Network operator Freedom Fibre, which claims to have already rolled out a 10Gbps capable full fibre broadband (XGS-PON / FTTP) network to cover 300,000 premises across England (27th Mar 2024), has today revealed that they’ve grown their customer base to 20,000 in the North West and West Midlands of England.
The announcement represents the first time we’ve had any solid customer figures from the operator, which reflects additions across deployment locations such as Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe, Leek, Urmston, Northwich and Whitchurch etc. This clearly factors in their recent acquisition of the previously InfraBridge-backed VX UK Holdings ltd (VXFIBER) last year (here).
We should point out that Freedom Fibre also holds the state aid supported £24m Project Gigabit contract to roll-out full fibre broadband across “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach premises in rural parts of Shropshire (here), as well as the £43m contract to reach 15,000 similar premises in Cheshire (here).
Customers can typically order broadband packages on FF’s network via partner ISPs such as TalkTalk, LilaConnect, Squirrel Internet, Fusion Fibre, MTH and Beebu etc.
Marie Danby, Customer Operations Director at Freedom Fibre, said:
“Thanks to our hard-working team, the cooperation of communities and local leadership, we have been able to successfully deliver our high-speed network cost-effectively whilst maintaining our high level of customer service. This is just the start of our journey to make full-fibre, high speed broadband available to everyone.”
In terms of gauging take-up, the press release somewhat confusingly states that “the business works to build to over 300,000 premises“, which makes the 300k figure sound more like a target than the way it’s been referenced before (i.e. as pre-existing coverage, post-merger). But crucially, it’s unclear how many of those premises are ‘Ready for Service’ (RFS), which is hard to gauge until the VXFIBER network is fully integrated and all ISPs have the same availability.