Street works to roll-out a new “gigabit-capable” Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband ISP network have just begun in the West Midland’s city of Wolverhampton. The deployment is being funded by an investment of £50m from Cityfibre, which usually aims to cover around 85%+ of premises in the areas they target.
At this point it’s worth noting that Cityfibre recently scooped up the Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) contract to deploy a new Dark Fibre network in the city (here), which is being supported by a public investment of £4.9m and aims to connect 170 public sector sites (e.g. schools, libraries and offices). Some of this will no doubt form the foundation for the latest £50m commercial project to connect local homes and businesses via FTTH.
Likewise, it’s no surprise to find that the company has contracted civil engineering firm Comex 2000 to do both their Dark Fibre and FTTH network builds in the city. The first work is already said to have begun in the Claregate and Tettenhall areas of Wolverhampton.
As usual the new FTTH build forms part of Cityfibre’s wider £4bn investment plan (here), which currently aims to cover around 1 million premises by the end of 2021 and then 8 million across 100+ cities and towns (c.30% of the UK). The latter target is expected to be “substantially completed” by the end of 2025.
Bashir Ahmed, CityFibre’s City Manager for Wolverhampton, said:
“Full Fibre connectivity and next generation broadband services are set to transform the lives of those living and working in Wolverhampton. 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, which has become more important than ever before.
As well as enhancing our home lives, Full Fibre will make Wolverhampton a more attractive place to live, run a business and invest. CityFibre’s £50m full fibre network will give the city’s business community the platform they need to realise their growth ambitions. By connecting properties at up to 1,000 Mbps we’re putting Wolverhampton firmly in the top tier of all UK cities for connectivity, establishing it as a globally competitive digital destination.”
Louise Miles, Wolverhampton Councillor, added:
“We welcome this private investment by CityFibre into Wolverhampton to deliver a modern, fit-for-purpose digital infrastructure that will futureproof residents and businesses.
The City of Wolverhampton Council continues to work closely with the private sector to facilitate economic growth in the digital age and CityFibre’s full fibre network will be vital in ensuring Wolverhampton has a buoyant and resilient economy with a strong, vibrant innovative business base.”
At present it’s not clear which of Cityfibre’s residential broadband ISP partners will be selling the new service to consumers when it goes live (likely to occur in a few months’ time). The most probable candidate is Vodafone via their Gigafast Broadband packages, although TalkTalk is also expected to join the network soon, but at the time of writing neither has been confirmed.
In terms of local rivals for gigabit-class connectivity, the greatest competition to this new network will come from Virgin Media, which is already widely available across the city. On top of that some smaller providers, such as Exascale, are known to have targeted the city but they’re more focused upon “out of town” locations (here).
Shame on you Openreach for doing nothing for Wolverhampton
You do realise there is only a finite amount of resource available to install fibre networks, otherwise builds would be going ahead in every single town and city in the country
Why openreach need to when virgin media is already widely available. I think the providers should be covering not spots and not overlapping coverage.
I’m sure people in notspots may feel this way but being in an area thats been exclusive to Virgin Media for the past 10 years I can tell you they’ve abused their position many times in the past and even present.
Competition is healthy.
Overbuild well underway.
Considering my two options in Wolverhampton is a BT cabinet way too far away or a Virgin connection powered by a faulty modem chipset I’d say I welcome the competition.
It’s good news to here this how comes where I live in London E1, E2 and E3 part of London we don’t get different companies doing fibre I have no virgin, hyperoptic, community fibre etc…
I don’t want phone line broadband I’m using three 4G broadband still waiting for there 5G broadband no news of that and also did you here three broadband not three network are migrating there customers who are on 4G to three network 4G broadband they told me are working on expanding 5G broadband to other cities.
It is because of wayleave agreement between the private building management team and the provider. For example here in E1 London all buildings that are owned by a particular management team get denied access to Full Fibre while others that have permission granted or went live are owned by a different managing company.
EastendHomes is an example, they won’t grant permission for FTTP in the normal way, EVER unless of-course the Manager is replaced! Many of those residential buildings in East London are managed by them, so permission will obviously be denied.
But premises owned by Tower Hamlets Homes for example has agreement granted for all buildings for Hyperoptic. Those who usually passed wayleave for Virgin Media tend to have permissions granted for another altnet FTTP overbuild.
Until legislation’s aren’t changed our only option for now is FTTC or 5G which doesn’t involve internal installation.
For permissions to be granted more easily Full Fibre needs to become a UK tradition so it can be accepted spontaneously without too much fuss.
This is only happing because their anchor client is Wolverhampton City Council. Cityfibre from what I’ve seen only enter areas where they win LFFN contracts. They don’t build speculatively.
They started a few months ago and have moved out west first. You can track the progress on https://one.network/
Question is will they be covering Perton? I have a horrible feeling they won’t.
Any idea if FTTH will reach down the Langley Road? WV4 4XY?
I mean FTTP. Well anything better than 15Mbs!
Hi Mark,
Best indication is looking at where the council sites are, I live in your area and unfortunately it appears they closest it comes to us is Merridale, Compton/Wightwick and Graiseley off the Penn Road.
https://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-12/Planned%20Restrictions%20to%20Traffic%20Movement%2018%20December%202020.pdf