TalkTalk hasn't had the best time of it in recent years, but the budget ISP is hoping to turn its fortunes around with a plan to pass 3 million customers with gigabit fibre broadband. Discussions are underway with Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of high street insurers M&G Prudential, which has agreed to jointly fund a new and independent network with TalkTalk, which will be a founding wholesale customer of the new company. The new company will build on the trial that's taken place in York with CityFibre, which has seen gigabit Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband rolled out to 14,000 homes and apparently making good on plans to pass a further 40,000. Full terms have yet to be finalised, but TalkTalk's hoping to raise up to £1.5bn for the new company. Executive chairman Charles Dunstone said in a statement that it's high time the company got on with building its own FTTP network: "By signing heads of terms with Infracapital we are making good progress towards putting TalkTalk at the heart of Britain's fibre future by building a full fibre network, bringing faster, more reliable internet to millions of homes and businesses. "Looking ahead we see real opportunity to continue growing the core business whilst also investing in full fibre. We have therefore strengthened our balance sheet and temporarily reduced our dividend to take full advantage of the opportunities available." While the dividend dip might not be pleasing to all shareholders, TalkTalk has also announced a proposed equity placing for private investors, into which Dunstone and other directors will collectively invest £40m. The plan is to raise up to £200m for a number of things including the Group's long-term FTTP plans. TalkTalk has long been a critic of BT over its lack of investment in FTTP, repeatedly calling for Ofcom to separate the UK's leading telco from its network arm Openreach. The regulator stopped short of doing just that, instead forcing Openreach to become functionally separated from the rest of the BT Group. Since that's happened, Openreach has committed to a new 'Fibre First' plan, which aims to see 3 million premises passed with FTTP by 2020. CityFibre, who TalkTalk and Sky partnered with for the York trial has since announced that it’s working with Vodafone on a separate project, which aims to pass 5 million customers with FTTP by 2025. Vodafone recently announced that Milton Keynes would be the first place spades would hit the dirt, with the first customers expected to go live later this year. Elsewhere, Virgin Media has committed to passing 2 million addresses with FTTP by 2020. "London Stock Exchange" by jam_90s is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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TalkTalk hasn't had the best time of it in recent years, but the budget ISP is hoping to turn its fortunes around with a plan to pass 3 million customers with gigabit fibre broadband. Discussions are underway with Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of high street insurers M&G Prudential, which has agreed to jointly fund a new and independent network with TalkTalk, which will be a founding wholesale customer of the new company. The new company will build on the trial that's taken place in York with CityFibre, which has seen gigabit Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband rolled out to 14,000 homes and apparently making good on plans to pass a further 40,000. Full terms have yet to be finalised, but TalkTalk's hoping to raise up to £1.5bn for the new company. Executive chairman Charles Dunstone said in a statement that it's high time the company got on with building its own FTTP network: "By signing heads of terms with Infracapital we are making good progress towards putting TalkTalk at the heart of Britain's fibre future by building a full fibre network, bringing faster, more reliable internet to millions of homes and businesses. "Looking ahead we see real opportunity to continue growing the core business whilst also investing in full fibre. We have therefore strengthened our balance sheet and temporarily reduced our dividend to take full advantage of the opportunities available." While the dividend dip might not be pleasing to all shareholders, TalkTalk has also announced a proposed equity placing for private investors, into which Dunstone and other directors will collectively invest £40m. The plan is to raise up to £200m for a number of things including the Group's long-term FTTP plans. TalkTalk has long been a critic of BT over its lack of investment in FTTP, repeatedly calling for Ofcom to separate the UK's leading telco from its network arm Openreach. The regulator stopped short of doing just that, instead forcing Openreach to become functionally separated from the rest of the BT Group. Since that's happened, Openreach has committed to a new 'Fibre First' plan, which aims to see 3 million premises passed with FTTP by 2020. CityFibre, who TalkTalk and Sky partnered with for the York trial has since announced that it’s working with Vodafone on a separate project, which aims to pass 5 million customers with FTTP by 2025. Vodafone recently announced that Milton Keynes would be the first place spades would hit the dirt, with the first customers expected to go live later this year. Elsewhere, Virgin Media has committed to passing 2 million addresses with FTTP by 2020. "London Stock Exchange" by jam_90s is licensed under CC BY 2.0.