Pure Broadband No Longer Supports MS3’s Full Fibre Network

Hull-based UK ISP Pure Broadband, which in March 2022 announced that their broadband packages had been made available via MS3’s new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the North of England (here), has suddenly stopped offering related services since being taken over by Connexin in July (here).

Until now Pure Broadband has tended to deliver its internet connectivity services to homes and businesses covered by full fibre networks from KCOM, CityFibre, OFNL and MS3. The latter is presently rolling out a new full fibre network to premises in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (e.g. Hull, Scunthorpe, Cleethorpes and Grimsby etc.).

However, Connexin’s recent acquisition has cast doubt over Pure Broadband’s existing wholesale-based multi-operator approach, not least because their new parent has its own £80m deployment to extend a new full fibre network across parts of Hull and East Yorkshire (i.e. competing with MS3 etc.). But a lot of these new networks don’t yet overlap, thus it was unclear how the issue might be handled.

The question was raised again this week after an interested consumer sent us a message they had recently received from Pure (Credits Adrian): “Unfortunately we are unable to provide you a service through the MS3 network as we are no longer partnered with MS3. However, we are able to offer a fantastic alternative in your area and have an offer on our 175Mbps, 400Mbps and 900Mbps until the end of August.”

We queried this and the status of Pure’s other networks partners, but Connexin was initially unable to give a full answer.

Furqan Alamgir, Founder and CEO of Connexin, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“The recent acquisition of Pure Broadband by Connexin has resulted in some positive, exciting changes throughout the full business. The team’s focus is on bringing the strengths of both businesses together, to create one of the largest Alt-Nets in the North. We’re working extremely hard behind the scenes, to create an ISP experience that consumers have never seen before. We have some exciting announcements to come…”

Naturally, it would not be at all surprising if Connexin wanted to prioritise their own FTTP network over that of local rivals, although at the same time they do need to be clear and upfront about this with consumers. For example, we weren’t sure whether the change to MS3’s availability was location specific (e.g. where overbuild may be occurring), network-wide or only impacted new customers.

The good is that we’ve since received a more detailed response from Tony Jopling, Head of Operations at Connexin (formerly the MD of Pure Broadband): “We have maintained relationships with all of Pure Broadband’s ISP partners following the recent acquisition, the decision to end the MS3 partnership was not made by Connexin or Pure Broadband. Existing Pure Broadband customers on the MS3 network will remain unaffected.”

Tony added that their work with other network providers is unaffected, which we take to mean that services offered via CityFibre, KCOM and OFNL will be maintained.. at least for now. We have also reached out to MS3 and were informed that Pure Broadband / Connexin had made no changes to the contract and “therefore they can place orders if they choose to.” Interesting.