CityFibre continues gigabit roll-out to non-metro south of England | Computer Weekly

Barely a week after announcing it had successfully completed a trial of 2Gbps residential broadband services with a view of scaling to future speeds of 10 Gbps, CityFibre has announced it is commencing work to bring full-fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Maidstone, and has named Rochford and Rayleigh as the next UK towns in line for its digital infrastructure.

Construction of the £50m town-wide full-fibre network in Maidstone has begun, and is being delivered by Lanes-i on behalf of the former altnet turned UK’s largest independent full-fibre platform provider. The overall project is expected to reach completion by 2027, but CityFibre expects the first services to go live much sooner.

“I’m incredibly proud to see our team start work on Maidstone’s full-fibre network today,” said Anne Krausse, CityFibre’s area manager for Maidstone. “As we roll out our infrastructure across the town, it’s important to remember that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term.

“Our network will help ensure that Maidstone is ready to thrive in the digital age by giving almost every home and business in the town access to the best available digital connectivity.”

Meanwhile, just north across the River Thames, CityFibre has identified Rochford and Rayleigh as the next UK towns in line for a multi-million-pound investment in its digital infrastructure.

CityFibre is set to invest £25m in a new network that will bring full-fibre-enabled gigabit internet services to almost every home and business in the Rochford and Rayleigh areas, including the village of Great Wakering.

Construction work on the full-fibre network in Rochford will begin imminently, while Rayleigh’s roll-out is scheduled to get underway in spring 2023.

Speaking about CityFibre’s full-fibre roll-out plans for Rochford and Rayleigh, Danielle Belton, portfolio holder for climate and economy for Rochford District Council, said: “It’s fantastic that CityFibre has chosen to upgrade Rochford and Rayleigh’s digital infrastructure. Full-fibre will massively boost the local economy by opening up innovation and productivity benefits for businesses. We’re excited to watch as the network gets rolled out.”

Gigabit services in the key mid-Kent location and the Essex towns will be available from a range of broadband providers. Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with UK launch partner Vodafone to supply full-fibre infrastructure for customers on selected Vodafone Pro Broadband, as well as a range of other internet service providers, including Giganet, Air Broadband, Zybre, Yazi, No-one, IDNet, A&A, Octaplus, Link Broadband and Facto.