CityFibre Commit GBP17m to Build Full Fibre Broadband in Havant

CityFibre has announced that they plan to invest £17 million in order to deploy their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across “every home and business” in the Havant, Emsworth, Southbourne and Westbourne areas of Hampshire (England).

The announcement is quite vague on detail, but a quick look at the planning permission details for the area clearly shows that CityFibre’s engineers are due to start work during early June in the northern part of Havant. CityFibre has once again chosen contractor CCN to deliver the build (they’re also working in nearby Poole and Christchurch).

As usual, this 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).

Jonathan Russell, CityFibre’s Area Manager, said:

“The next chapter in Havant’s story starts here. Our builders will soon get to work– and we think people will be amazed by the difference it will make, both now and for generations to come.

Havant borough is currently the third worst mainland local authority area in the UK for fibre broadband coverage, with only 1.8 per cent of properties passed by full fibre. Our investment will change that, and we cannot wait for residents and businesses to see what is possible with digital connectivity, which moves us forward into the future.”

CityFibre will of course face some gigabit-capable broadband rivals in the area, with Virgin Media already being present and Openreach planning to deploy FTTP over the next few years.