Infracapital-backed Network builder and broadband ISP Ogi, which is investing £200m to roll-out a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 150,000 premises in rural parts of Wales by 2025, has this morning announced a list of the next 23 towns and villages to benefit from their deployment.
The provider, which has so far covered 42,000 premises (up from 23,000 in June 2022), has already connected premises across a number of locations since their rollout started last year (here and here) – including around Haverfordwest, Rhoose, Llantwit Major, St Athan, Abergavenny and many more (see below for a full list).
In terms of the network itself, Ogi’s infrastructure has so far been deployed using dual optic combination line cards, which enables them to support both XGS-PON and GPON (common full fibre standards) simultaneously on any port of the Optical Line Terminal (OLT). The ISP also recently became one of the first UK ISPs to deploy Nokia’s next generation 25G Passive Optical Network (25G PON) fibre technology onto its live network (here).
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The latest towns and villages to benefit from Ogi’s rollout include places such as Blackwood, Langstone, Maesteg, Pontypool, Trehafod, and Underwood. Once work is complete, homes and businesses in these areas will have access to the altnet’s ultrafast network – with most able to access fibre to the door for the very first time.
Ogi’s Full Fibre Locations
With today’s announcement Ogi’s rollout covers previously underserved communities across south Wales including:
- Bridgend: Caerau*, Cwmfelin*, Garth*, Llangynwyd*, Maesteg^*, Nantyffyllon*, Porthcawl^
- Caerphilly: Blackwood^*, Cefn Fforest*, Cefn Hengoed, Fleur-de-lis*, Hengoed^, Pengam*, Ystrad Mynach, Maesycymmer, Pontllanfraith*, Tir-y-Berth*, Woodfieldside*.
- Monmouthshire: Abergavenny^, Caerwent, Caldicot^, Chepstow, Crick, Magor^, Monmouth^, Portskewett, Rogiet, Sudbrook, Undy.
- Newport: Langstone*, Llanvaches^, Underwood*^.
- Pembrokeshire: Haverfordwest^, Johnston, Milford Haven^, Neyland^, Pembroke^, Pembroke Dock^
- Rhondda Cynon Taf: Cymmer, Dinas, Llwyncelyn, Mount Pleasant, Porth^, Trebanog, Trehafod, Ynyshir.
- Torfaen: Griffithstown*, New Inn*, Pantymoile*, Penygarn*, Pontypool^*, Sebastopol*, Trosnant*, Wainfelin*.
- Vale of Glamorgan: Dinas Powys^, Llantwit Major^, Rhoose, St Athan.
^ Local Network Exchange
* New towns and villages announced in January 2023 (23 in total)
The provider claims that the latest areas reflect an economic impact worth “around £5 million to each local area“, with research suggesting the “long-term benefit could be as high as five times that“, as local homes and businesses adopt the new technology.
However, no details are provided to clarify how this figure was produced, and we always advise taking economic forecasts about the predicted impact of faster broadband speeds with a pinch of salt. Not least since most premises won’t be starting from a point of zero connectivity.
Ben Allwright, Ogi’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“As we see demand for reliable ultrafast speeds increase, our work becomes even more important. Our homes continue to get smarter, and with the cost-of-living crisis affecting everything we do, we’re seeing more and more people looking to improve the quality of their connectivity for work and entertainment at home.
Our full fibre network is helping business to adapt and really embrace agile ways of working; while at home, families can experience the best possible entertainment choices, without the battle for bandwidth we’re all too familiar with on the existing, ageing part-fibre, copper networks.”
Customers of the new service can expect to pay from £30 per month for an unlimited service with downloads of 150Mbps (15Mbps upload), free installation (usually £60) and an included wireless router on a 24-month term, which rises to £60 for their top 900Mbps (90Mbps upload) plan – the ISP is also offering the first 6 months of service for free! Ogi’s fastest plans also include Amazon Eero’s (two units) WiFi mesh system.
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Bring on the RCT roll out!
wake me up when Ogi reach Carmarthenshire with 25G XGSPON 🙂
Good news for Maesteg. It looks like by the end of the year most of the valley will have a choice of 3 FTTP suppliers. BT are already in the process of rolling out with some areas already able to order. Netomnia have said they will be live sometime this year and now OGI have announced their plans (although OGI’s plans for Maesteg have been visible on the bidb.uk website for a couple of weeks).
Beware of Netomnia though – they cherry pick all the easy areas to build in – need to be PIA green, houses need to have ducts in etc.
So not a 100% guarantee you will be able to get them…
This is not exclusive to Netomnia, in fact most alts do this and even openreach is cherry picking and is completely dodging towns with bad pia.
Why should any provider cough up huge costs of digging because of openreach when in some places the government will foot taxpayer money to cover them? Plus what happened in some London estates where community fibre builds ducting and then Hyperoptic, gnet, virgin all leach from it. Whoever is digging without taxpayer money will need a much higher takeup to cover the costs
@ John I am sure they aren’t – can’t comment on other operators because I know only about Ogi, OR, VM or NO. – but Ogi will build a whole town in its entirety – that’s the differentiator here.
And that’s why their packages are more expensive, their costs get passed down to you
I have absolutely no problem with that. I would quite happily throw my wallet at any provider who bothers to show up and fibre up my area. What’s the alternative? Move house just to get cheaper internet? That’s not much better.
Sorry – I meant full fibre – not specifically “cheaper”
My area should be quite easy. OR have cleared all the underground ducts and the last bit of the connection is via overhead cable.
Tylorstown in Ferndale have a part finished job thanks to OR, and just as it gets to the houses of which I live in which are back fed not front, it all stopped!
Nice to see Ynyshir is on the list, which isn’t a great distance from here, I’m just hoping they get to this small town sooner or later?
Speaking of running Fibre over the poles where they can’t dig, has any success been made of this? If it has I apologize as I missed this in the news….
Ogi said they pride themselves on providing broadband to rural areas came within 1mile of my property where I get guaranteed speed of 2 Meg but it proved to difficult so abandoned us they done areas where good speeds where already available and left us and have no future plans to provide us with this much needed essential service thanks ogi
I wonder if Abersychan/Talywain is included with “Pontypool” since it is a part of it. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of roll-out here at all, from any provider. Openreach says nothing is planned, Ogi postcode checker says it’s coming (though, I’m assuming that’s because they are in Pontypool…), roadwork maps say they are going as far as Pontnewenydd so it suggests they are only covering Pontypool Town.
I know Ogi browses this website, is there any chance of getting any confirmation?
What website do you use to check roadworks maps please? Ogi say they’re coming to blackwood which is technically my town but also not. Website says they’re coming but like you I suspect it’s a postcode thing.
https://bidb.uk Dean
Can’t see much point in 150Mbps down(15Mbps upload), I get more than 15mbps now with plusnet 70 down, 18 up.
150 down and 15 up is a vast improvement for many people that either aren’t on fttc or stuck on slow fttc speeds. I only get 25 down and around 4 up at the moment. Ogi’s package structure/pricing is also still quite new. I suspect as markets change and they get more customers feedback they’ll begin offering faster upload as standard with each package. I think many people also don’t realise that for a small additional monthly fee on a 30 day rolling contract you can upgrade the upload speed to match the download speed.