Cityfibre Set to Scoop Local Full Fibre Contract for Portsmouth UK

Sources have informed us that the Portsmouth City Council will award Cityfibre the £3.8m (public funding) Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) contract to rollout a new “gigabit-capable” Ethernet and broadband network across the south coast city (inc. nearby areas), which aims to connect public sector sites.

At present Cityfibre is already working with UK business ISP Giganet (M12) on a joint project to deploy a 1Gbps “full fibre“network to cover around 1,500 businesses inside Portsmouth (here). Back in 2016 they also gobbled the metro fibre network assets of Redcentric plc for £5m, which included some infrastructure in Portsmouth. As a result it was always a fairly safe bet that they’d end up scooping the LFFN project too.

The anchor tenancy approach being taken with this contract appears to mirror what Cityfibre has done with lots of other cities across the UK. Such networks tend to start out with a limited focus on improving public sector connectivity, but once built they’re often extended – using private investment – to reach local businesses and eventually even homes (example).

The new Gigabit Commercial Port project also appears to go a step further than other LFFN deals in that the network will serve some public buildings in outlying towns (i.e. Gosport, Lee-on-the Solent, Fareham, Portchester, Cosham, Waterlooville and Havant). The benefit of this is that Cityfibre will need to build a new fibre spine there too (useful for future extensions). The result is something quite impressive.

We also note that MLL Telecom, which are an existing business ISP reseller on Cityfibre’s network and help to serve some of their other cities, has been chosen as the main network service provider to run data services on top of the new fibre.

Matt Warman MP, UK Minister for Digital, said:

“I’m delighted that Portsmouth is to benefit from £3.9m from government to give its schools and public services the fastest and most resilient internet speeds around.”

Assuming all goes to plan then it would put new fibre within 200 metres of over 50,000 local premises (mostly homes), which might in the future enable Cityfibre to reach them – via additional commercial investment – as part of their work with consumer ISP partner Vodafone UK to deploy a new 1Gbps FTTH broadband network (here).

In the meantime ISPreview.co.uk has been told that the local publicly funded LFFN rollout will aim to upgrade connectivity for nearly 200 public buildings across the new network.