Full Fibre Builder Cityfibre Signs Armed Forces Covenant (AFC)

Fibre optic operator Cityfibre, which is currently in the process of investing £2.5bn in order to deploy a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 5 million premises across 60 UK cities and towns by the end of 2025, has today signed the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC).

A number of other telecoms and broadband providers (e.g. BT, Sky Broadband, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media) are also signatories of the AFC. Essentially this represents a commitment to those who serve (i.e. ensuring they are treated fairly and not disadvantaged in their day to day lives).

This includes offering injured servicemen and women and bereaved families extra support where appropriate. Through signing the Covenant Cityfibre recognises the skills and talents of reservists and veterans, which it can tap into by offering them either work or apprenticeship opportunities.

The operator says that reservist and veterans, who are part of the Armed Forces community, have been identified as the “perfect candidates to bring to bear the training they received in their military careers” to support Cityfibre’s rollout across the UK. “At its peak, this will see 120,000 premises being made ready for service every month,” said the operator (we think that’s the first time they’ve given such a build forecast).

Greg Mesch, CEO of Cityfibre, said:

“Bringing a new generation of full fibre to towns and cities across the UK is no small task. Infrastructure projects of this scale require a wide range of skills but many of those can be found in the men and women who have trained and served in the Armed Forces. By signing the Armed Forces Covenant, CityFibre will be able to tap into a community of people who are highly skilled, disciplined and have all the qualities we are looking for to help deliver Britain’s full fibre future.

Reservists and veterans have already served their country exemplarily, and we believe this is another chance for them to help the UK by supporting in the delivery of a national infrastructure programme that will bring the transformative benefits of full fibre connectivity to communities and businesses around the country. Former forces personnel are already a core part of our team but we look forward to welcoming many more members of the armed forces community into the CityFibre family over the coming years.”

We should point out that Cityfibre is currently still a long way from that forecast peak of 120,000 premises per month (around 26,600 per week). At the end of October we estimated their build rate to be around 15,000 premises passed per month, although this has continued to ramp-up through the year.

However they’ll probably need to reach upwards of 30,000 per month in order to stand any chance of hitting close to their first target (1 million premises by the end of 2021). At their current rate of progress it shouldn’t be too long before we see this level being hit and then potentially exceeded.