UK-based pure fibre provider CityFibre has announced it will invest at least GBP40 million (USD55.4 million) in Milton Keynes, with the city to be the first location to gain city-wide access to Gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband under its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) programme begin carried out in partnership with Vodafone. The development comes hard on the heels of a November 2017 announcement, covered by CommsUpdate, in which Vodafone confirmed the signing of a long term strategic partnership with CityFibre. That agreement set out the following: as per the wholesale agreement between the pair the former will have a period of exclusivity – ‘predominantly during the build phase of each city network’ – to market ultrafast consumer broadband services on the FTTP network which is to be built, operated and owned by CityFibre.
Now, as the first fruits of the partnership it has been confirmed that CityFibre will start construction of the new FTTP network in Milton Keynes in March this year. It notes that this will be an extension of its existing 160km full-fibre network in the city, and the company says it plans to use modern build techniques to deploy the network quickly and minimise disruption. Once completed, ‘nearly every’ premise in Milton Keynes will have FTTP access, and customers can now pre-register for the service, with the first live connections expected towards the end of 2018.
Greg Mesch, chief executive at CityFibre noted: ‘The partnership between Vodafone and CityFibre aims to tackle the huge problem the UK faces in terms of digital inadequacy and will help fulfil our vision of a Gigabit Britain. We are at the early stages of creating the Gigabit fibre network that the UK needs and deserves, and with the announcement of Milton Keynes as our first project we are well on our way to making this vision a reality.’