British broadband boosted further by Swish Fibre and Truespeed

Showing not only the steady expansion of broadband networks across the country, but also the continued success of the altnet sector, two of the UK’s leading independent full-fibre gigabit broadband providers, Swish Fibre and Truespeed, have expanded their networks in the south-west and north-east respectively.

The launch of Swish Fibre Yorkshire marks the broadband provider’s first move to deliver connectivity up to 10Gbps through full-fibre broadband networks to underserved homes and businesses outside of the company’s traditional base in the south of England. The move follows Swish Fibre’s acquisition of Essex-based full-fibre internet service provider (ISP) People’s Fibre in December 2021, while its initial roll-out to market towns in the home counties continues to pick up pace.

Swish Fibre said its deployment programme would take a step further in the UK government’s strategic target to extend gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025 and universal coverage by around 2030 by building next-generation 10Gbps networks to ensure there is even greater capacity for several decades to come.

Backed by Swish Fibre’s central operation, Swish Fibre Yorkshire is led by Bob Snowden, who counts over 30 years of hands-on engineering and management experience in the deployment of telecommunications networks. Commenting on the formation of the new division, he said: “I’m delighted to have joined the Swish family and to deliver such a brilliant brand and service to the people of my home county. My team’s vast experience on the ground here will perfectly complement Swish Fibre’s industry-leading infrastructure as we look to rapidly build and deploy state-of-the-art full-fibre networks in the region. We’re also incredibly honoured to bring new employment opportunities to Yorkshire.”

Swish Fibre Yorkshire will commence in the north of the region across Boroughbridge, South Milford, Hillam and Sherburn in Elmet, with more areas to be announced. The company is also working in conjunction with the UK government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which offers funding to cover the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband to eligible residents and businesses in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the country.

Meanwhile, in the south-west of England, Truespeed has announced that the roll-out of full-fibre infrastructure is set to accelerate faster than ever before. The Bath-based full-fibre broadband provider has entered into a partnership with Adtran to enhance its network infrastructure to utilise 10Gbps XGS-PON technology as it continues the rapid expansion of its ultrafast network. 

Following a record year of growth since its additional £100m investment in January 2022, Truespeed said the roll-out of XGS-PON technology would allow it to build and connect customers to its network at a significantly faster rate. In conjunction with maximising network growth, XGS-PON is designed to ensure better timescales between customer sign-up and connection, reduce the number of above-ground cabinets, enable greater future network expansion and significantly improve network build efficiencies. 

Truespeed said testing of the Adtran XGS-PON solution on the infrastructure had been a “resounding success” and the first customers in Peasedown St John are currently live on the new network. Deployment of the new infrastructure will continue to be rolled out as standard across all future build areas.

“Utilising XGS-PON is a huge step forward for Truespeed as we continue on our mission to improve connectivity throughout the south-west,” commented Truespeed CEO James Lowther. “We’re rolling out our network faster than ever before, and this step-change in technology will enable us to deliver our substantial growth plans in the most time- and cost-effective manner whilst providing the best possible customer service.”