Full fiber broadband ISP Grain Connect, which recently secured a major £75 million equity investment from Equitix (here), has announced that their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network is being extended to cover the large Lancashire town of Accrington – home to a population of around 35,000.
At present, Grain holds an ambition to extend their network footprint to cover an “initial” 300,000 premises (homes and businesses) across Great Britain, which should be achieved before the end of 2026. Some of their early builds have included Grimsby (Lincolnshire), Scarborough (North Yorkshire), Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness and even Blackburn (here and here).
The latest to join that list is Accrington. Streets being connected in the first phase include those in the area of Burnley Road, between Annie Street and Stanley Street and will also include homes around Arago Street, Lodge Street and Norfolk Street, with plans to expand to thousands more homes in the coming months.
Otherwise, new customers can expect to pay from £14.99 per month for a symmetric speed 50Mbps package, and that goes up to £44.99 for their top 900Mbps plan (these packages have just been refreshed, along with their website). All of these packages come with a 12-month minimum contract term, free installation and a router. A promise is also made NOT to increase prices mid-contract.
Tracy Karam, Head of Customer Experience for Grain, said:
“The response from residents and businesses has been very positive, with many already signing up to the service before work on their street has even been completed.
Our service has become even more popular in recent months, as customers rely more and more on fast, reliable and secure network for working, learning, gaming and entertainment. We are pleased to be rolling out our offer prices to the residents of Accrington, allowing them to access true full-fibre at unbeatable prices.”
Naturally, a town as large as Accrington is not devoid of gigabit-capable broadband rivals for Grain’s build, with Virgin Media’s network already covering the majority of premises (albeit with some big gaps around the central area). Meanwhile, the best that Openreach can muster in the area is their inferior G.fast technology.