CityFibre to Complete Glasgow FTTP Broadband Build in 2025 UPDATED
Network access provider CityFibre has updated on the progress of its work to roll-out a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the city of Glasgow in Scotland, which started in 2021 and is costing c. £270m. The project is currently still due to be “substantially completed” by the end of 2025.
The operator’s 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network currently covers 3 million UK premises (up from 2.5m in January 2023) and 2.6m of those are considered to be ‘Ready For Service’ by a supporting broadband ISP (up from 2.2m). But they have an ambition to reach up to 8m 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 company’s build across Glasgow was one of the first locations they announced and is also one of their largest projects – supporting contractors include Glenevin, IMS Scotland, PMK and possibly others. Most of the city is now covered by their full fibre network, with the roll-out being well underway between Thornliebank, Newton Mearns, Clarkston and Cambuslang. In the north of the city, work is also progressing in Gilshochill, Blackhill and Clydebank.
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Paul Wakefield, CityFibre’s Senior Partnership Manager for Glasgow, said:
“Strong digital connectivity has become the cornerstone of our daily lives, so we feel incredibly proud to be transforming the city’s access to lightning-fast and super reliable broadband.
We appreciate that a project of this scale can be disruptive for residents and business owners, but would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support and patience. This state-of-the-art network will future-proof Glasgow’s digital infrastructure for the years ahead, bringing with it a host of productivity, innovation and investment gains.”
CityFibre’s main gigabit-capable network competitors in the city are Virgin Media, Openreach and Hyperoptic – all have significant levels of local coverage. Some smaller alternative networks, such as FibreNest, are also present and there are others operating in outlying areas (e.g. Netomnia).
UPDATE 12:31pm
We’ve been informed by CityFibre’s PR agency that an error was made on the original press release and the build is in fact still “due to be substantially completed by the end of 2025“, rather than by 2029.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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‘Bruh’ moment for the unlucky guy who’s street is left behind til then
I believe Glasgow is their biggest city in terms of build plans, with the amount of MDUs in Glasgow this doesn’t surprise me.
They went straight past my street in Glasgow and didn’t bother laying fibre cable at all
Build stopped in Weston-super-Mare.
Not just WSM, I’ve heard pretty much all their South West build, from Cheltenham down has been stopped, with most staff laid off.
Build has also been halted across the southeast with Lanes I contract (only contractor for south east build) cancelled as of 1st September>
And Bath
Work seems to have ceased in Edinburgh too.
I’m in one of the areas highlighted in Glasgow. My road got cabled at beginning of 2023 but still showing ‘build in progress/final checks’ on the city fibre checker. Hopefully not long now – been out of contact with Sky FTTC for over a year waiting to switch, and been tempting to switch to Virgin, but holding out for the symmetrical upload and native IPV6.
What do you think about the flimsy fibre wire they pull into your house? I’m somehow not trusting it to stay intact in the long term. I’d rather stay with Virgin that use coax for the “last mile” between the street cabinet and your house.
@Mml
What do you mean flimsy fibre? A fibre is a fibre. It is installed in a sub duct that is tougher than coax.
@Mml
The fibre cables are generally armoured with kevlar so they will be plenty robust enough. Of more concern is how shallow they are being buried in the ground (apparently there are no regulations about how deep fibre cables need to be buried).
@Big Dave
I am pretty sure there is no Kevlar in a fibre drop wire. You will in every other instance.
@Scott
There is Kevlar fibres in fibre drop cables. It’s what gives the cable its strength.
See here: https://www.dupont.com/fabrics-fibers-and-nonwovens/fiber-optics.html#:~:text=DuPont%E2%84%A2%20Kevlar%C2%AE%20is,helps%20provide%20the%20necessary%20protection.
@everyone who replied
My question was about the fibre “wire” that they pull inside your house and terminate on the wall. Looks very thin and vulnerable and they make no effort to conceal or otherwise protect it – even the fastenings come undone super easy. I don’t mind what they use in the ducts because it’ll stay there undisturbed for decades. Unlike the last couple of metres inside the house, that’s exposed to cleaning and whatnot.
Unless you’re planning on cleaning your wall with a wire brush you should be fine, and the cable inside the home is likely not very long.
Hope you are never in a situation where you have to use Invisilight. You really won’t like that if you’ve a problem with the, pretty standard, cabling CityFibre use inside homes.
