CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, expanded its full fibre network by more than 1 million Ready For Service (RFS) homes in 2022. This achievement represents its most productive year to date and signifies a 40% increase compared to the previous year’s performance.
Throughout 2022, CityFibre experienced an 83% growth in its network footprint, with active rollouts in 75 metropolitan areas. By the end of the year, the network covered over 2.5 million premises, out of which 2.2 million were RFS, allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to immediately serve customers in those locations.
The significant boost in productivity was attributed to CityFibre’s full mobilization of its supply chain in 2022. During the latter half of the year, the company achieved an average run rate of 22,000 premises passed per week. This notable increase resulted from expanding its network construction workforce and continuous operational enhancements.
CityFibre completed its primary build plans in key areas, including Milton Keynes, Stirling, Peterborough, and Coventry, during 2022. However, it plans to further densify and extend these networks over time.
As part of its ISP enablement efforts, CityFibre successfully onboarded 19 new partners onto its network, bringing the total number of live partners to 36 by the end of 2022. This expansion facilitated the addition of 115,000 new residential customers to the network in the same year, effectively doubling the previous year’s growth rate.
CityFibre’s mature networks continue to experience an average monthly take-up increase of approximately 1%. In areas like Stirling, penetration has surpassed 23%, and in Milton Keynes, where the network is most mature, penetration now exceeds 27%.
In a significant development, CityFibre secured a £4.9 billion debt package following additional equity commitments from its shareholder group. These facilities represent one of the largest single financings dedicated to full fibre deployment across Europe and provide complete funding for CityFibre’s rollout to 8 million homes, covering one-third of the UK market.
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre, expressed his satisfaction with the substantial progress achieved in the past year. With full financing in place, a fully mobilized supply chain, and a growing portfolio of ISP partners, CityFibre is transitioning into a new phase of development, focusing on efficiency and optimizing its operations at scale.
