Cityfibre’s FTTH Broadband Rollout in Stirling Reaches Halfway

Full fibre network builder Cityfibre, which is being supported by UK ISP partner Vodafone, has announced that their £10m rollout of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) ultrafast broadband network in the Scottish city of Stirling and Bridge of Allan area has now “completed more than half of its build programme.”

Previously Cityfibre only operated a 24km long Dark Fibre network in Stirling, which was used to serve public sector sites and businesses, although since November 2018 the new FTTH build has massively expanded upon this and aims to reach “almost every home and business” in Stirling and the Bridge of Allan (they usually do 85% or more coverage of each city).

At present around 94,000 people live in the city and if the current progress is anything to go by then Cityfibre should complete its local rollout by summer 2020, which is sooner than we expected. However it hasn’t all been plane sailing as the operator’s local contractor (PMK Civil Engineering) did earlier this year attract some complaints from unhappy residents about their street works (here and here).

Otherwise the deployment of full fibre broadband has so far reached Cambusbarron, Broomridge, Bannockburn, Braehead and Raploch. Meanwhile people living and working in the Bridge of Allan, Riverside, Torbrex and St Ninians areas are next in line to benefit. CityFibre added that their team has visited over 11,000 properties to provide information on the project and held detailed conversations with nearly 5,000 residents about its benefits.

Scott Farmer, Leader of Stirling Council, said:

“We are proud Stirling is well on its way to becoming the nation’s first completed Gigabit City project and believe it is the start of a huge digital opportunity for businesses and residents in the area. This forward-thinking approach and strategic partnership with CityFibre and Vodafone ensures we are securing the critical digital infrastructure we need today, as well as helping to safeguard the digital future of our residents and businesses.”

Elaine Doherty, CityFibre’s City Manager for Stirling, said:

“This is superb news for the residents and businesses of Stirling. People are enjoying greater reliability and speeds, while local businesses are being given the opportunity to use a world class network, providing them with a huge advantage against competing businesses both nationally and around the globe. We are exceptionally pleased with the progress so far and look forward to Stirling becoming our first completed Gigabit City next summer.”

All of this work forms part of Cityfibre’s wider £2.5bn investment plan, which aims to cover around 1 million homes across 12 UK cities and towns with Gigabit capable “full fibre” broadband by the end of 2021 (Phase One) and then 5 million premises across 37 cities and towns by the end of 2025 (here).

Stirling is also a particularly good pick for the operator as neither Virgin Media nor Openreach (BT) have a significant “ultrafast broadband” network presence in the city.  The Gigafast Broadband packages from Vodafone currently cost from £28 per month for an unlimited 100Mbps (average symmetric speed) service on an 18 month contract, including free installation and a good wireless router, which rises to £48 for 900Mbps.

Existing Vodafone Pay Monthly mobile customers can also save an additional £5 a month on the above prices, which makes the service incredibly cheap for FTTH.