Cityfibre Appoint City Manager to Oversee FTTH in Southend-on-Sea

Cityfibre’s £30m project to roll-out a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network in the town of Southend-on-Sea (Essex) has been given a boost after the operator, which is being supported by UK ISP partner Vodafone, appointed Aideen Sadler to be its dedicated City Manager.

The town already has an existing 90km+ Dark Fibre network (here), which for the past few years has been serving local public sector and business sites. Under the new plan this network will be extended to cover “nearly every home and business” within the town and work is expected to begin during this autumn 2019.

All of this forms part of the operators wider £2.5bn investment (details), which aims to deploy Gigabit capable “full fibre” broadband infrastructure to cover around 1 million premises in 10 UK cities by the end of 2021 (phase one – costing c.£500m), before rising to 5 million premises across 37 cities and towns by the end of 2024.

Aideen Sadler, Cityfibre’s City Manager for Southend, said:

“A state-of-the-art digital infrastructure plays a crucial role in growing and protecting local economies, so I’m delighted to be joining an organisation that is doing everything it can to transform cities across the country.

There’s a great entrepreneurial spirit in Southend. I am proud that CityFibre is investing in our town; it really is a beacon of hope for our thriving start-up culture. This investment will contribute to making Southend a Gigabit City which means that both business’s and residents of Southend can avail of the fastest broadband in the UK. Technology is changing the way we do business and how we live our everyday lives, having this infrastructure in place will future proof our local economy.

The benefits of full fibre connectivity are huge, not only to businesses but also residents. I’m looking forward to working in partnership with stakeholders from across Southend-on-Sea to ensure that we maximise all opportunities. At the same time, I’m determined to engage with our local communities and ensure that they are with us every step of the way and understand the difference that full fibre broadband can have now and in the future.”

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