County Broadband Extend FTTP Broadband to 9 Essex UK Villages

Network builder and rural ISP County Broadband has today announced 9 new villages, this time in Essex (England), where local homes and businesses will now be able to access their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is also being deployed across parts of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

The areas being announced today have already started to go live and form part of the operator’s current plan to cover 500,000 premises across the rural East of England with their full fibre network by the end of 2027, which is being backed by an investment of £146 million from Aviva Investors (here).

The live villages are: Frating, Helions Bumpstead, Hempstead, Langham, Pleshey, Woodham Mortimer, Woodham Walter, Little Maplestead and Barnston.

James Salmon, Director of Sales and New Territories at County Broadband, said:

“We are pleased to welcome nine more villages on our doorstep to our full-fibre network. We’ve already started connecting homes and businesses and many more will be coming online over the coming weeks.

Whilst we were just about managing with the Victorian copper-based networks, the pandemic was a real game-changer and sharply demonstrated our reliance on broadband for work, education and entertainment. Simply put, the demand for data is outpacing what the existing networks can supply.

That’s why we’ve been investing tens of millions of pounds to build full-fibre networks and provide the speeds we need not only today, but for the years ahead.

As the region bounces back from the pandemic, digital connectivity will be the foundation for driving productivity and growth. But these complex infrastructure projects cannot be completed overnight which is why we must start now. Essex is where we began and we will continue to grow our network in the county so more homes and businesses can benefit from lightning-fast speeds.”

Prices for their service may vary between areas, but in most cases new customers will typically pay from £33.99 per month (excluding discounts) for an unlimited symmetric speed 100Mbps service with a bundled wireless router and £25 for installation, then £35.99 for 200Mbps, £37.99 for 300Mbps, £49.99 for 600Mbps and £69.99 for 900Mbps on a 24-month term.

County Broadband, based in Aldham near Colchester, was founded in 2003. It has grown to 170 employees since 2018 and has plans to become a 270-strong workforce by Christmas 2022.