Cityfibre to Build 1Gbps FTTP Broadband Across Renfrewshire

Fibre optic network builder Cityfibre UK has today entered into a new partnership with Renfrewshire Council, which will see them invest £40 million to roll-out their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across homes and businesses in the historic towns of Paisley, Renfrew and Johnstone.

As usual this forms part of their £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. All of this is usually supported by their residential ISP partners, such as Vodafone and TalkTalk.

The operator already has a Dark Fibre network in the area, which currently serves public sector sites (schools, libraries, council offices etc.), and as part of the new deal this will also be upgraded and extended by approximately 700km.

Construction work has already commenced in Paisley, with the first homes and businesses expected to be able to connect to the network from early 2021. The civil engineering side of all this is being delivered by PMK on Cityfibre’s behalf (while following social distancing protocols, naturally).

Greg Mesch, CEO of Cityfibre, said:

“The £40million investment we are making in the area is the result of years of close collaboration with Renfrewshire Council. Full Fibre connectivity will put the region at the forefront of the digital transformation we are driving across the country. As the world adapts to COVID-19, the importance of delivering world-leading digital infrastructure for residents and businesses could not be greater.”

Iain Nicolson, Renfrewshire Council Leader, said:

“I am delighted to see work well underway on developing this state-of-the-art Full Fibre network which will make Renfrewshire one of the best connected regions in Scotland and bring benefits to residents and businesses alike.

The Coronavirus pandemic has underlined how much we all need fast, reliable broadband connections and demand for better bandwidth continues to grow year on year so it’s vitally important for our businesses, for our schools and for our residents that we have a resilient, future-proofed network to be proud of.”

In terms of local rivals, much of the area being targeted by Cityfibre has already been covered by Virgin Media’s gigabit-capable broadband network, while Openreach’s FTTP infrastructure only has a very limited presence. Suffice to say that it’s a reasonable area for the operator to target, with only one major rival to worry about.. for now.

Assuming Vodafone’s related Gigafast Broadband packages do go live in these areas then local homes can expect to pay from just £25 per month for an unlimited 100Mbps (symmetric speed) service on a 24 month contract term, including free installation and a good wireless router, which rises to £43 for 900Mbps.