Freedom Fibre Add 2 Manchester Towns to UK Full Fibre Build

Alternative broadband operator Freedom Fibre, which aims to cover over 2 million premises in England and Wales with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network – supported by UK ISP TalkTalk, has in recent weeks and months added two new towns in the Greater Manchester area to their build plan – Walkden and Atherton.

The operator’s gigabit-capable full fibre network – available to ISPs via wholesale – already covers over 100,000 premises (up from 40,000 in Nov 2022) and they have an initial goal of expanding to over 150,000 properties by the end of 2023. After that the operator, supported by over £111m of investments from Equitix and UK ISP TalkTalk, aims to eventually cover “approximately” 1.3 million premises.

The most recent additions to their confirmed build plan include Walkden and Atherton in the Greater Manchester area. In Walkden, the operator is investing £8m to cover the entirety of the town, as well as Little Hulton, Linnyshaw, Worsley, and Roe Green.

As for Atherton, the town forms part of a wider £6.8m investment that will also include the areas of Over Hulton, Tyldesley, and Astley, approximately 22,000 households and 700 businesses will be able to connect to the new network once the build is completed.

At present both locations are already well covered by Virgin Media’s gigabit-capable network, while Openreach has deployed FTTP across the majority of Walkden, but only part of Atherton. Suffice to say that there’s still space for an additional operator and, off-hand, we don’t know of any other alternative networks with a confirmed plan to build at scale across both towns (although Netomnia’s map suggests it could add Walkden).

For tenants and those living in multi-dwelling units, a wayleave agreement will also be required from the landlord/property freeholder that enables Freedom Fibre to install, upgrade, repair, maintain or replace their telecommunications equipment in the property.