Fibrus UK Extend FTTP Broadband into Cumbria Town of Silloth
Infracapital-backed UK broadband ISP Fibrus has today announced that they’ve extended their multi-gigabit speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to reach 1,000 premises in the Cumbria (England) port town of Silloth, which follows similar deployments in locations such as Workington, Parton and Wigton.
The provider’s gigabit broadband network has, as of 31st March 2024, already been expanded to cover 354,000 premises (337k RFS) across parts of England and N.Ireland, which is up from 339,000 premises on 31st January 2024 (321,000 RFS). In addition, the operator recently grew their customer base to over 80,000.
However, it’s worth noting that Fibrus’ deployment in Silloth does not come without some competition, since rival altnet Voneus has already covered most of that location with their own FTTP network.
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Chris Collins, Head of Network Build at Fibrus, said:
“We’re delighted to be able to bring the benefits of our Full Fibre network to even more communities in Cumbria. At Fibrus, we use a full-fibre optic cable all the way to the premises creating a quality and reliability that cannot be achieved any other way. This will make a big difference to local businesses and families in Silloth, allowing them to access more reliable broadband rather than having to rely on slow copper wires for their internet.
As you will have fibre directly to your home, you will no longer need a traditional telephone line. If you use your telephone line for making and receiving calls, we can provide you with an excellent low-cost alternative using VoIP (voice over IP) Technology.”
Residential customers can expect to pay from £24.99 £21.99 per month for download speeds of 159Mbps (average) and uploads of 34Mbps on a 24-month term (£39.99 thereafter), which rises to £44.99 £39.99 for their top 982Mbps (310Mbps) tier (£59.99 thereafter). The packages also include an Amazon Eero 6+ router (or routers), UK support, free setup and the pledge of “no mid-contract price hikes“. Prices may differ in areas of subsidised build.
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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I thought the current mantra amongst altnets was not to overbuild each other, especially as they are nearly certain to be facing competition from Openreach (eventually).
This is the problem with permitted development legislation in its current form alongside code operators who are just asset building creating overbuild . Code operators , government, ofcom and councils somehow do not seem to care enough about peoples home environments.
OFCOM are ineffectual to stop overbuild , councils are not setting conditions to code operators to share infrastructure where gigabit capable FFTP infrastructure exists that could be shared The problems with the energy market will be repeated when those code operators who have not got a sound buisness plan and have not charged sustainable pricing face bankruptcy . Then the big boys will have full control again in the most part
I don’t know the circumstances on this occasion, but most the time this is a case of “we’re dragging a backbone fibre through/past/near the town anyway, and a competitor has already cleared the ducts, we may as well grab some £200/prem passed coverage. Financially they’re probably correct that it’s a worthwhile bet (marginal cost game for ongoings well – they’re already operating in the area, so better efficiencies on operational/marketing cost they’d be incurring anyway).
Does it suck for Voneus? Yes, 100%. They’ve had first pickings but that benefit tails off – fibrus will be a much stronger brand locally, and will be able to compete much more on price as the fundamentals are better.
Voneus payback will probably never happen, they’ll be lucky to get to BEP anytime in the next 15-20 years (at this rate) considering the cost of money. (assuming they didn’t use gov vouchers for the build)
example check both providers for CA7 4AR – you can either get 1G for £74.99 from voneus via a website that looks like it was designed by a A-Level student 10 years ago, no mesh unit OR fibrus for £39.99 via a professional operation with a reputation around cumbria and get 2 mesh units.
voneus have responded by price matching the 500Mb package (£29.99), and offering 3 months free – but still not offering the mesh units or reputation factor of fibrus. How good is £29.99 (inc vat) in a town with ~10% takeup which cost ~590 per prem passed to build with a cost of money of ~7%? Not good maths.
Barely half way to paying just the monthly interest on the build money! Let alone cost of staff, operations, backhaul, exchange space, or you know, paying down the principle.