Cityfibre UK Complete Northampton FTTP Broadband Build
CityFibre has announced that they’ve completed the “primary build” of their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network in the East Midlands (England) town of Northampton. The network is now Ready for Service at over 87,700 premises – reflecting c.82% of local homes and businesses.
The original build – said at the time to be worth £40m (today’s update confirms the same figure) – officially got underway in September 2019 (here) and aimed to be “largely complete” by the end of 2022. Suffice to say that it took the operator a bit longer than planned to complete their primary build.
CityFibre’s contractors have since laid more than 732km of dense full fibre infrastructure across the town. However, while the primary-build is said to be completed, the operator added that they would “continue to explore opportunities to reach more sites including new build properties, multi-dwelling units, homes on private or unadopted roads and business parks.”
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Charles Kitchin, Partnership Manager at CityFibre, said:
“I’m delighted that the primary-build of our full fibre network in Northampton has been completed. The rollout is an exciting step for the town’s digital connectivity, which will benefit from faster and more reliable broadband. Residents can now enjoy seamless streaming, even when using multiple devices at once, with ample productivity and innovation benefits for the local economy.”
The work supports CityFibre’s wider ambition of covering 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 already passed over 3.5 million premises (3.2m as Ready for Service) and they aim to add another million during 2024.
In terms of gigabit-capable competitors, CityFibre’s main competition in the town comes from Openreach and Virgin Media, both of which are widely available. A number of alternative networks also have small patches of coverage in the town, such as FibreNest, Glide, Hyperoptic and OFNL.
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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I wish that CityFibre would be more communitive in areas where the build has stalled. In Crawley, only defect work is being undertaken now. There are three areas (Northgate, Three Bridges and Pound Hill North) where most of the initial dig was completed and just needs linking up to the existing network.
I’ve noticed that local media in Brighton and Hove have reported that CityFibre have exited the construction contract with the Lanes Group, which is the same construction company being used in Crawley. I hope they can find a replacement quickly!
Sadly, communication or public relations are not their strong point – which is a shame as they have the potential to become a “superbrand” in the ISP/networks space. It seems they’re really doubling down on the whole “we don’t deal with the public, speak to an ISP” thing – despite there being a wide range of areas in which stakeholders may need direct engagement.
It’s a big missed opportunity, as more community engagement and responsiveness wouldn’t cost much but would secure a whole heap of goodwill in areas where they’re present (particularly during the construction phase).
CF stalled in North Tyneside just as they were about to commence where I live last May, back to ‘Coming Soon’ on their postcode checker.
Hmm – I wish. I’m in the town centre and have been stuck with ‘we’ve encountered challenges that delay us from connecting your property’ message on their checker for over a year now. Luckily have Openreach FTTP but would definitely like the benefit of same download and upload speeds.
I get a message saying I live on a private road! The “see below” for more information has nothing. We’ve had leaflets and a knock at the door over a year ago and nothing since. Quite frustrating.
TalkTalk use CityFibre, does that mean old Shell customers will get fibre upgrade free? or will they have to take out a new contract?