Building a long-lasting, full-fibre network for the future

We have ambitious plans to reach more than 500,000 properties by the end of 2025, bringing full-fibre connectivity to more households and businesses throughout the South West than ever before.

To date, we’ve passed more than 100,000 homes (meaning they are now able to join our network) and have connected more than 21,000 customers.

How we plan our network

When we plan our network, we aim to connect poorly-served communities that we can reach with our ultrafast network. Our mission is to connect as many of these poorly-served areas as we can, which is why we choose not to build our network in areas that are already benefitting from full-fibre connectivity.

Our full-fibre network is brand-new. That’s why we plan our builds carefully to make sure we minimise disruption and can connect your community to our network as quickly as possible. During the planning stage of our builds, our Access team always makes sure to arrange access with any private landowners well before we begin our build.

Once planned, the access team arranges all of the necessary access needed for us to start building with local councils, landowners and landlords, our Planning teams work with local contractors to prepare the area for any upcoming work.

However, there are sometimes barriers, – such as a lack of access agreements – which unfortunately prevent us from building the network in certain areas; barriers that sometimes simply can’t be overcome. When this is the case, we’re left with no choice but to move onto our next project.

How we build our network

Each new area we connect presents its own set of challenges. We always try to use the area’s existing infrastructure (such as ducts and telephone poles, where applicable) to install your community’s new full-fibre network as much as is practically possible. That way, we’re able to minimise the disruption caused by installing poles or digging new ducts of our own.

Though disruption is impossible to avoid when we do have to build the infrastructure ourselves, our experienced teams and local contractors try to keep it to a minimum and always work within the legislation of installations in the public highways (as outlined in the Highways Act 1980).

We’re a truly local business – one that provides a valuable service to the communities we connect. That’s why we use local contractors for all our building works, alongside local people who work directly for us. As a result, every team involved in the entire build and planning process is made up local people who live in (and love) the areas we connect.

If we need to work on your property as part of our build, we’ll always do so in complete agreement with you. We also work closely with local landowners when planning our routes to identify any alternative pathways to minimise disruption even further, and to ensure we can connect your community to its new network as quickly as possible.

Click here to find out more about how we aim to keep any disruption to a minimum, and the numerous advantages our network brings to areas we connect.

Who’s backing our network?

Our network is backed by significant investment from private funds and investors.

When we started to roll out our network in 2015, we built to poorly-served communities that registered interest in our services. As our business and network have expanded, new sources of investment mean we now build much faster and connect more customers more quickly than ever before.

With significant investment, we’ve been able to accelerate our network build and bring gigabit-capable broadband to semi-rural and ultra-rural areas – as well as towns and cities throughout South West – and have significantly levelled up the region’s digital capabilities for generations to come.