FreedomFibre Reveal Map of Full Fibre Rollout in England and Wales UPDATE
Network operator Freedom Fibre, which is currently deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across parts of England (Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire) and North Wales, has kindly provided ISPreview with a map that helps to visualise their current and future rollout plan.
Many of Freedom Fibre’s initial deployments are currently taking place in parts of Cheshire (Weaverham, Stockton Heath, Northwich, Comberbach and Hartford etc.), Greater Manchester (Irlam and Cadishead etc.), Shropshire (Whitchurch etc.) and North Wales (Wrexham). The operator is aiming to cover 70,000 premises by the end of 2022 (they’d done 20k by May 2022 and were quickly ramping up), but they also have a long-term aspiration to reach over 2 million UK properties.
However, the provider’s new map – first shown at the recent Connected Britain conference, gives us a much wider overview of the other locations that they intend to target by 2026 (the significant majority will be completed by end 2025). Needless to say, it looks as if they’re planning to cover quite a wide area. All of this will require additional investment to deliver, but no doubt there will be more news on that in due course.
Freedom Fibre are building a wholesale network and related packages can currently only be purchased from budget broadband ISP TalkTalk. Prices range from £29.95 per month for a 145Mbps tier on a 24-month term with free installation and rise to £35 for their 506Mbps package on a shorter 18-month term. TalkTalk also sells packages via Openreach’s and Cityfibre’s national networks.
Please remember that future rollout plans like this should always be taken as tentative forecasts, which are subject to change as events on the ground unfold. Small amendments should be expected, so never take these plans as gospel, and remember that operators rarely cover 100% of premises in any given build location.
UPDATE 24th Oct 2022
A number of readers pointed out some small errors in the original map. FreedomFibre have now corrected these, and we’ve uploaded the latest edition above.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Who care as it won’t come to Telford, Shropshire
Ahh yes Telford the centre of the World.
Its not just you
Didn’t Exascale’s founder tell you they were starting their build there this autumn?
Ah I see. He told you that and you expected to be able to order this year. Unlikely. Lots of work to be done before any premises at all go live, and they probably won’t start in a random street in Madeley.
*Looks* Only streetworks Exascale are doing in Telford at the moment are in Horton.
Openreach have some works going on but doesn’t look like a mejor FTTP build and nothing in Madeley.
Where
Strange that stockton heath / south Warrington show as future build areas even though work is underway
Is it just me or has someone forgotten to align the pink overlay for the build area with the underlying map? From the outline it looks like everything from Anglesey to Blackpool should be included but have inexplicably moved inland
Looks like you’re right. The whole pink overlay should be shifted left so it fits the map properly. Needs fixing.
It’s not a simple displacement, as the pink area has been stretched relative to the base map. Compare the offset for the same point in NW Wales with the offset for the same point in the Mersey estuary. It’s significantly different.
Hard to see whether that is supposed to cover the whole of Wigan or just mainly the more central part. Openreach has had builds ongoing for months now, but nothing for what would be considered urban areas to the north. Seems FreedomFibre may be following that build if the map is semi-accurate.
CityFibre does have a single upcoming roadwork, presumably for their placement of a fibre exchange. Is it located next to a business park near the town centre.
Either way, nice to see the FTTP rollout in general finally reach this area. And hopefully does cover outside the town centre as well!
Mark, you may want the isp to resend the coverage map, the coverage overlay is out, in comparison to the map outline.
HI there, thank you for flagging this. The corrected map has now been updated on this post. Thanks very much to Mark too!
I have another month left of the free 6 months for 500 down and up don’t think I will be taking up the £20 a month for 12 months offer as too many losses of service for my liking
Is that 6 months free not part of a contract already?
Loss leader if not
No it’s not part of the contract you can cancel after the free 6 months because they probably know it’s not very good
Overbuild galore and with more expensive packages than the providers they are overbuilding on
This is not a tentative forecast, someone just said “I want to do North Wales, all around Liverpool and Manchester, oh and include Stoke too” and then somehow the polygon moved to the right
Wales still needs a lot more love from the FTTP Gods..
Wales is increasing the number of market players which customers will soon or are already able to utilise now for their FTTP but we need more.
This has to be good for Wales, lets just get some more deployment down to South W Wales.
Wouldn’t get too excited. Much of the UK can’t realistically support more than a single altnet on top of Openreach, VMO2 and CityFibre. Two of them overbuilding each other is basically a death sentence for one of them.
Wales being as sparsely populated as it is operators need to cherry pick or go bankrupt.
For cable to start making money the companies first had to go bankrupt and exchange ownership for debt. Altnets passing a couple of hundred thousand premises aren’t going to receive the same consideration. They’ll be either going into administration and assets sold to a larger company or left to go bankrupt.
Brutal but how it is.
A lot of overlap with Openreach, Virgin Media, Brsk and CityFibre
Would be great if they actually give a timescale, I’m in a pink area and have no idea if it next year or 2025, openreach say they have great new for my area and that they are starting the upgrade within the coming months.
They say I can order in 2026 lol
Bunch of jokers Openreach.
But on a more serious note, that map gives no info at all.
I’m not sure about this. I get the feeling they might do a virgin and oversubscribe certain areas for the sake of customers. Does anyone use their service & the get the speeds as advertised?
Yes when it works it’s very good 500 up and 500 down but I have had no service again for over 24 hours so it’s not for for purpose imo
I do not understand why small private companies digging and pulling fibres in random places sometimes on top of each other?
That’s the main reason UK is far behind Europe in fibre deployment and speeds provided.
In my opinion it should be done like water, gas and electricity.
Every property gets connected but you get to choose the ISP and package.
The main reason the UK was left behind is precisely because of one state controlled monopoly called BT openreach
No competition = no reason to improve or even put up fair prices
You are not affected by the overbuild but you were affected by the lack of competition. The customer always benefits from competition
British Telecom was privatised in 1984 (an auspicious date). The UK could have been fibred up many times over in the intervening 38 years.
The split between openreach and BT happened decades later. The PIA product only became available after 2011 so that is the first realistic date in which smaller players could start with a viable case
That MAP is definitely wrong. The Wales outline is meant to be for Anglesey and North Wales coast including Bangor, Conwy etc.
Someone has not lined up the map because it’s definitely meant to cover Anglesey.
HI there, thank you for flagging this. The corrected map has now been updated on this post. Thanks very much to Mark too!
I have been studying One Network for FreedomFibre’s roadworks.
Let’s just say there isn’t much happening anytime soon.. Where roadworks have been identified it is very confined to micro areas, when compared to other rollouts.
They would be better teaming up with CityFibre and share ducting to both gain rollout advantage and not risk any duplication when digging/laying new ducting.
Kind of ironic being locked to 1 ISP TalkTalk when they are called FREEDOM FIBRE too.
There is barely any overlap between the 2
A problem as well is they are putting up tree trunks everywhere you can’t see the sky for wires it’s ugly