Netomnia UK Start FTTP Broadband Rollout in Hitchin
Some 85,000 homes and businesses across the Hertfordshire (England) town of Hitchin will soon benefit after Netomnia, supported by UK ISP YouFibre, started a significant £25.5 million project to deploy their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network across the area.
The operator has once again contracted civil engineering firm GNS Communications to roll out its broadband infrastructure in the town, using as much of Openreach’s existing ducting and overhead poles to run their own fibre as possible to minimise disruption. The first phase of work appears to be taking place around the central areas.
The operator, which is currently present in parts of around 40 towns and cities (with many more in-planning), has already covered well over 500,000 premises (RFS) and they have “ambitions of reaching 1 million premises by early 2024” in parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (coverage plan – plus additions here, here and here).
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In terms of local gigabit-capable competition, both Openreach and Virgin Media (VMO2) have already covered most of the town with their respective gigabit-capable networks. This will leave Netomnia as only the third major competitor, once their build has completed.
We should point out that while some AltNets appear to be struggling in the current climate, Netomnia is on somewhat of a hiring spree and seems to be weathering the storm with their approach to a lower cost build.
Zoltan Kovacs, MD of Netomnia, said:
“We are delighted to announce our ongoing efforts in Hitchin. Our reliable full fibre broadband can truly unleash the potential of the area and give those that other providers left behind an opportunity to benefit from all the positives the Internet brings with it.
By providing future-proof broadband, we aim to unlock limitless opportunities, fuel innovation, and strengthen the local community. It is truly fantastic to be part of this journey, enhancing digital experiences and contributing to the advancement of Hitchin’s vibrant business ecosystem and the everyday lives of its residents.”
The service, once live, is typically supplied to consumers via YouFibre, which offers unlimited usage, symmetrical speeds, a Wi-Fi router, free installation and 24/7 UK based support. Customers pay from just £21 per month on a 24-month term for their unlimited 150Mbps package (£25 thereafter), which rises to just £29.99 if you want their top 920Mbps plan (£40 thereafter). The latter is also on an offer of £1 a month for the first 3 months.
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 and Linkedin.
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Hard to believe really that pulling cables in existing ducts and/or poles will cost that much.
It doesn’t but they will work better with fibre and network equipment attached which tends to cost money too…
Hope the people of Hitchin enjoy the new service once it’s eventually delivered in 5-infinite years time!
Yep, still waiting in Wrexham! Live in a MDU, so even worse, no OR, no Netomnia!
Hitchin, don’t get too excited.
In my area, they promised coverage of virtually every house by the numbers in press release. In reality, a few selected roads got it, despite all PIA using BT poles. Very hit and miss between neighbouring roads even and not delivered to people who got a letter from them saying their address would be covered.
Ask anyone living in Dover, Temple Ewell, Kearsney, Whitfield and River areas, although I will be fair to them, they haven’t officially finished work yet, even though it is at a glacial pace after intially starting quickly and I don’t know what issues they were up against.
It’s the same everywhere – the first few hundred get done rapidly. They then completely lost motivation and the rest are just left – with barely any actual work being done, maybe 2-4 street permits a month of which only 1 might actually be used. The pace is slower than glacial!
Well, now TROOLI has come out of nowhere and got work scheduled in Lydden, the next village up. Wonder if they see lack of work by Netomnia and do it themselves.
I’d rather Netomnia as their service gets good reviews and symmetric whereas Trooli symmetric packages are business packages and prices.
As BT aren’t interested in FTTP here (as yet) and their FTTC cabinet is a wait list for rubbish speeds, I guess that even they might be better than that…
If the local altnet isn’t all over the areas with no spare FTTC ports there is no hope for them.
All altnets are now under pressure to sign up customers rather than just count premises passed, so go shoot fish in a barrel.
Hitchen appears to be well covered by Openreach which means they already have a choice of ISP’s. It will be tough gaining market share as those that really want FTTP will already have it
To be fair to Netomnia / YouFibre they’ve done alright getting business from my FTTP-only estate.
Most don’t care about how it’s delivered but price and performance.
Odds of the people of Hitchin actually getting Netomnia are slim to none. The likelihood is basically the same as a town that hasn’t been announced.
I wonder if they are going to be putting equipment up on policy D Poles and pulling down other peoples equipment like in other areas
They have disappeared from Wrexham and no sign of returning
No we have not…our contractor is struggling, so swapping with a different one. Re-starting in coming weeks.
Rocky hopefully Jeremy is correct and we can look forward to it being finished off!
The press release is a bit behind the times – GNS have been pulling cables around the town for some weeks now, including to a new pavement chamber at the end of my road.
I was a bit puzzled by this as Openreach were active in the town around around 12 months ago and many roads now have CBTs. Looking at them, uptake isn’t great – there’s only a handful of active connections in my road for instance (pretty sure I was the first) and the surrounding roads aren’t much different.
