CityFibre Start Aberdeen’s 1000Mb Fibre Optic Broadband Network Build

Fibre optic network developer CityFibre has today announced the start of construction on their roll-out of a new 1000Mbps capable fibre optic broadband (FTTP) network in the city of Aberdeen (Aberdeen Core), which they’re already promoting as Scotland’s first “Gigabit City“.

The project, which involves working with local ISP Internet for Business, was first announced in September last year and aims to reach more than 6,000 businesses. On top of that hundreds of public sector sites (e.g. schools, universities, libraries, hospitals and government buildings etc.) will also benefit.

As with past deployments the CityFibre roll-out will be demand-led, arriving first in areas where there is the strongest interest. A campaign to drum up support for the initiative began last year and so far more than 250 local businesses have already registered an interest.

The first sites to go live will be Union Street, Schoolhill and Queens Road. Connections and services in these areas will go live in May 2015, with other sites in Altens, Bridge of Don and Dyce to follow later this year.

James McClafferty, City Development Manager at CityFibre, said:

“We are delighted to begin building this network for Aberdeen. This is a huge first step towards transforming Aberdeen into Scotland’s first Gigabit City. Soon businesses and the city as a whole, will begin to feel the benefits of this world-leading infrastructure project.”

According to Ofcom, so-called “super-fast” broadband (30Mbps+) connectivity is already available to around two thirds of Aberdeen and most of that is due to BT’s FTTC infrastructure (Virgin Media’s cable network is somewhat absent), which is also set to improve over the next 2-3 years.

In the past CityFibre has also hinted at the prospect of using the new network to “act as the backbone” for a future Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service, which might be similar to the one that they’re deploying alongside Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Fujitsu UK in York (England). But for now the focus in Aberdeen remains firmly on businesses and the public sector, with no solid plans for tackling homes.