Altnet ISP Lightning Fibre Surpasses 20,000 UK Broadband Customers

Eastbourne-based alternative internet provider Lightning Fibre, which is building a full fibre (FTTP) network across Sussex and Kent in England (they also hold a partnership to use CityFibre’s wider UK network – here), has reached a key take-up milestone by surpassing 20,000 customers – reflecting a quarter of homes taking up broadband across their new network.

The company says this growth reflects “sustained demand for a simple, fixed price, human-centric approach to delivering broadband“, one they say contrasts well with national providers who often annoy customers by applying multiple in-contract price increases in a way that’s rarely seen as fair.

According to the company’s most recent results to the end of March 2025, Lighting Fibre has so far built their full fibre network to cover 80,000 premises (RFS), which aligns with the announcement’s claim of “achieving 1 in 4 homes taking up broadband“. But it also suggests that their network roll-out hasn’t expanded much in the past 18 months or so, and we don’t know how many of that 20k came from the CityFibre (off-net) side.

“Lightning Fibre remains focused on sustainable growth, expanding network availability, enhancing its product offering and continuously improving the customer experience,” added the announcement.

Bertrand Mazieres, CEO at Lightning Fibre, said:

“Achieving 25% residential take-up in this highly competitive market shows that our approach resonates with customers. People want broadband that simply works, at a fair price, with local support they can rely on. And that’s exactly what the team delivers every day – with more than 9 in 10 of our Trustpilot reviews rated 5 stars. Thank you to all our customers for buying local and joining the Lightning Fibre family.”

Residential customers of the service typically pay from £25 per month for symmetric speeds of 300Mbps and a free install, which rises to £39 for their top 2.5Gbps tier (currently discounted to £19 per month for the first 6 months). The provider pledges not to hit customers with mid-contract price hikes.