Oxfordshire-based alternative full fibre operator Zzoomm, which has built their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 202,000 premises (RFS) in England, has today reported that they’ve achieved 20% take-up in Northallerton on a network that has been available for “19 months“.
At present Zzoomm’s network, which is home to 30,000 customers (c.15% take-up), is available across around 29 market towns and small urban communities in parts of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire. But the provider originally aspired to cover 1 million premises across 85 UK towns by the end of 2025, before the difficulties of raising fresh capital forced their build to stop (here and here), although they’re still considering growth via mergers (here).
The deployment in Northallerton (North Yorkshire), which has a population of around 16,000, was actually announced back in July 2021 (here) – after Zzoomm had already begun to build across the neighbouring towns of Thirsk and Easingworld.
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Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm, said:
“We continue to see new customers taking up our high value offer at market leading rates in market towns like Northallerton. To have secured a 20% market share is a testament to our premier service and our marketing and sales team.
Despite not adding any new properties (RFS) to our build footprint we are now adding 1,500 new customers each month, up from 1,100 per month in 2023. We have a leading position on customer uptake of over 15% on a network which has only been in operation for an average of 17 months.
We are continuing to develop our market leading products and invest in our customer service operation to deliver great levels of service for our customers.”
Customers who take their residential service typically pay from £29.95 per month for an unlimited 150Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 12-month term with an included router, which goes up to £54.95 (normally £64.95) if you want their top 2Gbps tier or £29.95 (usually £39.95) for 1Gbps.
Looks like the only competition is a bit of Openreach which doesn’t seem to be as nearly far along as Zzoomm (please correct me if I’m wrong). For places Like North Allerton. Unless it’s a densely populated location 2 networks is ideal giving a sustainable position and some competition.
When Altnets start shouting about take-up rates of 20%, it makes you realise how slow take-up really is.
I wonder if the noticeable increase in positive PR for Zzoomm is probably an attempt to help the sale/merger move.
20% looks good and the prices are very reasonable.
Openreach are often too slow with FTTP rollout in many areas.
“Openreach are often too slow with FTTP rollout in many areas.”
34% take up Vs the altnet average of 16% and a build rate of 4 million p.a. would say otherwise.
Only 20% of people feel the need to have full fibre. Clearly happy with what they have…. A few years before the next steps are needed really but nice to know its available when the need to switch to a faster service is required
Only 20% of people feel the need to have Zzoom fibre in Northallerton. BT/Openreach is 34% nationally and increasing.
Interesting on light reading here:- https://www.lightreading.com/fttx/flame-of-fiber-altnet-competition-may-be-dying-in-uk