Community Fibre acquires Box Broadband
August 11, 2021
By Colin Mann
London-focused full fibre broadband provider Community Fibre has acquired a majority stake in Box Broadband, a Surrey-based full fibre network operator. The acquisition enables Community Fibre to continue to focus on building in London while expanding a successful FTTH platform in the UK and it provides Community Fibre with expertise in suburban/rural builds.
In addition, the acquisition will see Community Fibre share its own expertise and experience in the industry with Box Broadband, which will remain an independent operational entity trading under the Box brand in the South of England. Graham Sargood will continue to lead this operation.
Box Broadband provides a full optical fibre network in Surrey and West Sussex in the South of England and has passed 7,000 homes. The majority investment from Community Fibre will support an accelerated network roll-out to 200,000 homes across the South of England by 2024.
Through the acquisition of Box Broadband, Community Fibre will continue its mission to close the digital divide and promote social inclusion by bringing connectivity to rural areas underserved by the existing large ISPs. The acquisition, supported by its shareholders Warburg Pincus LLC, DTCP, Amber Infrastructure and Railpen will enable Community Fibre to continue to accelerate the expansion of full-fibre broadband to more households and businesses beyond London.
“Box Broadband has already established itself as a provider of fast and reliable trusted services to communities in Surrey and West Sussex that are underserved from a speed perspective,” stated Graeme Oxby, CEO of Community Fibre. “As such, this is an exciting opportunity for us to invest in a company that shares our vision of affordable connectivity for all, and to expand across the South. With our backing from Warburg Pincus, DTCP, Amber Infrastructure and Railpen we will be able to support Box Broadband’s ambitious growth plans and provide the operational experience, as well as technical and commercial knowledge of best practice and purchasing scale in order to build quickly and efficiently.”
“We are delighted to receive investment from Community Fibre who has established itself as champions for the many underserved communities in London,” added Sargood, CEO of Box Broadband. “With their investment and operational scale, we will be able to quickly ramp up our build and provide high speed and affordable services to many more customers in our target areas.”
Community Fibre is London’s fastest alternative full fibre network and has over 300,000 homes ready for service. It is committed to having 1 million homes in the capital customer ready with its 100 per cent full fibre multi-gigabit capable broadband by 2023. The acquisition of Box Broadband will enable it to expand beyond this and connect more homes and businesses across the South of England.