CityFibre to Start GBP17m FTTP Broadband Rollout in Kettering

CityFibre has today confirmed that they will invest £17 million to rollout a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the North Northamptonshire (England) town of Kettering, which is set to begin sometime in “early May” 2022.

The local build, which is being supported by civil engineering contractor Granemore Group, is expected to begin around the Northfield Avenue and Rockingham Road areas in the north of the town. Assuming all goes to plan, then the overall project is expected to reach completion by 2024 – the first services will start to go live long before then.

The new deployment will form part of the operator’s wider £4bn investment programme, which has so far enabled their full fibre network to cover 1.5 million UK premises – with 1.3m ‘Ready For Service‘ via a supporting ISP (here). The main aim of this build is to have 8 million premises “substantially completed” – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here).

Each area will usually take a few weeks to complete, however, construction teams will typically only be outside each home for 2-3 days and CityFibre will usually be in touch by mail ahead of any work starting. But it can take time before completed sections of build go live and become available via a supporting ISP.

James Cushing, Area Manager, said:

“CityFibre’s investment will bring a step change in connectivity for Kettering. It will bring choice for residents and businesses, and align perfectly with the ambitious regeneration and growth plans for the town. Our builders will soon get to work on a town-wide full fibre network – and we think people will be blown away by the difference it will make, both now and for generations to come. We cannot wait for residents and businesses to see what is possible with digital connectivity and the important part it will play in each of our lives.”

However, CityFibre won’t be the only gigabit-capable broadband operator in town, with Virgin Media already holding wide coverage over the area. On top of that, Kettering also appears on Openreach’s rollout plan for FTTP (they’ve already done some parts) and 1310 has similarly mentioned it for their own build. We note that FibreNest also have some coverage on the odd new build homes site, and the town sits just next to Gigaclear’s network.