Lightning Fibre Extend UK FTTP Rollout to Kent and West Sussex

Alternative network ISP Lightning Fibre, which initially aimed to cover 100,000 premises across parts of East Sussex with their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband infrastructure, has today announced a multi-million pound expansion of their network into West Sussex and Kent in England.

The operator, which is being backed by private equity firm Foresight (here), first began their build in 2019 and was initially focused on deploying across the Eastbourne, Hastings, Hailsham, Heathfield and Bexhill areas of East Sussex (here). But the latest update reveals that they’ve so far covered 60,000 premises and the network will now be expanded into parts of West Sussex and Kent.

The first locations to benefit from this expansion, which has been made possible by the release of addition funding from Foresight, will include Haywards Heath (West Sussex) and Tenterden (Kent), with more towns under review. But the operator will face some competition from other gigabit-capable networks in these areas. For example, Haywards Heath has deployments from Virgin Media (VMO2), Openreach and Swish Fibre.

On top of this Lightning Fibre recently strengthened its Board, with the appointment of Amit Thakrar, portfolio director, at Foresight Group and Tim Passingham, chairman of Cambridge Management Consulting, who join fellow Board members, founder and CEO of Lightning Fibre, Ben Ferriman and Simon Bonini, non-executive director.

Ben Ferriman, Lightning Fibre CEO, said:

“This is a very exciting time for Lightning Fibre and highlights our rapid progress and success so far. We have not only built a network, we’ve built a brand. A brand that appeals to our local markets through a clear product and price differentiation as well as a genuine, evidence-based community-centric approach and exceptional customer care. We have thousands of happy customers in Eastbourne, and I am delighted that we have recently connected our first customers in Heathfield and Hailsham. We are ahead of schedule, and we’re delighted to now push into two new counties.”

Amit Thakrar, Foresight Group Portfolio Director, said:

“Progress in terms of network build, as well as uptake on the retail side of the business, has been extremely encouraging. All expectations have been exceeded and the positive reputation in the towns served by Lightning Fibre further supports the case for expansion.

Studies have shown full fibre optic networks reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote wider access to employment and education. The opportunity to accelerate the network build is very exciting and we’re confident the Lightning Fibre team will continue to surpass all our expectations.”

The latest expansion and related investment boost mean that the provider’s revised (upward) build plan to 140,000 premises (homes and businesses) is now fully-funded, although they still haven’t clarified how much funding is behind them yet or when the rollout will complete. The expansion is also great news for the local job market, as the company’s headcount will now increase to c.200.

Residential customers of the service pay from just £24 per month for a symmetric speed 100Mbps package on a 24-month term (plus a £48 one-off setup fee), which includes a 10Gbps LAN capable WiFi 6 router. This rises to £44 per month for their top 900Mbps package with free setup.

The new package prices are incredibly cheap and reflect some recent discounts to help people tackle the cost-of-living crisis. In addition, the ISP does NOT impose an annual inflationary price increase on its fixed term customers.