Broadband ISP Trooli has announced that their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which aims to reach at least 1 million UK premises by the end of 2024, has now extended to cover a total of 275,000 premises (up from 220k in May 2022) – nearly triple the coverage they had a year ago. They’re also entering Derbyshire.
At present Trooli is already busy deploying across various English towns and villages in Kent, East Sussex, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire and Suffolk. But they’re also now starting to see their first services go live in Norfolk and Dorset. Some of the most recent locations to go live include High Halstow, Lakenheath, Milford on Sea, Storrington, Wimborne Minster and Winchelsea.
According to the announcement, the latest milestone “confirms Trooli’s position as the fastest growing rural alternative network provider in the industry“. The key word there is “rural“, which is much harder to judge because the operator’s deployment areas are a bit of a mix between suburban, semi-rural and remote rural.
Work is now under way to make the new network available to a further 80,000 premises over the next 3 months, with a particular emphasis on East Sussex, West Sussex and Suffolk, alongside further cable laying in the other counties. On top of that, they’re also launching their first network area in Derbyshire (no locations have been announced today).
Once this work is complete, Trooli will have laid more than 4,000km of fibre optic cabling since its launch in 2018. Impressive stuff.
Andy Conibere, CEO of Trooli, said:
“We are consolidating our position as the country’s leading independent provider of rural full fibre with a substantial footprint in a number of key strategic locations.
Thanks to the hard work of our growing team – which now numbers more than 250 – we are accelerating our roll-out, building faster than our rivals, delighting our customers, consistently hitting our business plan targets and delivering value for our investors.
With demand for our Gigabit-capable service continuing to rise, we continue to go from strength to strength and will further successfully scale our business so we remain at the forefront of rural broadband delivery.”
So far the initial funding for this rollout project has included €30m from the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (Cube Infrastructure Managers) and £5m from NatWest, which was given a huge boost last year by a new £67.5m debt facility agreement via a consortium of commercial lenders, facilitated by the CEBF (here). Trooli has also previously been connected with plans to raise another £200m in order to target 2.1 million UK premises by the end of 2024 (here), but we’ve yet to see that being confirmed.
However, one area that the ISP may need to refine is their pricing, as well as the lack of a cheaper entry-level tier to grab users with basic needs. New customers currently pay from £35 per month on an 18-month term (£50 thereafter) for their unlimited 300Mbps (100Mbps upload) package, which rises to £68 (£80 after the first 18 months) for their top 900Mbps (300Mbps upload) plan. The first month of service is free.
Such pricing is fair, considering their rural focus, but it may be a tougher sell in locations where they face competitive from rival networks, which could easily undercut them.
Storrington is in West Sussex not Norfolk or Dorset
Wow they are almost as expensive as BT
I wonder how true the figures are, my parents road is in the middle of a Trooli rollout, they can now order, but the fibre DP and loose coil of fibre are just taped to the pole. Seem to jumping the gun taking orders!
I’ve been connected for almost two months. Every phone pole in my area has two runs of fiber . One run connected and one taped to the pole.Great service so far.
It would be nice if they could actually roll out to the places they list as live on their site (and where they have a large office) such as East Peckham…
Totally agree. East Peckham seems to a be dead spot for any sort of FTTP roll out. I have completed the form on their website with no reply!
They are running Facebook adverts stating they are coming to Belper, Holbrook, and Milford.
I do love that almost every day we hear great news about the fibre optic rollout pushing forward at speed!
Thank you for your efforts Mark.
They’ve already setup my DD and stated September for my install date (Great Blakenham, Suffolk).
Please be advised that the speeds advertised are their minimum guaranteed speeds so you can add roughly 10%.
£68 a month, first month free and I’ve had 3 confirmed referrals which provide a free month each also.
My only concern is that the postcode checker and taking orders section don’t seem to be in sync… ie the postcode checker took my order etc but it appears the live/taking orders/coming soon section of the website hasn’t been updated.
Any update when FULL Fibre will be available in Ringmer, East Sussex???
They are also in a massive rollout in Hampshire and the new forest at the moment. I’ve spotted them in Ringwood, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst, Lymington, New-Milton, Milford on Sea, Hythe and Holbury, Marchwood.
I’ve been able to put in an order.