Netomnia, the gigabit, full-fibre network investor and builder, announced today that it has started building an ultrafast broadband network covering 35,000 premises in Houghton le Spring. This is part of its £54m investment in networks in Durham, Peterlee, Spennymoor, Stockton and now Houghton, which will potentially provide full-fibre ultrafast broadband to 170,000 business and residential premises across the north-east. Netomnia is aiming its services at UK towns which have been forgotten by other broadband providers.

Netomnia’s full-fibre networks provide symmetrical (equal upload and download speeds) gigabit services up to 10 Gbps (10,000 Mbps). Netomnia acts as a wholesaler to other Internet service providers (ISPs), like YouFibre (www.youfibre.com). YouFibre expects to connect its first customers in Houghton in July 2021.

Though local schemes have been helping to increase speeds, Netomnia is driving speeds much, much further; its network will provide ultrafast speeds (more than 300 Mbps). Netomnia has chosen MAP Group (UK), the experienced telecoms infrastructure builder, to construct the network and push the town to the top of UK’s broadband league table.

Netomnia is making a multi-million investment to build high-quality, full-fibre gigabit networks across the UK. Its investments will meet bandwidth requirements of homes and businesses for decades. Full fibre uses fibre-optic cables to deliver broadband services all the way to premises, providing faster speeds and more reliable service than copper-based networks. Networks like these boost local economies by providing jobs, making property more saleable and enabling a much more attractive base for businesses.

Jeremy Chelot, Netomnia founder and CEO, said: “Full fibre with ultrafast speeds and reliability of service are vital to Houghton’s people who will be able to trade, find work and use spectacular entertainment and gaming opportunities more effectively than those in towns where broadband providers have been solely profit focused.

“Houghton isn’t just a commercial opportunity for Netomnia. The Internet transforms lives, it’s a great leveler; if you haven’t got it or you’ve a poor connection you’re disadvantaged. I want to see the prosperity the Internet can bring to towns where others haven’t bothered to turn up or have made minimum effort. Netomnia’s desire to connect people, in previously forgotten but now fast towns and the level of service from our ISP YouFibre is already embarrassing Internet pretenders, and that drives us forward.”

Customers who want to obtain or register for broadband service should visit www.netomnia.com where they will find Netomnia’s broadband retail partners.