Truespeed Add 12 Areas in South West England to Full Fibre Build

Rural broadband ISP Truespeed, which is rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South West England, has today announced that they’re investing £22m to extend their deployment across 12 new locations in parts of South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath.

The operator, which has so far covered 50,000 premises (inc. 11,500 live customers) and holds an “ambitious” target to reach 500,000 properties by around the end of 2026, is currently being funded by a £175 million investment from Aviva. But until now most of their deployments had focused upon the Somerset and Bath area.

However, as a result of today’s announcement, Truespeed is expanding its network into parts of South Gloucestershire, where it has just added Thornbury, Almondsbury, Bradley Stoke, Patchway, Stoke Gifford and Chipping Sodbury to its rollout plan. But they’ll also be expanding their coverage in some existing deployment regions.

In Bath, Truespeed is expanding its footprint in Bathwick, Widcombe and Combe Down. Alongside this, they’re also adding the North Somerset areas of Uphill, Banwell and Sandford, which are located to the South and East of Weston-super-Mare, to their full fibre network. We should add that the ISP also connects schools and community hubs passed by its network to free broadband for life (140 such sites have already benefitted).

James Lowther, CEO of Truespeed, said:

“Access to reliable, ultrafast broadband plays an essential role in every day life and we’re pleased to be rolling out our ultrafast full fibre network to more homes and businesses than ever before. By investing in multiple communities across the South West including Thornbury, Stoke Gifford, Chipping Sodbury and Banwell to name just a few, we’re providing an enormous upgrade to a vital modern day utility.

Truespeed is working tirelessly to improve connectivity throughout the region and we’re excited to continue the rapid expansion of our ultrafast network.”

One familiar catch here is that some of the locations being targeted by Truespeed have also been named on the rollout plans of other gigabit-capable broadband networks. For example, Openreach have previously listed Chipping Sodbury for their own FTTP build and RunFibre are also targeting Bradley Stoke.

Otherwise, residential customers typically pay from £40 per month for a symmetric speed 150Mbps package on an 18-month contract term (currently discounted to £25) with Truespeed, which rises to £70 for their top 900Mbps tier (now discounted to £49). The service also includes a free phone solution, installation and a restricted router. Finally, prices have been frozen until May 2023, and they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.