Report Claims CityFibre’s FTTP Rollout to Deliver GBP38bn in UK Economic Benefits

A new report from consultancy firm Hatch claims to have identified over £38bn in potential economic benefits – derived over a 15-year period – that could stem from CityFibre’s ongoing UK rollout of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network. Naturally, the report was commissioned by CityFibre.

Since 2018 CityFibre has been busy working on a major £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).

Once complete, this new network is also expected to cover 800,000 businesses, 400,000 public sector sites and 250,000 5G (mobile) access points (masts and rooftop sites etc.). So far, the operator is well on their way to becoming the UK’s third major broadband infrastructure provider, after Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media (VMO2).

The new report from Hatch – ‘Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure from CityFibre’s Network‘ – predicts that – over a 15-year period (once the network build has completed) – the economic impacts from this will include £22bn in productivity benefits, £4.8bn from a widened workforce and £1.2bn from flexible working (e.g. home working), as well as creating around 16,400 jobs (i.e. within CityFibre’s build partners and supply chain) – generating £1.8bn in incremental GVA. But there’s more.

Hatch also considered the wider benefits that go beyond the core economic benefits of deployment. The report states that CityFibre’s networks will help to unlock £53bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) from 5G services, £16bn from the Internet of Things and £9.3bn from Smart City initiatives. The shift from slow and “power-hungry” copper lines to energy efficient fibre infrastructure is also calculated to save more than 2m tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The report particularly notes that a third of CityFibre’s rollout locations are in places the Government has identified as most in need of “levelling up” investment, which includes a high proportion of locations ranked as being in the 10% most deprived parts of England.

Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said:

“This report demonstrates just how powerful a tool Full Fibre is in levelling up the UK. Digital infrastructure competition is driving billions of pounds of private investment from incumbents and challengers and every pound spent is unlocking economic growth, new jobs and more efficient public services in some of the most deprived parts of the country. We’re delighted to see the impact of our contribution and we look forward to playing an ever-larger role in future.”

Studies like this tend to crop up a few times each year from different sources, and most of them are not as independent as we would like. But even when they are, the problem remains that trying to accurately gauge the economic impact of deploying faster broadband is notoriously difficult, not least since most premises won’t be starting from a point of zero connectivity (broadband at 30Mbps+ is now available to c.97% of UK premises).

Likewise, we’re all very different in our requirements, and not all businesses benefit from having access to significantly faster broadband speeds than are currently available. Meanwhile, in homes, the biggest economic drivers often stem from your ability to smoothly conduct online shopping, job hunting, banking and similar tasks, which don’t strictly require ultrafast or gigabit connectivity. Not to mention the negative impacts of issues like slow WiFi.

On top of that, this kind of report can also end up forgetting to factor or balance against a realistic impact from overbuild by rivals. For example, CityFibre are building in many of the same urban areas as rival gigabit-capable broadband and FTTP operators, such as Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media (VMO2). Not to mention a rising number of alternative networks (e.g. Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, G.Network, CommunityFibre, Netomnia etc.).

In short, any study that claims to show a huge economic boost should be taken with a pinch of salt, as they’re often overly optimistic. Nevertheless, few could disagree that there does tend to be a strong positive relationship between broadband investment and growth, even if there is an issue of diminishing returns. Nonetheless, what CityFibre has achieved so far is impressive and should not be understated.