the remote hamlet of Biddlestone, which is 10km from the closest town of Rothbury in Northumberland. The good news is that they’ve now set an ambitious (for a smaller provider) plan to reach 25,000 rural premises with their full fibre network.

As part of this, Alncom is also expanding network access to community premises by installing free fibre broadband into village halls. Longframlington Village Hall in Northumberland recently became the 20th ‘Alncom Digital Hub’ this month, and they plan to grow this scheme and further support digital transformation in rural communities by offering free training and IT events at these community hubs.

In addition, the ISP grew its full-time staff count to 50 this month and more hires are being planned. The provider has also appointed three new Directors – Mike Surrey (MD of Railsite telecom), Rory Wilson (CEO of Northumberland Estates) and Dr Andrew Parry (MD of Project Advisors International).

Alncom MD, Stephen Pinchen, said:

“The need for reliable, high-speed broadband has never been more important. It is incredibly satisfying to see our plans coming to fruition and witness the positive impact this has had on our rural communities.”

Building rural networks is slow and extremely expensive work, which is why there are so few providers that tend to focus on such areas (Gigaclear, B4RN, Openreach etc.), so it’s always good to see another provider expanding its ambitions in such locations.

Residential customers of the service tend to pay from £25 per month for an unlimited 35Mbps package, which rises to £90 for their top 925Mbps tier.

UPDATE 10:56am

We’re informed that the goal is to reach 25,000 premises by around the end of 2024.