My estate is currently being cabled as we speak by telelink for cityfibre around the G53 area southside of Glasgow. In the last 3 years Virgin have installed full ftth and BT came round last year with fttp. Makes a change from only having fttc and exchange only broadband over the last few years. Hopefully be able to get connected over the next few months. My sister in law lives in Crookston and already has city fibre supplied by Zen.
I think it’s a bit interesting you mention Glenevin. I believe they’re no longer building in Glasgow and “have walked off the contract” leaving only the PMK parts of Glasgow in build at the moment. Which would also mean no building in Edinburgh. But I’m sure ISP review, won’t be long digging up the truth. As you won’t get that from Gregg or Simon.
A lot of contractors with CityFibre recently moved on to other things, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
I’m in G53 and the external work (in my street) was completed back in February by PMK this year. I received a “Not long until you can connect” email on Saturday. 6 to 8 months seems in line with other areas.
I’ll be going with Brawband. No mid contract price increase and symmetrical 900Mbs for £30 per month seems way ahead of the big providers. I considered Brillband too but I don’t like the Amazon Ero router and it’s £5 more per month.
I live in Glasgow and whilst the cabling is running past my building they have no plans to connect these flats or others down from me. The new build on one side has city fibre connectivity.
Should there not be something about this on the coverage checker? The map says I’m in the heart of Glasgow and full connectivity reported on the coverage checker, postcode check says no plans ATM. This is like the mobile signal coverage checker bases on theritocal range not actual coverage.
The only connection I can get is up to 33meg ADSL openreach cable or virgin coaxial.
Are you checking on bidb.uk or another coverage checker?
I am with talktalk, and had city fibre fitted 6 months ago, I asked talktalk for upgrade from 75Mbs to 120Mbs but they said the City Fibre in G51 is only part full fibre so therfore they could not upgrade for faster speed.???
TalkTalk are feeding you rubbish I’m afraid.
CityFibre are 100% fibre, they do not do part fibre/FTTC on their network. The ex-entanet bit does off-net FTTC via Openreach). It you have CityFibre installed you will have fibre all the way and an ONT in your home.
Installed their network in my part of Newcastle in March 2022
Still not active. I took Sky FTTP via Openreach, I have since taken a second 18 month contract with Sky, during the period that their infrastructure has still not been enabled
Waste of time
Cityfibre are having to change their business plan as they’re under immense pressure financially.
They’ve dug themselves (almost literally) into a huge hole, drowning in debt and burning millions of pounds per week. It’s simply not sustainable.
So now they’re stopping mid build in many areas and turning their attentions to their ‘Project Gigabit’ builds in rural areas.
I guess they’re hoping this change of direction will keep their investors happy and enable them to keep burning the money.
Does seem a bit ironic that a company called ‘Cityfibre’ are now concentrating on ‘Rural’ builds.
They’ve got to try something different otherwise CF’s investors are going to just pull out, sell up, cut their losses and walk away.
Cityfibre are screwed, take-up is lagging much too far behind build rate. It’s costing them too much money.
The management can pile the pressure on the sales/marketing departments, but if people aren’t ready for FTTP or don’t really need it yet, then there’s nothing they can do.
Something’s got to give.
I’m in Newton Mearns (Glasgow) and city fibre started their install about 6 months ago and its still not live. I had intended to switch when our Virgin contract ended in August but it wasn’t ready to order and it still isn’t.
I was even more surprised to get an email from Openreach the other day that their FTTP had been enabled all of a sudden and was ready to order, when it was due by end of 2025 not so long ago!
Seems to be the altnet story at the minute – loads of half finished works that never get finished. Swish Fibre (Fern Trading) started in our street in January. So far they have dug a duct between 2 poles, pulled 1 cable through and thats it. Meanwhile my BT/OR Fttp connection is now 2 years old and I recently signed up for another 2 years……..
Cityfibre now showing as available for my street in Westacres, Newton Mearns. BUT the choice of ISPs is not great: Vodafone, Giganet, Brawband & Brillband. Talk Talk is also listed but when I click through to their sites its shows an not available yet.
I’m with Zen at present on FTTC and wanted to stay with them on Cityfibre FTTP but they’ve told me they’re unlikely to support Cityfibre in Newton Mearns for at least 6 months.
When does ‘completed’ really not completed?
When it’s “substantially completed”
You’ve got to love the PR talk from Cityfibte!