F&W Networks Extends Full Fibre to Cover 250,000 UK Premises
Hammersmith-based F&W Networks, which aims to cover 1 million UK premises with their new gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network by 2025, has now expanded their coverage to 250,000 premises (up from 185k in October 2022) and they’ve also added another ISP in the shape of Octaplus (Octaplus Supercharged).
At present, F&W Networks is currently deploying their FTTP network across parts of several counties in England including West Sussex (Horsham and Southwater), Oxfordshire, Greater London, Buckinghamshire (Gerrards Cross, Chalfont Saint Peter, High Wycombe and Beaconsfield), Hertfordshire (Hemel Hempstead) and Surrey (Godalming) etc.
However, until now F&W have only been supported by a handful of consumer ISPs (e.g. Hey! Broadband, Merula and ZYBRE), but that group has today been joined by broadband and Pay TV provider Octaplus (Octaplus Supercharged). We should add that Octaplus also sells broadband packages via CityFibre and MS3’s rival full fibre networks.
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Gladstone Gonsalves, MD of Octaplus Networks Ltd, said:
“Our partnership with F&W Networks will help us achieve our goal as we connect more customers throughout UK. The towns connected to the F&W Networks’ footprint gives Octaplus the ability to provide fast, affordable, and reliable internet services to these premises. We’re excited to join the network and partner with F&W Networks.”
The addition of 65,000 premises over the past four months (roughly) to F&W Networks fibre suggests a build rate of around 16,250 premises passed per month, which is up sharply from our prior estimate of 10,000 in October 2022. But they’ll need to keep ramping-up in order to stand any chance of hitting the 1 million mark by 2025, which in this market of rising investor apathy is not always an easy task.
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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Carlos is a good guy but TBB nowhere near supports this number
They have been deploying their network here in Horsham for years, still not reached my home.
May just be waiting for the final check as there have been new boxes added to my pole, but that could be Openreach or Cityfibre who are both also deploying in the town.
I’m in Horsham and in a small section of F&W (Hey! Broadband) no man’s land. I just did a check for availability with Octaplus and was told I could get 900/900 via Cityfibre. On confirming with sales, they said no. I expect it’s coming soon, but it is frustrating.
This must be a homes passed rather than serviceable. I drive past their network and it’s clear a large number of their nodes are not connected and don’t have any customers drop wires connected.
Placing a cable 100m from a home is meaningless, the only important metric is how many homes can get service and how many customers are connected
Wording is clever…. ‘expanded their coverage to 250,000 premises’. Expanded doesn’t mean homes passed. It means they’re live in towns with 250k premises.
But as Phil said. 250k is a nothing number if the homes cannot get service.
@JJ. No, it’s 250,000 premises passed, although they don’t clarify if all of those are RFS.
Their coverage figures are suspect. My observations of them in Sussex is they are glacially slow at building and other players are outbuilding them rapidly. Also I have noted their underground fibre closures involve many bolts to open which their installers often don’t bother to do back up.
Do F&W and Hey Broadband have the same owners?
Seems they have common directors and F&W are listed as persons with significant control:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11992003/persons-with-significant-control
It’s not uncommon for AltNets that start a wholesale network to also setup a second company to act as an anchor tenant ISP, until others join. Otherwise, they’d risk rolling out with no way to sell what they’ve built. The key question is whether or not every ISP on the network is treated equally.
I noticed fibre being installed down my street in Finchley London with a sign showing F&W many months ago. More work was being done a week ago.
I am not being offered FTTP by anyone.
How do I find what is going on and who will actually operate the fibre as the workers this time did not mention F&W.