Cityfibre’s 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Goes Live in Northampton UK

After starting the roll-out in September 2019, it now looks as if Cityfibre’s new £40m and 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISP network in the East Midlands (England) town of Northampton, which is initially being supported by Vodafone (and TalkTalk to follow), has finally gone live for their first customers.

Previously the company operated a 45km long Dark Fibre network in the area, which was used to serve public sector sites and businesses with bespoke connectivity, but it’s now helping to form the backbone for their new FTTH network. The new service aims to reach “almost every home and business in the town” (they usually target 85%+ coverage) and should be “largely complete” by the end of 2022.

Street works began last year around the town’s southern half – including Brackmills, Hardingstone and Wootton (with Grange Park, Collingtree and East Hunsbury to follow) – and, according to Thinkbroadband, the network now appears to be live in parts of the Hardingstone and Wootton areas. A little bit of overlap exists with Openreach’s (BT) new FTTP network, while they’ve yet to really enter areas controlled by Virgin Media’s cable.

Some reports have previously predicted that Cityfibre’s deployment could boost the wider Northampton economy by approximately £160m, although accurately estimating the economic impact of faster broadband speeds is notoriously difficult and should be taken with a pinch of salt; particularly then they have to overbuild rival gigabit networks.

As usual all of this forms part of the operator’s £4bn investment programme, which aims to cover around 1 million premises by the end of 2021 and then 8 million in the future (expected to be largely completed by the end of 2025). At present some 62 UK cities and towns have been identified for their roll-out plan (here) and we expect this to hit 100+ in the future, once the FibreNation plan has been fully integrated.

The related Gigafast Broadband packages from Vodafone currently cost from £28 per month for an unlimited 200Mbps (symmetric speed) service on an 18 month contract, including free installation (you also get a good wireless router), which rises to £48 per month for their top 900Mbps (Gigabit) tier (in the middle is a 500Mbps option for £38).