Community Fibre Sign 1Gbps Broadband Deal for 54K Southwark Premises

A second fibre optic ISP, Community Fibre, has this afternoon announced a separate agreement with the London UK borough of Southwark, which will see them deploying their 1Gbps FTTH broadband network to 54,000 properties owned by the local authority.

Earlier today the same council confirmed an agreement with Hyperoptic (here) to deploy a similar service to 53,000 council homes, as well as 46,000 other homes and 1,000 commercial premises in the area (at no cost to the taxpayer). The deal reflected 80% coverage of the borough with Gigabit capable broadband connectivity.

Hot on the heels of that announcement and it now looks as if we might know how the final 20% is going to be tackled (as well as the potential for overbuild), thanks to a second agreement with rival London ISP Community Fibre, which already has similar agreements with other local authorities in Wandsworth (35,000), Hammersmith and Fulham (17,000), Westminster (9,000), Genesis Housing (33,000), Richmond (9,000) and the City of London (2,800).

Cllr Fiona Colley, Southwark’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said:

“We are delighted to announce this agreement with Community Fibre, which opens up another opportunity for Southwark residents to take advantage of superfast broadband. Parts of our borough have been poorly connected for too long, but the council was determined to change that, and I’m delighted that residents will now see a huge improvement thanks to proactive companies like Community Fibre.”

Jeremy Chelot, CEO of Community Fibre, said:

“We are delighted to be working with the Southwark Council to bring Gigabit services to properties in London. Southwark Council’s commitment has made it easy for Community Fibre to bring this expansion to reality, showcasing how an innovative approach from a local authority can help us to provide the best connectivity to meet residents’ needs. Community Fibre plans to bring full-fibre connections to more than 500’000 properties across London by 2022, providing more Londoners with the Internet they deserve at affordable prices.”

Under the agreement Southwark Council will also benefit from free internet to community facilities, libraries and primary schools. The company also pledges to create new local jobs in the area as it continues its commitment to hire locally, as it has done elsewhere, and to increase digital skills by increasing its Digital Champion Network to include people from Southwark.

The company states that it now has access to 150,000 homes throughout London with the aim of having 500,000 properties connected with affordable ultra-fast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband connections by 2022 as more and more London boroughs sign-up.

The unusually late timing of this media announcement suggests that somebody might have been caught on the hop by Hyperoptic’s press release this morning.

UPDATE:

CF has confirmed that some of their deployment may involve overbuild with Hyperoptic. Also the original figure of 53,000 from their press release has been updated to 54,000 (apparently there was a small mistake in their announcement).