Broadband ISP Connexin Move to Boost North England FTTP Build

Broadband ISP and UK network operator Connexin, which is currently building a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Hull and Yorkshire (here), has today announced the appointment of two “new” Tier 1 contractors to accelerate their full fibre network expansion to cover 500,000 premises.

Until today, we still don’t know exactly how many premises Connexin were aiming to cover or over what timescale, but we did know that they’re being backed by an investment of £80 million from PATRIZIA (formerly Whitehlem Capital) and last year doubled their workforce to 150.

As part of that, they’ve today selected civil engineering firms MAP Group and SCD Group to help “fully complete” their rollout of the new FTTP broadband network across “all of Hull and key areas of the East Riding of Yorkshire” by December 2023 (this is the first solid target we’ve seen) – apparently they’re “aiming to cover virtually every single home and business.”

The announcement added that their aim is to put “new and better broadband infrastructure within reach of over 500,000 homes and businesses in the region“. But we very much doubt that is their target for the end of 2023 as they’d need more time and investment to hit that, if only counting FTTP.

Otherwise, residential customers of the provider’s unlimited service tend to pay from £37.50 per month for a speed of 125Mbps (symmetric) on an 18-month term, which rises to £49.99 for their top 1000Mbps tier.

Furqan Alamgir, CEO and Co-Founder of Connexin, said:

“Our Full Fibre build has progressed spectacularly since we announced our plans to roll-out in Hull, we’ve seen thousands of customers get connected and finally given our community true broadband choice.

We cannot wait to see the rest of Hull and East Yorkshire reap the benefits of broadband that delivers more than just a connection, and instead offers a full online experience. With the recent launch of our SmartHome App, our customers can control their Wi-Fi network using their mobile phone, something residents of Hull haven’t previously been able to do.

We’re excited to work with SCD Group and MAP Group given their experience as Tier 1 contractors to deliver our best-in-class Fibre network build. Our goal has always been to invest in our city, improve services for residents and create jobs locally – collaborating with these contractors is a key part of achieving these goals.

Completing our Hull and East Yorkshire build will be a key milestone in Connexin’s journey to become one of the biggest alt-nets in the North, bringing new and better broadband infrastructure within reach of over 500,000 homes and businesses in the region.”

We should point out that Connexin actually announced the appointment of SCD Group before for the same project (here), which occurred all the way back in September 2021, thus we’re not quite sure why they’ve been announced a second time, some two years later.

However, the operator will face an increasingly challenging environment, where alternative networks (AltNets) are already under a lot of pressure. Not to mention that they’ll be going up against several gigabit-capable rivals in the same area, such as KCOM, MS3, Quickline and others.