Urban UK fibre optic network builder Cityfibre has announced that they’ve started construction on their £14m project to build a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network in the sea side Suffolk town of Lowestoft, which will be supplied by ISP partners Vodafone (and eventually TalkTalk).
At present the operator is already involved in a project to construct a new 114km long Dark Fibre spine network across ten towns in Suffolk, which includes Lowestoft and is being supported by £5.9m of public funding via the Government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN). But that was only intended to help connect public sector sites and is due to complete by the end of 2020.
By contrast the new commercial investment will enable Cityfibre and contractor Lite Access Technologies to extend out from that Dark Fibre in order to reach local premises (homes and businesses) with their FTTH network. Building work has already begun around the Harbour and Normanston areas.
As usual all of this forms part of Cityfibre’s wider £4bn private investment plan (here), which aims to deploy a Gigabit capable “full fibre” broadband network to cover around 1 million UK premises by the end of 2021, before potentially reaching their ambition of 8 million premises across 100+ cities and towns by the end of 2025 or later (c.30% of the UK).
Charles Kitchin, Cityfibre’s City Manager for Lowestoft, said:
“Full Fibre connectivity and next generation broadband services will transform the lives people in Lowestoft. This goes far beyond simply helping households access the latest entertainment at lightning speed. The benefits are far deeper, from enabling smart home technology to giving people the freedom to work from home with ease.
As well as enhancing our home lives, CityFibre’s full fibre network will give the town’s business community the platform they need to realise their growth ambitions. By connecting properties at up to 1000Mbps we’re putting Lowestoft firmly in the top tier of all UK towns and cities for connectivity and establishing it as a globally competitive digital destination.”
The good news is that Cityfibre has less gigabit class competition in Lowestoft to worry about than in other areas. Cable operator Virgin Media has no presence in the town and Openreach’s rival FTTP network can generally only be found on the southern edge, as well as a smaller deployment around some central areas. Mind you all that could change over the next few years but for now there looks to be plenty of opportunity.
City Fibre when are you going to come to Great Yarmouth Never?
You guys have Virgin.
Brett, Virgin in Great Yarmouth?! Not likely! lol. In all seriousness Virgin’s offering doesn’t really compare to 1Gbps FTTP does it? I think VM’s best broadband package is 200Mbps if you’re lucky and I’m not sure it’s got very good coverage around here?
VM is generally a good provider imo but its about time we caught up with the rest of the developed world in terms of broadband speed.