ISP WightFibre Extend FTTP Broadband to 88 Percent of Isle of Wight

Broadband ISP WightFibre, which is deploying a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the Isle of Wight – just off the South Coast of Hampshire (England), recently published their latest annual results to 30th September 2024 and revealed that their full fibre network now covered 88% of island premises (up from 80% in June 2024).

The operator currently expects to have invested around £110m by 2030 as part of their ongoing “Gigabit Island” project, which is presently aiming to extend their full fibre network to reach 90% coverage by the end of 2025 and then 98% Coverage by 2027 (c.82,000 premises). The latest results noted that their new network was delivering over 30% penetration.

On the financial front, the operator reported a 33% increase in revenues to £7.196m (2023: £5.427m), albeit with losses growing to £18.951m (2023: £15.278m) and net liabilities of £56.645m (2023: £37.694m). However, the company also became EBITDA positive in the second half of the year, which reflects losses of -£769,250 in the first half of the year and growth of +£96,228 in the second half.

The ability to achieve a positive EBITDA (i.e. earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) usually indicates that a company’s core operations are profitable and likely generating positive cash flow. But we’ll have to wait until next year’s results to find out how well this grows.

WightFibre currently has total assets less current liabilities of £75.529m, but this falls to -£56.645m when looking at net liabilities, due mainly to the impact of creditors.