CityFibre Extends FTTP Broadband Rollout in City of Aberdeen

CityFibre has today announced that they intend to commit a further £19 million in order to extend their existing £40m rollout of a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network in the city of Aberdeen (Scotland), which was one of their very first gigabit city builds.

The “city-wide” Aberdeen project was originally unveiled in February 2018 (here) and formed part of the operator’s original aim to cover a “minimum” of 1 million homes in up to 12 UK cities or towns, although the first construction work didn’t get underway until July of that same year (here).

By comparison, the extra £19m being announced today aims to “enable thousands more homes beyond the original build footprint.” But it’s difficult to put this into context because CF never set a clear target for how many premises would be reached by their original build, or how long it would take to achieve completion and how many premises have already been completed. As such, some may view today’s news as CF needing to invest more money than they originally planned in order to reach completion.

In October 2021, CityFibre, supported by their existing civil engineering contractor GCU, hit a big milestone when it passed 500km of fibre cabling laid across the Granite City. Homes in Woodside, Garthdee, Ruthrieston, Mannofield, Kincorth, Broomhill, Cove, Kaimhill, Ferryhill, Northfield, Tillydrone, Rosehill, Hazlehead, Airyhall, Mannofield, Hilton, Seaton and Torry have already been completed (Ready for Service).

Other areas yet to go live, but set to benefit from the rollout, include Bridge of Don, Bucksburn, Stoneywood, Dyce, Rosemount, Mastrick, Sheddocksley, and some areas of the city centre, with the extended project now expected to be largely complete by the end of 2022.

MSP Kate Forbes, Scottish Government Economy Secretary, said:

“This is a welcome boost for thousands of householders and was enabled by £2 million of funding from the Scottish Government, as part of our £10 million commitment to digital projects in the region. This is in addition to our commitments to fund digital infrastructure via the Aberdeen City Deal, delivering inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the North East.

Accessing fast and reliable broadband has never been so important as we build a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. That is why the Scottish Government is making substantial investments in digital infrastructure to ensure all of Scotland has access to high-speed internet.”

Allan McEwan, CityFibre’s City Manager for Aberdeen, said:

“We’re making huge strides in delivering full fibre to homes and businesses across Aberdeen, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring our best-in-class network to even more of the city.

At CityFibre, we pride ourselves on being agile and flexible. There is clear demand right across Aberdeen for full fibre services and we continue to build at pace to ensure as many people benefit from our network as soon as possible.”

The rollout forms part of CityFibre’s wider £4bn investment programme, which has already covered 1 million UK premises with FTTP and aims to have 8 million “substantially completed” – across 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here).

We should point out that CityFibre aren’t the only gigabit-capable broadband network in the city, with Openreach also having a fairly significant presence across various parts of the city, and rival AltNet Grain looking to expand in the area. OFNL also has a small presence, but they don’t appear to have any major expansion plans, beyond a pocket of new build home developments.