Rural focused network builder and UK ISP Voneus has announced the start of a new 1Gbps full fibre (FTTP) broadband roll-out across West Devon and East Cornwall in England, which began after their latest fibre cabinet was installed in the village of Bere Alston. More villages are expected to follow over the next “few months“.
A spokesperson for Voneus said via social media: “Great effort from all of our team including Wes Brown, Ciaran Byrne, Dan Hurst, Jack Tolley and Circet IRE & UK. Our Community Engagement team will also be on the ground over the coming weeks led by team leader Daniel Wakenell where they’ll be meeting with the community to answer any questions.”
The operator has yet to publish a solid roll-out plan for their new build in West Devon and East Cornwall, but that is very much in keeping with their history and a seeming preference for operating under the radar. In addition, a lot of their recent growth has flowed from significant acquisitions, such as the recent merger with SWS Broadband, Cadence Networks and Broadway Partners (here).
Voneus currently aims to cover 350,000 UK premises via both their gigabit fixed wireless access (FWA) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks, although the exact technology split and timescale for this remains elusive. The operator now has networks in over 35 counties across England, Scotland and Wales.
Residential customers of their full fibre service get the first month for free and then pay from £34.99 per month on a 24-month term for their 250Mbps (symmetric speed) package with free installation, which rises to £59.99 for 900Mbps. The wireless package costs £34.99 per month too, but only offers speeds of 30-50Mbps.
Yesterday Voneus started digging / installing fttp in the small village of Penkridge ST19 5HR ,looks like they are taking over where VXFibre/Lilaconnect had started but never connected anyone. There are no other fttp options in Penkridge except on the new build estates so a good sign moving forward.
They have been round ST19 5BH area today knocking doors and looking at the poles. Jotting down info on tablets too.
I spoke with them and he said they plan to use a mixture of poles where available and ducts everywhere else.
I asked when they plan to start and he said “Imminently” and the funding is already in place for Penkridge.
I hope they last longer than Lila connect did.
It’s already a total mess down here, small bits of FTTP from multiple suppliers dotted all over the place but still huge areas stuck on ADSL with no plans to upgrade. The fallout from this mess will last for decades unless someone or something takes control.
One way or the other, market forces will have their say over the next 12-24 months via consolidation.
It’s going to be a very “interesting” consolidation compared with the CableCo consolidation all those years ago (and remember at one point through that the equity holders were wiped out). Each of those were (almost) fully served, reasonably large, urban areas. What we have now for the altnets is nationwide distribution of comparatively small islands, many across much sparser populations. The only way to make this work is national retail ISPs, but what will the pattern of wholesale/infra providers look like?
the cable cos of the 90s also had the benefit of exclusive regional franchises and a BT that was prevented from providing meaningful competition, and they were still financial basketcases
The competitor for the primary service they provided at the time was Sky, not BT, so I guess that was a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.
telephony was a big part of the cable company offer too, and BT was previously banned from providing TV services until the 2000s, ie. an attempt to kill any research into FTTH or (what became) ADSL. KCom had no such restriction and they came out with their ADSL based IPTV service.
… and also incompatibility between the different systems altnets are using. It is a mess akin to the early days of the railways. Consolidation will be more expensive as a result. France is doing a much better job, although, thank goodness, it’s the Germans who take the wooden spoon.
Agreed, the French PMZ system is the best, though Germany is lagging behind.
Can you elaborate on any community or user engagement features on the website, such as forums or discussions, that contribute to the overall value of ispreview.co.uk?
Telkom University
Wasn’t airband installing FTTP here in bere Alston, have they stopped now?