ABERDEEN BECOMES ONE OF UK’s BEST CONNECTED CITIES AS CITYFIBRE’S PRIMARY-BUILD COMPLETES

CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre network, has completed the primary-build of its full fibre network in Aberdeen. The new network is now 'ready for service’ to over 105,000 homes, around 97% of the city’s homes and most businesses. Aberdeen is the latest city in CityFibre’s nationwide rollout, making it one of the best-connected locations in the country.

Construction began on the £59m project in 2018 and CityFibre has since laid over 762km of dense full fibre infrastructure across the city, which equates to walking Aberdeen beach 190 times. While the primary-build is now complete, CityFibre will continue to explore opportunities to connect more homes and businesses, including flats, new-build homes, business parks and homes on private roads. CityFibre’s full fibre network also connects more than 160 sites, including Aberdeen City Council offices, schools, libraries and leisure centres.

Full fibre networks use 100% fibre optics to carry data at light-speed all the way to and from the home and are more than five time more reliable than legacy copper-based broadband.ⁱCityFibre’s network offers download and upload speeds of up to 2.5Gbps and is capable of supporting symmetrical speeds of up to 10Gbps in the future. That is over 36 times faster than the UK’s average download speeds of 69.4Mbps and more than 136 times faster than the UK’s average upload speed of 18.4Mbps.ⁱⁱ

Residents in Aberdeen can enjoy affordable, gigabit-capable and reliable full fibre broadband from a wide range of internet service providers (ISPs) including Vodafone, TalkTalk, IDNet and Zen, with Sky joining the CityFibre network later this year. All homes passed by the network can schedule a full fibre installation within five working days of placing an order.

Paul Wakefield, Partnership Manager at CityFibre, said: “We’re really excited to have finished our primary build in Aberdeen. Across the city, residents can now access all the benefits full fibre connectivity has to offer, enabling more people in the area unlock seamless homeworking, streaming and learning.

“Aberdeen's economic strength and vitality make it a cornerstone of prosperity, not just for Scotland, but for the entire UK, and we look forward to building on our previous success powering the city’s future economic development.”

Councillor Christian Allard, Co-Leader of Aberdeen City Council, added: “Digital infrastructure has provided game-changing technology for our businesses, schools and homes. We welcome this investment, which underlines the commitment of the private sector to Aberdeen and our position as a modern, forward-looking city.”

People interested in upgrading their home’s digital connection to full fibre can find out more here.

^{i Ofcom’s Communications Market Report data}

^{ii Ofcom’s Net Neutrality report}