Full Fibre Limited, which aims to deploy a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover "at least" 500,000 UK premises by 2025, has today named the next batch of 13 rural and semi-urban "forgotten towns" across Derbyshire, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire to benefit from their rollout.
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Full Fibre Ltd Reveal Next 13 UK Towns for FTTP Broadband Including Staffordshire
16th November 2021
The provider, which runs its network as a wholesale platform via Fibre Heroes for other UK ISPs to harness (e.g. SWS, HFL Broadband, Connect Me to 2 Full Fibre, ANLX, Air Broadband, Cloud Wireless and fibrehop), initially started their rollout in Leominster (Fastershire project), Ivybridge and South Hams during 2019. But in March 2021 they unveiled another 100,000 premises across 11 additional UK towns (here).
NOTE: Full Fibre Limited is being backed by multi-billion-dollar infrastructure investment fund Basalt, which owns a majority interest in the company.
By comparison, today's announcement adds a further 13 market towns across Derbyshire, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire in England to their plan (they tend to focus on those with between 5,000 and 40,000 premises), which equates to an additional 119,00 homes and businesses.
Once completed, this should bring their total network coverage to c.250,000 premises.
The 13 New Locations
Swadlincote
Retford
Buxton
Leek
Belper
South Elmsall
Matlock
Hilton
South Alfreton
Cheadle
Uttoxeter
North Wingfield
Bakewell
The operator states that the "majority of premises" in the aforementioned areas should be able to access their gigabit capable internet services within the next 12 months.
Oliver Helm, Full Fibre CEO, said:
"We are delighted to announce the extension of our network nationally and are looking forward to bringing fibre broadband to those in hard-to-reach locations. The areas we have chosen are currently relying on ageing copper connections that cannot meet the needs of consumers.
As a wholesale infrastructure builder, Full Fibre is passionate about providing end-users with a choice of providers and a competitive marketplace that will drive innovation, better customer service and ultimately, deliver better value for money for all.
It is vital that everyone in a community has access to ultrafast and reliable services, and this latest announcement is a testament to that. We're looking forward to additional announcements down the line as we look to further expand our network."
All of this is good news, although it should be said that not all the listed towns could be described as "forgotten". For example, some towns, such as Buxton, are due to be reached by Openreach's (BT) own FTTP rollout. Meanwhile, others, such as Swadlincote, already have strong gigabit-capable coverage via rival networks like Virgin Media. But the extra competition will be good.
