MS3 UK Puts New FTTP Broadband Network Live in Mexborough
Network operator MS3, which is supported by 30 UK ISPs as part of their work to roll-out a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the North of England (here), has just started to go live in the South Yorkshire town of Mexborough.
The provider’s main focus is currently on the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire areas of England, and the operator ultimately aims to reach 535,000 premises across the North of England by the end of 2025 (here). A variety of locations are currently seeing development work and some, such as Scunthorpe, have already achieved build completion.
Mexborough is the latest town in their deployment plan to start going live and the goal is to eventually cover over 9,000 local homes. The catch is that this town is already covered by Virgin Media’s (VMO2) gigabit-capable broadband network, while Openreach are also planning to deploy their own FTTP network in the area.
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Tony Jopling, Chief Operating Officer at MS3, said:
“Welcoming our first customer in Mexborough is a great moment for MS3. As we continue our build across the Northeast, we look forward to helping more residents access fast, reliable broadband at affordable prices, as well as the professional and social opportunities that this connectivity brings.”
Work on the Mexborough network began in summer 2023 and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
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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Still waiting for Wath to go live literally next door to mexbrough keep seeing loads of planning marks coming and goin on one network but never really see much actually done. I just want that symetric upload and finally dump VM lol
Hi Ash, a few hundred homes are released in your area every week so worth checking regularly and putting your email in the pre-registration part of our website.
We’ve now released most of Manvers and West Melton and in Wath everything West of Cemetery Road, the area next to the cricket club and the streets near Wath Victoria school.
In response to the poles question, of course we only install new poles in this location where Openreach PIA is unavailable (either due to direct buried Openreach services or congested ducts) – in a 10km radius here we plan to ultimately use just 75 new poles. If there was a usable and commercially viable PIA product in East Riding with a published price list then we would likely be using that too.
@Guy
Any chance of Swinton being done? I’m basically on the border between Wath and Swinton and i’ve seen a single one of your barriers on my street, The pole has the work already done and CityFibre have been around too but still nothing
I registered my interest months ago and even sent a support email to see if my street was in plans but got nothing.
@Azura
We’ve completed and released around two thirds of Swinton so far, pretty much finished everything North of Station St, East of Fitzwilliam St and everything down to Wentworth Rd. All that’s left now is West and North West of Swinton Academy, the Lawrence Drive area and a little bit off Golden Smithies Lane. All of these should be done in the next couple of months so hopefully we’ll be lighting your street very soon.
@Guy
I’m just west of Swinton Academy, up between the Primary School and Rockingham Road. Hopefully will see it live very soon!
@guy
Yea I’ve been checking regularly my pole is A PIA pole I can see the fibre bundled up on it ready but the little box has just been stuck in the middle of the pole for ages. I’m Barnsley Road wath/westmelton up near the westvill. I put my details onto the update list almost a year ago and actually had a letter saying coming soon about 4 month ago. Guess to just keep checking lol
Poor Mexborough.
MS3 is a terrible company destroying the views of neighbourhoods with their incessant need to plant telegraph poles everywhere, instead of using already available underground ducting. Even on newish estates where there is no above ground infrastructure.
If there is a god, then this company is be bankrupt soon, for the take up of their services in the East Riding is pitiful.
Probably be fine. Only seem to make extensive use of poles in the East Ridings. Just a coincidence that’s the only part of the UK where KCom are the incumbent of course: they’re doing it purely to annoy people, nothing at all to do with the PIA products available from the respective incumbents.
@XGS
If KCOM are responsible for making PIA access difficult then it’s time Ofcom woke up and dealt with them. They’d be soon jumping up and down if was Openreach. Mind you with KCOM being owned by Maquarie (the same outfit that nearly asset stripped Thames Water into near bankruptcy) it’s hardly surprising.
Actually Macquarie loaded Thames Water with £2bn in debt to help pay off their aquisition costs, so Thames effectively borrowed money to pay MacQuarrie to buy it.
@Big Dave: The campaigners are apparently convinced that MS3 are using poles out of choice, and are spurning infrastructure sharing. Obviously makes no sense on any level and clearly isn’t MS3 policy looking at their build outside of KCom territory but it’s what they think.
I believe some politicians want government to have Ofcom compel KCom to provide a PIA product on similar terms to Openreach however for now KCom seem largely in the clear as far as folks like Jason go.
@Guy.
Any news on when Conisbrough / Denaby Main are to be built?
Currently pencilled in for Q3 2024 @Dave. It was on CityFibre’s plan and would be their next logical place now they’ve pretty much finished New Edlington but this might be a little up in the air now. Also a near 100% Virgin covered area so may well be ripe for upgrade for NexFibre. We’ll be reviewing in Q1 to decide if we go ahead with it, designs have been completed.