Once again Cityfibre has chosen Bradford-based Exa Networks to be its ISP partner for the launch of their new ultrafast multi-Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband / Ethernet network in the city and metropolitan borough of Sheffield (South Yorkshire, England).
The fibre optic infrastructure builder acquired the new metro network as part of last year’s £90m move to gobble KCOM’s UK network assets (excluding the Hull and East Yorkshire network), which should eventually enable them to expand into 50 cities by 2020. Since then they’ve been working to commercialise it and open the network up to more businesses.
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Apparently the 6-year deal is worth £3.3 million and commits Exa Networks to delivering 250 school and business connections under an existing national framework agreement in Sheffield, with related customers benefiting from access to the new ultrafast service (including in Doncaster and Rotherham).
Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said:
“We’re delighted to extend our framework agreement with Exa into Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham. With this latest call-off, we demonstrate our ability to leverage our expanded footprint and drive commercialisation of the acquired assets at pace, bringing 10 cities into commercial production within seven months of acquisition close. It also brings us within striking distance of 4,000 connections sold year to date.”
So far the number of connections sold by CityFibre on the networks it acquired from KCOM has reached 1,450 (note: many are still being prepared for launch) and the value of contracts sold on the assets has risen to £22.1 million. Cityfibre currently aims to have deployed their fibre optic network across 50 UK cities by 2020.
It’s worth pointing out that three years ago Cityfibre also signed a deal with Sheffield-based ISP Ask4, which allowed the provider to offer “ultrafast, gigabit-speed internet services” via Cityfibre’s existing networks.
Elsewhere Cityfibre also faces some competition in Sheffield, not least from Hyperoptic’s 1Gbps FTTP/B broadband network that launched into the city at the end of 2015 (here) and they mostly focus on big apartment buildings or office blocks.
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