Construction Starts on Cityfibre’s 1Gbps Home Broadband in Stirling

Fibre optic network builder Cityfibre has announced that their £10m investment to build a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) broadband ISP network in the city of Stirling (Scotland), which will be sold on to consumers via UK ISP Vodafone, has now begun.

At present Cityfibre already has a 24km long Dark Fibre network in Stirling, which is used to serve public sector sites and businesses. But in April 2018 both Cityfibre and Vodafone jointly announced that they’d be using this as a stepping stone to build a much wider residential focused Gigabit broadband network (here).

All of this forms part of the operator’s £2.5bn investment to cover around 1 million homes by the end of 2021, which will then rise to reach a total of 5 million premises across 37 UK cities and towns by the end of 2024 (here).

Construction work has now officially commenced in the Cambusbarron area, with Bannockburn set to follow in the New Year. Cityfibre said they will also be extending their network to Bridge of Allan.

Elaine Doherty, Cityfibre’s City Development Manager for Stirling, said:

“For people across Stirling, their digital future is just around the corner. With work now underway we are only a few months from the first homes being able to access full fibre and that is something to be celebrated. Ultrafast broadband will help households access all the latest entertainment at lightning speed, but the benefits are far deeper than that – from enabling smart home technology to giving people the freedom to work from home with ease.

The investment also comes at a critical time for Stirling’s forward-thinking business community. Full fibre enables Stirling to be more innovative and productive, ultimately giving businesses the platform they need to realise their growth ambitions. And it won’t just improve business at home – it will also help businesses take their products or services to an international audience.”

Scott Farmer, Leader of Stirling Council, said:

“The start of these works by CityFibre signals the power being switched on for a new age for Stirling. Secure, high speed access to the internet is such vital part of the City’s infrastructure and is a key asset to encourage more businesses and visitors to the area.

This project will see homes and businesses in Stirling hooked up to some of the fastest internet available in the UK, connecting our communities, businesses and residents like never before as we continue to make Stirling a place where everyone can thrive.”

The first homes to benefit in Stirling are expected to go live during Spring 2019 and the build phase will then continue until sometime in 2020. Cityfibre has signed street works company PMK Civil Engineering to do the work on their behalf.

Unlike some of Cityfibre’s other targets, where there is usually plenty of competition among “ultrafast broadband” ISP networks, Stirling would appear to be a different kettle of fish. At present the operator has no major cable, G.fast or FTTP networks to rival them in the city and this should make it an interesting test case for their deployment.

With the right promotion Vodafone could do a good job of selling their Gigafast Broadband product in the area (our summary).