CityFibre UK Finish Primary FTTP Broadband Build in Town of March

CityFibre has today announced the completion of their £5m “primary build” in the Cambridgeshire (England) town of March, which has extended their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 8,500 premises (around 80% of the town’s residential properties), including most businesses.

The build, which was conducted by civil engineering contractor Granemore Group, began around 14 months ago and CityFibre has since laid almost 27km of full fibre infrastructure across the town.

While the primary-build is now completed, CityFibre will continue to explore opportunities to reach further areas including new build properties, those on private or unadopted roads and business parks. But we should point out that CityFibre aren’t the only gigabit-capable broadband network in town, with Virgin Media (VMO2) having already reached most of the local premises. Openreach has also deployed a little bit of FTTP.

Rebecca Stephens, CityFibre’s Regional Partnership Director, said:

“We are absolutely delighted to announce that our team has completed the primary installation of our full fibre network in March, just a year after we began the digital infrastructure project. This is a hugely exciting time for March, and we’re thrilled that residents and local businesses can access the best available broadband services from a range of providers as our network is now ready for service.

Today, March is one of the best connected places in the UK, and the local community is only just beginning to tap into the huge benefits that are to come as full fibre offers ample economic opportunities for the town.”

The work forms part of CityFibre’s wider effort to cover up to 8 million UK premises (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity and c.£4.9bn debt) – across over 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here). The operator has so far covered a total of 2.5 million premises (passing 22,000 premises per week), but only 2.2 million of those are currently considered to be ‘Ready for Service‘ by an ISP.