Toob Expands UK FTTP Broadband into Berkshire via CityFibre

Hampshire-based network builder and gigabit broadband ISP toob, which is currently rolling out its own full fibre (FTTP) network across the South of England (e.g. Southampton, Camberley, Aldershot, Farnborough, Fareham and Gosport), has today separately expanded their coverage into parts of Berkshire via CityFibre’s network.

The operator, which was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here), recently secured £160m of additional funding (debt financing) from Ares Management‘s Infrastructure Debt strategy (here) – this can be upsized up to £300m over time to support future growth.

Customers of the service typically pay just £25 per month on an 18-month term for their 900Mbps (symmetric speed) package (£29 thereafter), which includes a router, unlimited usage, free installation and a pledge of “no in-contract price rises“. But the operator also sells into a few parts of CityFibre’s rival FTTP network via a special agreement that also gave CityFibre some reciprocal access to toob’s network.

The network partnership has already enabled toob to expand their availability via CityFibre into Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, Worthing, Brighton and Hove. But today’s news sees them add big parts of Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead, and Slough in Berkshire (England) to that list.

Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:

“We are delighted to be able to offer our full-fibre broadband service across Berkshire. We believe that fast and reliable broadband is a necessity that should be available to all and are committed to delivering the fastest, most reliable service, using the latest full-fibre technology, at an affordable price.”

The announcement comes shortly after toob opened a new office in Stockton-on-Tees to support their expansion (here) and appeared to change its strategy to focus more on growing customer take-up than on expanding their own-build network coverage (here).