BeFibre’s FTTP Broadband Network Goes Live in Ingatestone

Gigabit broadband ISP BeFibre has announced that their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is being rolled out across various parts of England with support from partner Digital Infrastructure, has just gone live for customers in the Essex village of Ingatestone.

The operator began their UK deployment last year with a plan to cover 1 million premises across 80 towns and cities by the end of 2027 (here), albeit starting with an initial goal of achieving 200,000 premises passed (Ready for Service) by the end of 2022. Most of their first builds are taking place across parts of Essex, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

The operator first announced their plans to build across Ingatestone back in April, and we’re happy to report that they’ve just become the latest location to go live on the new network. The build utilised existing ducts (e.g. Openreach’s PIA product) without having to dig up local roads, which lowers their roll-out costs, increases efficiency, and minimises the environmental impact of the network deployment.

BeFibre’s CEO, Charlie Ruddy, said:

“Despite our historic innovation in this space, the UK lags significantly behind overseas nations when it comes to full fibre. In fact, the country is currently ranked 35th in terms of our broadband speeds – up from 47th in 2020, but still down from 34th in 2019[2]. We have to change this.”

Customers of the BeFibre service can expect to pay from £29 per month on a 24-month term for an unlimited 150Mbps (symmetric) package with free installation, which rises to just £51 for their top 1Gbps tier. The first 3 months of service are currently free on all of their packages.