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Carlisle-based alternative broadband provider Grain (Grain Connect) appears to be in the process of expanding their 2Gbps speed point-to-point full fibre (FTTP) network in the West Midland’s city of Birmingham, which already covers more than 900 postcodes in the area and is now set to reach many more.
At present Birmingham, which is home to a population of around 1.2 million, already has wide access to several gigabit-capable broadband networks via Openreach, Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Netomnia and Hyperoptic. On top of that there are a mix of modest to smaller patches of coverage from OFNL (Fibrenest), CityFibre, Glide, Elevate (Telcom) and a few more. In addition, new entrant DIGI (WhyFibre) also seem to be building FTTP in a few small patches.
By comparison, Grain deployed their own FTTP broadband network across three large areas of the city a few years ago, including around Alum Rock, Aston, Bearwood, Birchfield, Lozells, Sparkbrook and Witton. The provider has now begun a new phase of network expansion, which includes building outwards from their existing patches and also creating some new areas (e.g. all around the Balsall Heath and Springfield areas).