Upp Extend UK FTTP Broadband Rollout in Norfolk and Lincolnshire
Network builder and UK ISP Upp has today confirmed that they’ve started rolling out their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to premises (homes and business) across the Norfolk town of King’s Lynn. But we’ve also managed to pull the full rollout plan (so far) from their website.
Upp – supported by funding from LetterOne – is currently investing £1bn (£300m in equity and the rest as debt) to build their new full fibre network to cover 1 million premises in the East of England by 2025 (here). The build has already begun in several towns across Norfolk and Lincolnshire (e.g. Diss, Downham Market and Thetford) and they previously aimed to reach 50 towns (c.300,000 homes) in the two counties by the end of 2022.
The latest announcement, which saw North West Norfolk MP, James Wild, visit their build in King’s Lynn, also mentions that they’ll soon be going live in parts of Swaffham, Norwich and Wisbech.
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Once live, customers of the new service tend to pay from just £26 a month on a 24-month term for their unlimited 200Mbps packages (including router and installation), which rises to £43 for their top 900Mbps plan. The first month of service is also free, plus five months free if you place an order between now and 22nd January 2023.
Eryl Stafford, Upp’s COO, said:
“It was a pleasure to offer James Wild a tour of our King’s Lynn sites and discuss Upp’s expansion plans. It was also great to meet someone as keen about providing faster broadband as we are!”
The operator has tended to be quite coy with announcing new rollout plans via press releases, but luckily their website is much more informative, and we’ve used this opportunity to pull out a list of the locations they’re currently targeting across parts of Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. We assume those listed as “In development” below are simply still in planning (no physical build is taking place, yet).
Upp’s Rollout Current Plan
Live / Partially Live Areas
Diss
Downham Market
Market Deeping
Spalding
Stamford
Thetford
Woodhall SpaComing next
Attleborough
Bourne
Grantham
Holbeach
Horncastle
King’s Lynn
Lincoln
Long Sutton
Norwich
Oakham
Swaffham
WisbechIn development
Alford
Aylsham
Boston
Brandon
Burnham
Chatteris
Cromer
Dereham
Ely
Fakenham
Heckington
Holt
Hunstanton
Louth
Mablethorpe
March
Market Rasen
Melton Mowbray
Mildenhall
Newark-on-Trent
North Walsham
Sheringham
Skegness
Sleaford
Soham
Spilsby
Swineshead
Watton
Wymondham
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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There seems a lot of overbuild between AltNets here, with both Upp and LightSpeed building in very similar areas.
I’ve read that LightSpeed use CG-NAT, does anyone have any information on Upp’s service?
Netomnia already covered most of Spalding, Boston and Kings Lynn and has partial coverage in other of the towns mentioned. These people sure love burning cash rather than picking a new location
Would be great if any of these alt-nets would cover the “bits” in between the towns.
I’m between Spalding and Boston, and neither Lightspeed or Netomnia/Youfibre are planning on offering coverage – expect Upp will be the same.
I’d be happy to have anything better than the 24Mbps FTTC that I currently get, but likely will be waiting until at least 2025 when Openreach may get around to rolling out FTTP
If you’re in bduk rural land then it’s up for the procurement to release the funds
interesting where abouts
I am amazed that Upp are planning to build their own network in Norwich, already largely served by VirginMedia and CityFibre. Presumably BTOpenreach will want its own network to replace its copper eventually. Some consolidation must occur soon surely?
A large majority of Norwich already has Openreach FTTP. Kings Lynn will have 5 different providers on its poles soon enough now Upp and VM are building there.
Once again another ISP avoiding Wainfleet ane Burgh which the only 2 towns left IN Lincolnshire without an FTTP plan.
Everywhere else seems to be given priority
interesting re wainfleet — have you done anything about it and have an of the operators reached out to you
I’m not sure I agree with only two towns being left out as look at the larger villages with no fttp or even fttc such as Holton le Clay, admittedly there is Virgin but if you don’t want to pay Virgin’s prices the only other offering is about 4 to 6mbps. No plans for fibre here at all. In the north of the county there’s reasonable provision in North and North East Lincolnshire, yet as soon as the authority boundaries change, it becomes a fibre wilderness from the boundary for much of the rest of northern Lincolnshire all the way down as far as Lincoln. I’ve sent an email to Upp about it asking if they’ll consider extending above Louth which is the furthest north mentioned in this article. It’s all down to their discretion of course and none of these alt nets have to do anything whilst we await Openreach even starting to think about fibre. Personally I’ve resorted to mobile broadband.
Fastman:
Yes we’ve contacted Openreach, Upp, Lightspeed, YouFibre and Quickline. Only one who’s responded is Lightspeed and they just want us to get residents to register their interest.
Steve:
I’ve looked at a list of towns in Lincolnshire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Towns_in_Lincolnshire
Burgh le Marsh and Wainfleet are the only 2 towns on the list without an FTTP plan.
LincolnshireLeftOut, I think you’re playing a bit loose and fast with political status of a location rather than population. Wainfleet may indeed be a town, but its population is exceeded by many villages that have no fttp plan such as the example I have provided. Holton le Clay has a population three times the size of Wainfleet, so simply referring to a location on its political geographic status really makes zero commercial sense.
I appreciate the reply and can understand that some towns are smaller than certain villages by population but please don’t presume I’m “playing”. I don’t have much in-depth knowledge on the commercial side of this full fibre rollout so I decided to stick with what fact I and others locally are aware of.
Maybe next time you could word your reply in a manner than wouldn’t be deemed condescending
Please accept my apologies if you have misinterpreted what I said, it isn’t my intention to condescend and I certainly don’t feel I have. I’m simply looking at this as a numbers game and your description of two towns isn’t really a fair comparison. Ignore the status village/town/city and instead think in population numbers then it’s easy to see the angle I’m coming at. Add your examples of Wainfleet and Burgh le Marsh together they still don’t even come close to the population of my example of Holton le Clay. Just because somewhere has town status doesn’t mean, well really, anything at all these days.
Main road in Quadring