CityFibre Extend Full Fibre to 20,000 Sheffield Council Homes

CityFibre’s £115m rollout of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the South Yorkshire UK city of Sheffield, which started earlier this year, has been given another boost via a deal with the Sheffield City Council. The network will now also be extended to cover 20,000 council homes.

All of this should help to support the operator’s £4bn commitment, which aims to cover 1 million UK premises with their FTTP network by the end of 2021 and then 8 million premises are expected to be “substantially completed” across 285 cities, towns and villages – c.30% of the UK – by the end of 2025 (here).

Work on the Sheffield build, which is being supported by O’Connor Utilities, started in February around the Darnall and Wybourn areas.

Terry Fox, Leader of Sheffield City Council, added:

“Digital inclusion is a key priority for the Council. The Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated what was already a significant shift towards essential services moving online. Internet connections have been vital during this time to keep in touch with our loved ones, as well as for many households to be able to work and learn from home.

It is crucial that our tenants have access to fast and reliable broadband at a reasonable price and we are delighted that CityFibre has chosen to invest in the area with these full fibre installations. This partnership is part of our wider support for local people to access and make the most of digital services.

This is a result of the Council’s pro-investment, barrier busting approach to working with CityFibre, to help Sheffield realise its ambition of becoming one of the best-connected cities in the UK – where coverage, choice and speed of communication stays ahead of demand; and where connectivity enables residents and businesses to use digital solutions to improve their lives and to sustain, grow and create new business.”

Sadly, today’s announcement doesn’t clarify how long those in the relevant social housing will have to wait before the connectivity becomes available.