Toob Names 2 Hampshire Locations for FTTP Broadband Build
Network operator and UK ISP toob, which is building a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of Hampshire and Surrey in England, has today added two new towns to their rollout plan – Yateley and Blackwater.
The provider, which is being supported by an investment of £162.5m from the Amber Infrastructure Group and the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund, currently plans to cover 1 million premises across the South of England by 2027. At present, most of their builds can be found in cities and towns like Southampton, Aldershot, Fareham, Eastleigh, Chandler’s Ford, Ash, Farnborough and Woking etc.
The good news is that toob has today announced two new locations in Hampshire, including Yateley and Blackwater, which will soon benefit from their network. But as is now becoming quite common, the operator won’t be the only gigabit-capable broadband network playing in these waters. Virgin Media (VMO2) already covers both of the neighbouring towns and Openreach are working to rollout FTTP in the same area.
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Detailed planning has already commenced across the two towns, with build activity due to start in the coming weeks and first customers connected by early 2023.
Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:
“I am delighted to announce that we are bringing full-fibre broadband to Yateley and Blackwater. There is a need for fast and reliable broadband and full-fibre is the best technology to deliver this experience.
At toob we want all members of the local community to enjoy all the benefits full fibre can bring so we provide all our customers with 900Mbps. This allows our customers to surf, stream, game and work all at the same time without the worry of slowing down at peak times or the signal dropping out at the critical moment. We offer this service at £25 per month to make these benefits available to all not the few.”
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.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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So Winchester still gets left out. Why won’t anyone build here? It truly is baffling. Openreach has no plans for Winchester (it is commercially unviable apparently). No Cityfibre and none of the other alt-nets either. Great.
Search for the Openreach Document: Ultrafast_Full_Fibre_broadband_Build_Programme_May_2022.pdf
Winchester is planned for 22/23-24/25…
Although planning is one thing and doing is something else…
It’s not. Look at the exchange name (it says Whiteley). For some bizarre reason, Whiteley exchange comes under the Winchester “area” or something daft like that.
I have contacted Openreach directly and they confirmed that they have NO plans for Winchester. Commercially unviable apparently, as I mentioned in my original post.
Sounds like they’ve answered your question: it’d cost too much.
Likely the same issues are holding back the other alternative networks.
Let me ask a guy who works with altnets about the city.
Just picked up on this. I’m a bit confused, are you complaining about Winchester or Whiteley not being rolled out quick enough? And does openreach make decisions based on general area or is it more localised? Whiteley comes under both Fareham and Winchester councils so there is some logic for it to be classed as the latter. Whiteley though was served via a tpon satellite exchange from the main locks heath one which hindered adsl deployments in the early days. I think the original fix for that was to bring cables from the main exchange over although no idea what we have now. Most BT speeds are under 50Mbps but we also have the option of virgin in most areas to fix that. I do find it strange that Whiteley has a business park, 3000 homes increasing to 6000 over the next few years and yet neither openreach or one of the ALTs see it as viable. I’d bite someone’s hand off to get 1Gbps symmetrical for around £50 per month as I mainly want more upload speed. Ironically the business park is home to onestream and giganet!
Yet another new location announcement from Toob when they’ve yet to finish their rollout in the first announced city of Southampton. We were supposed to have full coverage by last year and Covid hadn’t slowed Toob down as they were building during lockdown etc. Just infuriating when they can’t seem to focus on their original objective and seemingly announce new locations on a monthly basis.
i’ll take a stab in the dark and say no roll outs in Winchester due to a pain in the arse council, unable to get road closures due to aforementioned council. Locals not having any kind of poles spoiling views and so forth . Could be completely wrong but that’s the impression i get of the place. Think it even tops
london as the most expensive place to live in the UK ? A serious amount of red trousers and tape no doubt. Again, could be completely wrong. What ever it is, it’s something to do with money.
They cant even give dates for roll outs they are currently working on what are they doing releasing new locations