Cityfibre Links Doctors Surgeries in Coventry UK to 1Gbps Full Fibre

Fibre optic infrastructure developer CityFibre has announced that their Gigabit capable fibre optic Ethernet and broadband (FTTP) network in the West Midlands city of Coventry, which serves local businesses and public sector sites, is now been used to connect the majority of local GP practices.

Cityfibre has had a network in the city since 2014 (here), which stems from a strategic partnership with Coventry City Council that enabled them to acquire an existing 140km long metro fibre network and re-purpose it to help serve local businesses with connections of up to 1Gbps. Today the network extends to 180km and serves over 400 public sector sites, as well as “hundreds of businesses“.

The operator is now also working in partnership with systems integrator, Pinacl Solutions, to connect 62 of the region’s doctors’ surgeries and community health centres to their very own next-generation full-fibre network. Apparently the first connections under this latest extension are expected to go live in May 2018.

Martin Kemp, CityFibre, said:

“We’re really pleased to see NHS Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) upgrade to a full-fibre infrastructure – this represents real investment into building an NHS that is fit for the future by creating the necessary foundations for digital health and care innovation.

As NHS Digital roll out the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) set to replace N3, the national broadband network for the English National Health Service, it is vital that all underlying infrastructure is upgraded to full-fibre. This will not only drive cost savings through the removal of multiple connections into the same site, it will give the NHS the reliability, capacity and internet speeds it needs to transform services in the digital age.”

Dr Steve Allen, Clinical Director at NHS Coventry and Rugby CCG, said:

“Working with our IT providers at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, the CCG is at the forefront of gigabit tech in the UK. Enabling GP practice access to a local fibre network will provide instant access to online services, whilst improving the experience of patients visiting the practice.”

Coventry is just one of 50 UK cities where Cityfibre have either built / acquired a network or intend to build one by 2020. The city also stands a reasonable chance of becoming one of the first to be chosen by Vodafone and Cityfibre under their joint 1Gbps FTTH Broadband network deployment for UK residential properties (here). However we’re currently still waiting for Vodafone to confirm their roll-out plan.