Commsworld and Netomnia Bring FTTP to 90k North Lanarkshire Homes

Scotland-based business ISP Commsworld has entered into a new partnership with UK network operator Netomnia (ISP YouFibre), which aims to provide full fibre broadband connectivity to around 90,000 homes across North Lanarkshire over the next few years.

The move seems intended to complement Commsworld’s existing agreement with the North Lanarkshire Council in Scotland, which in February 2022 announced that up to £150m could be spent as part of an “initial” 15-year deal to create free public WiFi networks and upgrade local public sector sites to gigabit broadband speeds (here). At the time, it was suggested that local homes and businesses may also benefit.

Today’s agreement will thus see 5km of new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure being built a week, and over 130km in total in a move which sees Commsworld and Netomnia investing up to £62m into the area. The deployment will deliver gigabit speed broadband to residential communities throughout the likes of Motherwell, Coatbridge, Bellshill and Airdrie.

Through this partnership, Commsworld – which is installing its own full-fibre connectivity to council buildings, sites and schools – and Netomnia will harness Openreach’s Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product to share existing duct and pole infrastructure. This “build once” approach will reduce the amount of disruptive street works required to run the new fibre.

Bruce Strang, Commsworld Chief Operating Officer, said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Netomnia, a company which like us is fully committed to the rapid roll-out of high capacity, resilient, and future-proofed pure fibre connectivity to towns, cities and regions throughout the UK.

Together we have begun delivering our commitment to North Lanarkshire to provide better broadband connections to the local authority area, through its schools, offices and businesses. Also we will provide North Lanarkshire’s community organisations and residents with all of the socially inclusive benefits that more resilient, ultra-fast connectivity can bring.”

Jeremy Chelot, CEO at Netomnia, said:

“These new connections, which due to be completed by the end of 2023, are the beginning of what we believe Commsworld and Netomnia can achieve in the future.

Full-fibre broadband is vital to everyday lives, providing much faster speeds than legacy copper networks and allowing residents and businesses to do everything they need online with ease. Our partnership with Commsworld is another exciting step forward in accelerating the UK’s transition to full fibre.

We look forward to our initial phase in North Lanarkshire which hopefully is just the beginning of our partnership as we aim to close the digital divide.”

The announcement doesn’t include a lot of detail, but the move will no doubt help to contribute toward Netomnia’s own goal of covering 1 million premises across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with their gigabit-capable broadband network by the end of 2023. We assume that local homes will then be served via YouFibre, since Commsworld doesn’t appear to have any of its own residential packages.