CityFibre Prep £14m Rollout of 1Gbps Broadband in Wellingborough

CityFibre has today announced that they’ll invest £14m to extend their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the large market and commuter town of Wellingborough in North Northamptonshire (England), which is set to begin in October 2022.

The new “town-wide” network deployment, which will aim to reach “almost every home and business” in Wellingborough (the operator usually targets 85% or more of local premises), doesn’t come as much of a surprise because CityFibre are already building across the nearby town of Northampton.

The latest build forms part of the operator’s wider £4.9bn investment programme to cover up to 8 million premises – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here). So far, CityFibre has already covered 1.9 million UK premises – with 1.7m ‘Ready For Service‘ via a supporting ISP.

James Cushing, Area Manager for CityFibre, said:

“Our full fibre network will transform Wellingborough’s digital capabilities for decades to come. Our builders will get to work on the network rollout this autumn and as properties are linked up to the network, we cannot wait for residents and businesses to see what is possible with digital connectivity that propels you forward rather than holds you back.”

As usual, CityFibre won’t be the only gigabit-capable network provider in the town. Virgin Media’s network already covers the vast majority of local premises, while Openreach are planning to extend their own FTTP lines across more of the area. On top of that, a number of alternative networks also have limited full fibre deployments in the town, such as Hyperoptic and OFNL, while Gigaclear is present nearby but has yet to enter the town itself.