grain connect fibre optic build
Alternative UK network operator Grain (Grain Connect) has issued a progress update on their recently started roll-out of a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network in the Greater Manchester (England) town of Bury. The service is now set to start going live next month.
The local roll-out in the town, which vaguely aims to reach “thousands of homes and businesses” by an as yet unspecified completion date, began in February 2025 (here) and has been making quite rapid progress. Since then the operator appears to have been focusing most of its engineers on the east side of the town (just a bit outside the very centre), around and within the areas near to the Bond Street, B6221 and B6222 roads.
NOTE: Grain has previously secured funding of c. £220m (here) via Equitix, Albion Capital, Pinnacle Group and German Landesbank Nord L/B. The operator originally aimed to cover 400,000 UK premises by the end of 2026.
The expansion into Bury wasn’t totally unexpected, as Grain already have some nearby deployments in parts of Oldham, Bolton, Bradford, and Manchester itself. In terms of competitors, both Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) and Openreach already have wide coverage of a gigabit-capable broadband network in Bury. In addition, FullFibre Limited also has some coverage, albeit only in the North of the town.
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However, Netomnia’s (Brsk) engineers have also recently been spotted building down from the north side of the town and toward the centre, with their works appearing to be headed directly for the area where Grain is now actively building. Netomnia usually tries to avoid overbuilding other altnets, although there can sometimes be unavoidable overlaps when recent plans collide.
Otherwise, Grain’s full fibre network can now be found in parts of around 60 UK locations (plus over 150 new build housing developments), which includes a lot of small-to-modest sized patches of various urban cities and towns like Leicester, Liverpool, Accrington, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Scarborough, Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness, Hartlepool, Hull, Newport, Sunderland, Blackburn and so forth.
“To celebrate our arrival, we’re offering an unbeatable broadband deal. Sign up early and get up to 6 months of Full Fibre for just £5.00, then enjoy prices from £19.99 per month for the rest of your fixed-price contract. Plus, with a free standard installation and our Price Freeze until 2027, there are no nasty surprises,” said Grain.