CityFibre inks strategic relationship with Toob

In its latest analysis of the UK’s ultrafast broadband sector, Point Topic noted that as of the end of October 2022, CityFibre was leading the way with full-fibre roll-outs in the independent network operator sector, with 1.6 million fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) premises covered by its network.

Now, as it strives to hit its target of passing 8 million premises by the end of 2025, CityFibre has signed an agreement with full-fibre network builder and broadband provider Toob to extend its broadband retail proposition across CityFibre’s national footprint.

Toob is building a new FTTP network across the south of England and aims to transform the internet experience for homes and businesses while narrowing the digital divide by providing full-fibre broadband fit for the modern era, at an affordable price. It has more than 11,000 customers connected to the network, which passes over 100,000 premises across Southampton, Camberley, Aldershot, Farnborough and Fareham.

The new agreement is designed to enable Toob to extend its market reach, launching its ultra-fast broadband services over CityFibre’s network. Its services will first go live in Portsmouth, effective immediately, before launching in areas adjacent to its own roll-outs.

The companies have also agreed heads of terms for a wholesale aggregation partnership that will see Toob’s current and future network builds incorporated into CityFibre’s “Ready for service” footprint, expanding the addressable market for all CityFibre’s internet service provider (ISP) partners. The latter include anchor tenant Vodafone, TalkTalk, Giganet, IDnet, Yayzi, Air Broadband, NoOne and Octaplus.

Toob is committed to building a network to more than a million premises across the south of England over the next five years, all of which will be made available to CityFibre’s ISP partners at the same service levels as CityFibre’s own network. The technical integration of Toob’s footprint is expected to be completed by summer 2023 and will provide CityFibre’s ISP partners with access to more than 100,000 homes across Southampton and Camberley.

“We are delighted to welcome Toob on board as a service provider partner on our networks,” said CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch. “It has had great success driving take-up of its services and we look forward to helping it extend its exciting service proposition to millions of new homes over our network.

“This deal also represents the UK’s first major partnership between infrastructure builders, establishing a new model of wholesale aggregation that significantly accelerates and expands the addressable footprint available to our wholesale ISP partners.

“For smaller fibre network builders which currently only offer their own retail broadband services across their footprint, it also establishes an opportunity to expand their retail offering, opening a lucrative wholesale revenue stream and maximising take-up over their network.”

Toob CEO and founder Nick Parbutt added: “Toob is delighted to be partnering with CityFibre. Opening our own network to other ISPs has been part of our strategy from the outset and partnering with CityFibre allows ISPs to access the Toob full-fibre network.

“Likewise, expanding our very successful brand and proposition in the region by using CityFibre’s network provides a great opportunity to capitalise on our investment in the region, offer our proposition to more customers, and ultimately grow the company.”