Cityfibre Start £15m Project to Cover Wokingham with FTTP Broadband

Cityfibre has today confirmed that they are investing £15 million to deploy their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network to cover “almost every home and business” across the market town of Wokingham in Berkshire (England).

The construction work on the new full fibre network in Wokingham, which is a continuation of their existing £58m deployment in the nearby city of Reading, began this week in Norreys. But it remains unclear precisely how many premises will benefit and when the rollout is expected to complete.

The build forms part of Cityfibre’s wider project to cover up to 8 million premises (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity and c.£4.9bn debt) – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here). So far, the operator has already covered 2 million UK premises, including 1.8m Ready For Service (RFS) via ISPs (here). The network will also pass around 800k businesses, 400k local authority sites and 250k 5G access points.

Stacey King, Regional Partnership Director at CityFibre, said:

“It’s a pleasure to be announcing Wokingham as one of the latest towns to benefit from our UK-wide investment. The new full fibre network will bring a range of benefits to the town and its people, from smoother connections for home working, schools, and businesses, to more capabilities for entertainment purposes, including gaming and streaming.

Our builders will soon get to work on a full fibre network, and we think people will be blown away by the difference it will make. The network offers more opportunity to everyone in Wokingham, and we look forward to playing a key role in its modernisation that will underpin its progressive digital capabilities for decades to come.”

As usual, the operator will face some competition from gigabit-capable rivals in the town, such as Virgin Media (VMO2). Openreach also have a growing presence with their own FTTP network, but their coverage is still somewhat limited and patchy.