Network builder and UK gigabit broadband ISP toob has announced that their £18m project to roll out a new Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the Hampshire (England) town of Gosport, which will eventually reach 45,000 premises in 2024, has finally started to go live.
The announcement doesn’t mention where in the town their service has gone live, although we note that Gosport is already well covered by Virgin Media’s (VMO2) gigabit-capable network and Openreach are also in the process of deploying a fair bit of FTTP. On top of that, Hyperoptic has a small amount of coverage. Otherwise, most of toob’s build activity is currently focused on the large area west of Walpole Park.
The operator, which was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here), recently secured £160m of additional funding (debt financing) from Ares Management‘s Infrastructure Debt strategy (here) – this can be upsized up to £300m over time to support future growth opportunities.
Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:
“We are delighted that we can now offer our service to Gosport. toob has been built on our belief that access to fast, reliable broadband at an affordable price is a necessity in today’s increasingly digital world. We are committed to delivering the fastest and most reliable service, using the latest full-fibre technology, at an affordable price. Customers will benefit from speeds of 900 Mbps for only £25 per month on an 18 month contract, with no in-contract price rises. They can rely on toob to provide broadband that simply works.”
Customers of the service typically pay just £25 per month on an 18-month term for their 900Mbps (symmetric speed) package (£29 thereafter), which includes a router, unlimited usage, free installation and a pledge of “no in-contract price rises“.