It’s a curious business model to deploy new FTTP services in an area that already has them rather than targeting not-spots, but, that said, I’m certainly looking to swap to Youfibre when/if it’s available…
You mean like their promised areas of Temple Ewell, Dover, River Kearsney and Whitfield?
They took so long, that BT now going to deploy FTTP in Dover Exchange but Temple Ewell, Kearsney, River and Whitfield are served by Archers Court exchange and despite over 7,000 premises, BT have no dates at all for FTTP for us.
You’d think Netomnia would be lapping up FTTC cabinets with wait lists for rubbish speeds due to odd cabinet placements (distance) and crosstalk with no threat of other FTTP ALTNETS. Trooli have some work suddenly appeared but must be for Shepherdswell as these areas not listed on their web site for coverage. I was just surprised how close the Trooli fibre would be on main artery road. They could easily venture further at some point.
As of today not a single Netomnia permit exists for any of the areas Netomnia said they were going to deliver to and its been the odd one or two for weeks/months.
I feel silly having spoken to 4 neighbours enthusing and explaining about them coming (and they probably also got a letter for Netomnia like me after chatting to them) only for them not seeming to bother. I hope I am wrong in this, because I would rather their symmetric service than a future BT one or Trooli. Some of the roads they deployed into were questionable as the premises there are not known for having expendable income shall we say, and the roads with demographics they just didn’t do. As I said, they may have had best intentions and hit blockers from parish councils etc. but the company should tell their Customer Service folk or publish updates on their site for roll out areas so you stop people like us that feel bitterly let down at this point…
According to Thinkbroadband, all these areas are now live!?
Yes SOME roads and I say SOME are live. Not sure what the point is though. Just because some are live does not mean the ones who got letters from Netomnia are, or the complete patchwork of roads, like one next to the other not having it. The whole area is far from done though. In fact the original promised Dover area of near the castle and out to Clarendon including Maxton/Elms Vale has nothing. Even where the fibre runs on London Road there are houses that cannot get service. Green Lane in Temple Ewell cannot get service despite letters sent to residents there along with Temple Ewell village cannot get service (only a few houses in one particular small bit), Templeside, The Avenue, Park Road, Wellington Road, Malvern Road + many others.
No idea whats happened with You Fiber/Netomnia in singleton, Ashford. Saw them installing back last October and since then there has been zero signs of activation in the area. Ended up re-signing with BT as I couldn’t wait any longer…
I’ve been waiting 13 months now since they did their digging and cable running. No signs of being able to order. I think i’ve waited long enough, am going back to virgin media unfortunately.
I live in Hitchin and this can only be good news. If it encourages Openreach to deploy better speeds and faster uploads, it can only be a good thing. Looking forward to seeing deployment in the future. Competition is welcomed.
Netomnia in half a year will reach 1 million homes and people will still complain their house is not yet done
Great if you can get it, but don’t be fooled by the numbers in press releases. Plenty of people in areas that got letters from them saying about the great news they would soon have fast broadband whilst contractors doing work and online fibre availability checkers that for months said “Great news we are coming and doing your road as fast as we can”. You either do most of an area or you don’t rather than patchwork and show on your roll out map that you’ve done the whole area/areas.
Their rollout is patchwork by design, they have connected a significant number of customers at lightspeed compared to other altnets by picking all of the low-cost & easy to RFS premises and moving on.
Remains to be seen how well this strategy will pan out long-term… definitely a double-edged sword given the comments here lol
I’m never fooled by these PR numbers that companies put out, that’s why Thinkbroadband is the best way to measure individual performance and Netomnias PR statements always match with the numbers given by TBB, unlike a lot of other companies such as City Fibre and Hyperoptic
I live only 10 miles from Netomnia headoffice in Tewkesbury, yet they haven’t got any plans to build
I am still waiting in my part of Ashford, after 2 years it is still in the planning stage
I’ve had YouFibre for nearly 6 months now. Been pretty good so far. Didn’t have any installation delays!
I live in Hitchin (Old Hale Way) which has VM and in the last few months OR dug up the road and now BT FTTP is offered.
I (and many others I know on the street, which is a long straight road with hundreds of properties) would lap up NO/YF. It’s a lower cost, better product and if delivered (big if, I know) will lap up the mainly VM market share which I know is what BT/OR are targeting.
Just needs to be delivered and word get around the various community WhatsApp groups. Sign me up!
Is this just Hitchin itself, or surrounding towns/villages. Netomnia have popped up in various parts of my town (Shefford, less than 10 miles north of Hitchin) digging holes and building chambers near or next to BT ones (one at the end of my road). Whenever I contact them though I get a copy/paste response of ‘we are carrying out initial designs’ – surely designs are on paper, not digging holes in the ground?!