CityFibre Reduce UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Due to Expanded Commercial Cover

One of the country’s largest alternative networks, CityFibre, has announced that they’ve reached an agreement with the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency to “re-scope” the contracts they hold under the Project Gigabit broadband roll-out programme due to the “accelerated rollout of commercially funded full fibre” across their contracted areas.

Just to recap. CityFibre’s full fibre (FTTP – XGS-PON) network currently covers over 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m Ready for Service) and they aspire to reach 8 million in the future. In addition, the operator also holds ten Project Gigabit contracts – originally representing over £920m of government funding for a subsidised build to 557,000 premises in “hard-to-reach” rural areas (1.36 million if we included their supporting commercial build).

However, the operator has today announced that their Project Gigabit contracts have all been “re-scoped in response to the accelerated rollout of commercially funded full fibre across Project Gigabit areas“, which in practice means that they’ll reach fewer premises (i.e. there’s now no need to build in locations where rivals have already built gigabit-capable broadband networks, as doing so would waste public funds).

CityFibre now expects to connect a total of 450,000 rural and harder-to-reach premises by 2030, including 226,000 subsidised through Project Gigabit. The operator has so far completed 70,000 contracted premises, or 150,000 if we include their supportive commercial build in the same areas.

As part of this re‑scoping, CityFibre “will return” (i.e. abandon) a £58.6m Project Gigabit contract for Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10), originally taken on as part of its acquisition of Connexin’s full fibre infrastructure in 2025 (they originally promised to deliver this, but no progress has been made). The move is not surprising as we had recently noticed a bit of a slowdown in some of their roll-outs (here).

Simon Holden, CityFibre’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

“We are immensely proud of CityFibre’s involvement in Project Gigabit, an ambitious programme that has helped unlock the benefits of full fibre infrastructure for households and businesses previously at risk of being left behind. BDUK’s commitment has helped spur further investment and continued innovation and the time is right to focus on where we will have the biggest impact as we establish the competitive digital infrastructure market the UK deserves.”

Liz Lloyd, Telecoms Minister, said:

“Over the past 18 months, this government has delivered upgrades to more than 229,000 hard-to-reach premises across the country. Our reforms to the telecoms market have unlocked a surge in commercial broadband rollout, meaning many areas previously in scope for CityFibre’s Project Gigabit contracts will now be upgraded without cost to taxpayers.

“We welcome CityFibre’s progress to date and remain fully committed to supporting communities still struggling with slow broadband. That’s why we are already in discussions with other suppliers to ensure remaining premises receive upgrades as soon as possible, and these changes will not affect our target of reaching 99% gigabit coverage by 2032.”

The announcement states that “these changes will not affect BDUK’s ability to achieve the UK government target of 99% UK gigabit coverage by 2032,” although that may partly depend upon how successful and prompt BDUK are in finding a solution for the now uncertain Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10) contract.

Summary of Project Gigabit and CityFibre Changes

Suffolk

Revised to cover around 60,000 premises backed with up to £118.2 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £100.5 million contract to provide around 79,500 premises.

Cambridgeshire

Revised to cover around 35,000 premises backed with up to £77 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £69 million contract to provide up to 45,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Leicestershire and Warwickshire

Revised to cover around 36,000 premises backed with up to £76.4 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £71 million contract to provide around 38,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and East Berkshire

Revised to cover around 6,000 premises backed with £24.4 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £58 million contract to provide around 34,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Kent

Revised to cover around 9,000 premises backed with £26.1 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £112 million contract to provide around 50,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Norfolk

Revised to cover around 33,000 premises backed with £61.9 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £114.2 million contract to provide around 62,200 premises.

East and West Sussex

Revised to cover around 13,000 premises backed with £25.2 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £100 million contract to provide around 52,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes

Revised to cover around 6,000 premises backed with £19.8 million investment through Project Gigabit.

ORIGINAL: £51 million contract to provide around 25,000 hard-to-reach premises.

Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire

BDUK Statement: “Building Digital UK and CityFibre have mutually agreed to end the Project Gigabit contract for Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire. As a result of wider market conditions and a significant expansion in commercial rollout in the region, less public funding is required and the contract is no longer appropriate. We are in discussions with other suppliers to ensure the few remaining premises not covered by any rollout plans still get access to fast, reliable broadband as soon as possible.”