Nexfibre UK Target FTTP Broadband for 12,000 Rochford Premises

Network builder nexfibre, which shares some of the same parentage as Virgin Media (VMO2), has today announced that they expect to cover 12,000 premises across the Rochford District of Essex (England) via their new wholesale accessible 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network.

The company has already covered over 1 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing another £1bn during 2024, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises (on top of their existing footprint).

NOTE: Virgin Media is the only ISP on nexfibre’s network via an “exclusive partnership” (here), but they plan to add more ISPs in the near future (here). Virgin Media’s own network will shortly also open up to wholesale via NetCo (here).

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“We are committed to delivering high quality full-fibre connectivity to communities and business across the UK, including here in Rochford. By boosting access to broadband, we are enabling access to the tools needed to participate and thrive in a modern, digital society and stoking growth in the local economy.”

The move makes sense as Virgin Media doesn’t currently have much of any gigabit broadband coverage in Rochford, although nexfibre’s network will face strong competition from both Cityfibre and Openreach’s rival FTTP networks, which are already widely present.

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