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Carlisle-based broadband ISP Grain, which in July 2025 secured a £225 million funding boost to continue their UK network expansion (here), has announced that they’ve begun to expand their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines across the North West Leicestershire (England) town of Coalville; home to around 38,000 people.
The town itself is already covered by gigabit-capable broadband from both Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) and Openreach’s respective full fibre networks. On top of that, there are a few smaller deployments from Hyperoptic and Glide, although it’s unclear how much of the latter involves full fibre. But it does appear as if there might just be enough space for another provider to enter the competitive local market.
The announcement states that “the first lucky customers will be getting switched on as soon as early Spring 2026,” although it doesn’t reveal anything much about Grain’s local deployment plan. But data from local street works suggests that most of the initial roll-out activity will be taking place in the areas around Owen Street, Gutteridge Street and Highfield Street on the central west side of the town
The operator’s point-to-point fibre optic broadband network is currently home to over 43,000 customers and covers 270,000 UK premises (aiming to reach 600,000 in the future).
Richard Cameron, Grain’s CEO, said:
“We’re not just delivering faster internet; we are also saving customers a significant amount on their monthly broadband bill. Whether you’re streaming your favourite shows, working from home or gaming, we’re helping to build a more connected Coalville.”
Customers can normally expect to pay from just £16.99 per month on an 18-month term for symmetric speeds of 150Mbps (including a router and free installation), which rises to £22.99 for their 1Gbps tier. But we understand that those in Wigan may be able to benefit from slightly lower “early-bird” prices, starting at £14.99 for 150Mbps etc.
Grain doesn’t state precisely how many premises in the town they expect to cover or when the roll-out will complete, although it is a location that should be big enough to sustain an additional altnet.