Cityfibre (CF) have today announced that they will begin expanding the coverage of their existing Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network in the North Yorkshire city of York, which will aim to reach “nearly every home and business.” The network was previously owned by TalkTalk via FibreNation.
Last year we reported that CF were in the process of replacing some fairly modern FTTP kit in former FN areas (here), including York, which was partly because they contained some Huawei equipment (the UK government has been discouraging the use of kit from “high risk” vendors like them). On top of that CF also needed to more closely integrate their different networks (i.e. in the commercial, technical and operational senses).
Under TalkTalk’s lead the previous FN network had already successfully deployed FTTP to around 50,000 premises in York, although strictly speaking the city is home to around 80,000 premises (homes and businesses) and that leaves quite a big gap to fill.
The good news is that CF has today revealed the completion of their “integration of FibreNation’s projects” and they now intend to make a fresh “multi-million pound investment” into York (exact figures aren’t stated), which will expand their coverage to reach “nearly every home and business” in the city (they usually aim for 85%+ of premises).
Kim Johnston, Local City Manager for CityFibre, said:
“York is a city of fantastic heritage and historical significance but also a forward-thinking digital destination that is making huge strides in 5G initiatives and digital inclusion. The city has long been a focus for digital transformation and it’s a pleasure to support the growth of the broadband infrastructure network, ensuring that as many homes and businesses as possible can benefit from Full Fibre.
As we’ve all seen over the past year, digital connectivity has never been more important for residents and businesses in towns and cities across the UK. We want access to Full Fibre to be as inclusive as possible and hope the new project will play a pivotal role in growing and protecting the area’s economy, whilst supporting businesses as they implement digital solutions.”
The expansion forms part of the operator’s wider £4bn investment programme (here and 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 (depending upon how they define ‘substantially’).
Sadly, today’s announcement doesn’t reveal who has been contracted to do the rollout in York (beyond the first 50k) or when and where it will start, but no doubt those details will follow in the near future.
Mark, did they give any indication if this would include infill or just targeting the few areas they haven’t got a presence in yet?
No but infill is usually the first area to benefit from a deployment expansion, so unless there’s a particular problem with reaching a specific area then I’d expect that to be the same here.
Nice to know that York will get finished off credit to CityFibre
AFAIK York was always planned to be at least 85% done as they had no exit plans until 2023 at the earliest.
Upload speed is the most important in todays world. And england cannot give customers good upload speed that’s the problem.
Depends what you using it for, most consumers don’t need huge upload speeds as uploading photos and files to the cloud is not a primary connection reason for them. However most business users will need high upload and as such this is why the business products offer higher upload speeds compared to consumer products
Do you think we will get some speed boost from this refit?
I was promised years ago by Sky that it would be around 940mb download and 100mb upload.
In reality its around 450mb download 100mn upload on my fttp connection.
Not exactly gigabit speed.
How are you measuring it?
Also are you on the correct package? SKY are selling the FTTP on tiered access