Thousands of homes and businesses on the Isle of Wight are missing out on ultrafast broadband speeds – with Openreach’s new Full Fibre network now reaching more than 15,000 properties locally. The network operator has invested more than £4.5million in building the Island’s new network, however, just 21% of those who could upgrade have done so – meaning thousands could be enjoying a faster and more reliable service. The Openreach network offers the widest choice of providers, such as BT, Sky and TalkTalk, which means people have lots of choice and can shop for the best deals. The fibre network uses the existing telegraph poles too. The fibre rollout is continuing at pace, with local engineers currently extending the network across Ryde. Around 45,000 properties will be able to get the Openreach Full Fibre by December 2026 including in Ryde, Bembridge, Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Niton, Freshwater, Newport, Cowes, East Cowes, and Wootton Bridge. Islanders can visit www.openreach.co.uk/ultrafastfullfibre to register for updates and check their postcode to see if and when services are available from their chosen provider. Martin Williams, Openreach Regional Partnership Director, said:
“Switching is easy and may even be cheaper than your existing broadband package, but it’s important to remember that upgrades don’t happen automatically. People need to contact, and place orders through, their broadband service provider to take advantage. “Our engineering build continues across the Isle of Wight and we’re determined to deliver a great service to local residents, helping people to work from home easily and build connections and opportunities in their communities.”
Now they have to catch up and overtake Wightfibre if they can.
But none can beat speed, price and reliability of Wight fibre – so far. Why does Openreach not allow Wight fibre use network ?. Only BT,Sky etc.
Why would BT want to piggy backof an inferior service? FYI BT already have 1Gbps service and faster in the pipeline. BTs prices are cheaper and have far better support. No brainer really. Plust BT don’t have to dig up your garden to lay their fibre cable- it runs overhead. I’ve seen WF shoddy attempts at laying their green trunked cables across peoples gardens.They’re supposed to be buried 25cm down yet you can see many of them poking out of the grass. 🙁
BT are certainly not cheaper. Twice the price of Wightfibre and usage restrictions as well.
WightFibre have service levels far in excess of BT, Sky, Talk Talk etc (Institute of Customer Service, ServiceMark with Distinction), offer the same upload speed and download speed (no-one else does), guarantee the headline speed even at peak times not some inferior speed calculated at the time of order (no-one else does) all on a fuss-free monthly contract – pay what you see, leave when you want.
I want it but live in Newport so currently not available.
Watched some goons putting up overhead fibre lines – good luck to anyone risking BT fibre!
I wouldn’t use BT for free or Wightfibre
That, pretty much, leaves you with Starlink if you want ultrafast broadband.
That’s £75 a month.
That is fine by me
why? not wightfibre best there is nothing to beat it..
Easily beaten by BT and Virgin coax cable.
So you don’t have broadband then?
Apart from Plume, Wight Fibre is great.
You don’t need to use Plume if they fitted the standalone white box on the wall. You can put in your own router, just plug it in where the main Wifi Plume box goes in. Just works. But you need to know what you’re doing to secure your network. Any random school kid will know how to set it up.
I just don’t understand why B.T. Openreach and Wightfibre are installing fibre in the same area when other parts of the island won’t stand a chance of having it installed in the foreseeable future.
Because that’s where the profits are. Not much profit in spending ££££ on providing service to a village with 50 people in it.
That’s the free market, for you.
Actually, there are plenty of EU grants to bring fast fibre to even small villages. I’ve been using them to bring fibre to my parent’s village in Romania. It’s a bit of a long process and plenty of forms to fill in, takes like a year but at least it’s free, and, well… you’d have to be part of EU, too bad you didn’t use it before you Brexited :F
What’s wrong with a ‘mobile service’ dongle ? They’re OK so long as you can get a mobile signal. Huawei B311 150Mbps router/wi-fi dongle 4G unlocked to all networks £58.
WightFibre is rolling out to nearly 80,000 homes and businesses across the island. We’re already live in over 60,000 including out of the way places. For example, this month we’re adding Sandford (50 homes), Mottistone (13 homes) and Wroxhall (250 homes).
Maybe some potential customers have made bad experiences with BT and wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole. At least that applies to me!
I am in Ryde and the Utrafast connection wont get to me until 2026 So looks like I am staying with a reliable service called Wightfibre
Bit late ive been with wight fibre nearly 20 years last 3/4 years full fibre at 300mb before still very good at around 50/60 mb have’nt been with bt/openreach all that time
Checked my address in Newport. Sometime between now and Dec 2026!!
Wightfibre 1GB is awesome and was just a few quid more than my old 10MB connection from BT. Not so pleased about the way they hacked up all the pavements.
Maybe there would be more take up if their prices weren’t so high. Twice as expensive as Wightfibre and they restrict your usage. I have been with Wightfibre for five years, can be on the net 24/7 if I want to be and the service is extremely reliable.
Martin Williams, Openreach Regional Partnership Director, said:”we’re determined to deliver a great service to local residents”
What??, only available to 20% of properties and if you use their ‘tool’
all you get is “We’re sorry it’s not on its way to you (yet)…we’ll get in touch … if something changes.”
or to put it in plain English… “we have no intention of providing it to your property”
Take up may improve, if they actually turned up on the agreed date.