Cambridge, UK – In a significant move towards revolutionizing digital infrastructure, CityFibre, the UK’s leading independent full fibre platform, has recently awarded the first round of contracts to its build partners, marking the commencement of the ambitious Project Gigabit rollouts. These contracts encompass Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Hampshire, and Suffolk, promising to extend ‘gigabit capable’ infrastructure to rural areas that would otherwise miss out on commercial broadband developments.
CityFibre has appointed Granemore Group for Cambridgeshire, OCU Group and CCN Communications for Hampshire, OCU Group for Norfolk, and Telelink, OCU Group, and Granemore Group for Suffolk. With these partnerships in place, CityFibre is poised to initiate construction in each location, with the initial homes in Cambridgeshire expected to go live next month.
These four Project Gigabit contracts, totalling £387 million in government subsidies, coupled with an additional private investment of £223 million from CityFibre, amount to a combined investment exceeding half a billion pounds. The aim is to enable reliable broadband services, outpacing the UK’s average speeds by up to 35 times, to over 715,000 rural properties.
CityFibre, renowned for its nationwide full fibre network, currently extends to more than 3 million premises, with over 2.7 million ‘Ready For Service.’ This extensive network expansion is on track to provide one million ‘Ready For Service’ homes this year. CityFibre, currently the second-largest full fibre platform, boasts a take-up rate in mature locations nearing 30%.
Notably, all of CityFibre’s rollouts now benefit from cutting-edge full fibre technology, XGS-PON, offering speeds of up to 2.5Gbps today, a striking 35 times faster than the UK’s average. Moreover, it holds the potential to deliver up to 10Gbps in the future, providing homes and businesses access to faster, more reliable services.
Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, expressed his enthusiasm for the Project Gigabit rollouts, emphasizing their commitment to delivering enhanced broadband connectivity to rural communities. This initiative is expected to play a crucial role in bridging the digital divide and making faster, more reliable internet accessible to underserved areas.
The awarding of these contracts signifies a critical step in CityFibre’s mission to transform the digital landscape and provide robust full fibre infrastructure to communities in need.
