Full Fibre UK ISP Fibrus to Launch Openreach Broadband Plans

Infracapital-backed network builder and UK ISP Fibrus, which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across Northern Ireland and parts of North England (Cumbria), has revealed that they plan to expand their off-net retail provision and coverage by launching Openreach-based packages.

The operator, which recently had to scale back some of their own network builds and cut jobs (here and here), currently covers 339,000 premises (up from 300,000 in August 2023) and they were aiming to cover 400,000 by March 2024. But the provider, which also serves almost 80,000 customers, is now putting extra focus on an “aggressive customer acquisition plan” to help boost take-up.

However, the challenging climate (i.e. competition, rising build costs and high interest rates – making it difficult to attract fresh investment) appears to be helping to drive the operator’s latest strategic shift, which will – for the first time – see Fibrus’ broadband packages becoming available outside their own network areas.

According to a recent report on Telco Titans, Fibrus will soon launch retail broadband services over Openreach’s network, starting in its home city. The focus here will naturally be on locations that their own fibre network has yet to reach, and they’re hoping to see customer growth track along a similar pace to their on-net areas.

Dominic Kearns, Fibrus CEO and Co-Founder, said:

“We’ve done it at a network level, and now we really want to go after the big guys at a retail level too. Whilst the money market is expensive, what we’re going to do is take our strength at a retail level and start to push our ISP onto other networks, taking on BT and [Virgin Media] on their home ground effectively. An obsession with growth is ingrained in the Fibrus culture, and we need to get after it.

We won’t approach off-net any differently [to on-net]: we’ll get our proposition out there; we’ll get our boots on the ground; and our marketing effort will be the same as in our own network areas.”

The move is a logical one for Fibrus and will no doubt help to boost their customer figures, which investors will appreciate. On the other hand, they’ve yet to reveal their Openreach based packages and prices, which makes it difficult to judge how competitive they’ll end up being.

The talk of initially making this available in their home city is also understandable, assuming they’re treating it like a sort of live customer trial. But in order to make a real impact they’ll ultimately need to leverage Openreach’s wider national FTTP coverage (c.13 million UK premises passed).