Signs of Life as UK Broadband Altnet WhyFibre Spotted Building FTTP

Four years have passed since we first reported on the emergence of a new alternative network (altnet) called WhyFibre (here). The operator had expressed a plan to build a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across “underserved” parts of South England, but until recently they had appeared to be dormant.

Just to recap. ISPreview’s original article in 2021 noted how WhyFibre were busy securing Code Powers from Ofcom to help speed-up their planned deployment of new fibre optic infrastructure and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licenses needed for street works. But until now we’ve seen no major activity and assumed that the operator had given up on their plans.

The company, which in 2021 was controlled by Dumitru Ban, then appears to have gone through several changes of control and its sole Director is now listed as Stephen Parry (here), while Rodica Ciobotaru gained “significant control” of the business in November 2024. But WhyFibre’s most recent “micro company accounts“, which admittedly only run to the end of June 2023 (published 11th March 2024), don’t yet show the sort of financial activity needed for an FTTP build and lists a single employee.

Nevertheless, one of ISPreview’s readers (Sánchez) recently reported (here) that a business called FibreOne (could also be Fibre1 – several businesses use similar sounding names) had been spotted building a new FTTP network in the Hertfordshire (England) town of Letchworth, which when challenged said they were working on behalf of WhyFibre. The contractor appeared to be laying fresh fibre through Openreach’s existing ducts (PIA).

After roping in Marcus of the Better Internet Dashboard (BIDB) project, we were then able to identify another two locations where WhyFibre (SWA code of 7572) appeared to be building, including one fairly extensive network in the large Bedfordshire town of Luton (an odd choice given how well covered the town is by Openreach, Virgin Media and CityFibre, as well as some smaller altnet builds) and neighbouring Hitchin (Hertfordshire).

In addition, a couple of smaller works were also spotted in the West Yorkshire town of Normanton, which is well covered by Openreach and Virgin Media’s gigabit-capable broadband networks, albeit admittedly without much in the way of any competing altnets.

At present, we cannot find any public announcements about any related projects from WhyFibre and have no contacts for them, although more information may surface once they publish their next batch of annual accounts (due next month).

Similarly, it’s unclear whether they’re acting as a civil engineering organisation for another network or still intend to run their own retail ISP or wholesale platform. The provider’s website domain is currently just a holding page, although you can still view their old partly-finished ISP website from 2021 by using this URL instead – https://whyfibre.co.uk/home.

Suffice to say that launching a new altnet deployment into an already overcrowded market, which is also one that remains under considerable strain due to high builds costs, competition and high interest rates, is currently quite a risky endeavour.