LightSpeed Broadband Open UK FTTP Network to Wholesale
Network operator and UK ISP LightSpeed Broadband, which claims to have already built their gigabit-capable broadband (FTTP) network to cover 250,000 premises in the East of England and West Midlands, has today opened their network up for use by rival ISPs and businesses via a new wholesale division – LightSpeed Networks.
The provider, which was last year acquired by Kompass Kapital (here) after suffering job cuts and a build slowdown in the East of England (here), currently claims to have builds across parts of 32 market towns in South Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Rutland.
However, until now LightSpeed has tended to be more of a vertically integrated provider, but all that has just changed with today’s launch of their new wholesale offerings via LightSpeed Networks (technically it actually launched last week, but the press release only dropped today) – offering partners a range of connectivity options from 100Mbps and all the way up to 100Gbps (everything from FTTP to lightning-fast Ethernet or wavelength connections).
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The move sees the LightSpeed Group being split into two distinct brands:
- LightSpeed: The ISP providing access for homes and businesses to Gigabit broadband across the East of England and West Midlands
- LightSpeed Networks: Expanding the group’s full fibre connectivity across existing and new areas, and the provider of wholesale connections to partners
Third-party ISPs joining this network will also be able to benefit from a range of consumer services ranging from 100Mbps to 2Gbps.
Brett Shepherd, LightSpeed Group CEO, said:
“We’re delighted to have launched LightSpeed Networks at Connected Britain this month, discussing all things broadband with likeminded telecoms innovators.
Our mission is to empower homes, businesses, and communities with flexible, high-quality broadband infrastructure. By building partnerships based on shared goals, we aim to push the boundaries of technology and unlock new opportunities for everyone.”
Interestingly, the website for Lightspeed Networks also offers a visual map of their infrastructure, which provides some clues as to their roll-out plan.
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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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We were one of the first towns that Lightspeed built and launched in, and yet still can’t get a service, and there are still large pockets of “not spots”. The advice apparently given? Get Starlink!
I’m an IT professional, serving a number of customers, both business and residential. I can’t recommend something I haven’t personally been able to test. I genuinely hope they do well, but given how little interest they seem to show in filling out their existing areas before taking on and announcing new areas, I hold very little hope.
No alt-net is going to cover each and every property, to assume they will is naïve at best. They are running a business, this is not a public owned service.
Some households will gain, some will miss out. Builds have finished for the majority at the moment, so work with what you have.
@Bob Richmond I agree, but when the road is a main arterial route in the town – the very same road that the BT Exchange leads off – and I watched Lightspeed lay the backbone right past my house, it smacks of really poor planning and/or incompetence
The Norfolk and Lincs map is almost a direct image of what we rolled out at UPP, so Nexfibre has that covered for wholesale.
The build in Essex is interesting but this smacks of a last throw of the dice from Lightspeed
My brother in law works there and I don’t think it’s a last throw of anything. They are expanding the build into a lot more towns and hiring a lot of new people. I also think the wholesale thing sounds interesting and as far as I can tell there aren’t many companies doing backhaul connections as well as selling home connections to ISPs. time will tell but seems good for now.
Lightspeed still hasn’t been able to offer static IP addresses for a number of towns, despite its recent offer for this on its website.
And its network rollout still appears to be a bit chaotic. It should deploy fibre where there aren’t multiple other fibre networks.
E.g. it lost Manningtree to the Gigaclear competitor because Lightspeed arrived way too late. And why did it deploy more fibre in towns which already had multiple fibre networks, such as Braintree or Clacton? Low takeup rates guaranteed!
We are 3 miles from Lightspeed in Skegness yet they are passing our town by in favour of Wragby. Quickline are also doing the same as we’ve tried reaching out to both companies but neither will reply.