CityFibre begins multi-million-pound work to future-proof Bognor Regis’ digital foundations

Work to bring full fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Bognor Regis gets underway as CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, breaks ground on a new infrastructure rollout that will future-proof the town’s digital needs for generations to come.

The town-wide project, which will include all villages between Pagham and Elmer, is an important part of CityFibre’s £195m plans for West and East Sussex, with construction in progress across the region including in Chichester, Adur & Worthing, Crawley, Horsham, Eastbourne and Brighton & Hove. A new project is due to commence in the Littlehampton area shortly.

The build has begun in North Bersted and is being delivered by CCN Communications on behalf of CityFibre. The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Arun District Council, West Sussex County Council and local communities to deliver a fast rollout while managing potential disruption.

Each area will usually take a few weeks to complete, however, construction teams will typically only be outside each home for two to three days and CityFibre will be in touch by post ahead of any work starting.

The overall project is expected to reach completion by 2024 but the first services will go live for people to take advantage of much sooner. As the network is completed in each neighbourhood, CityFibre will designate the homes ‘ready for service’, which means residents can choose to connect to full fibre-enabled broadband services when they go live in their area.

In Bognor Regis, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers. Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with launch partner Vodafone to supply full fibre infrastructure for customers on selected Vodafone Pro Broadband plans, while TalkTalk, Zen and other providers are expected to join the network soon.

Adrian Smith, CityFibre’s City Manager for Bognor Regis, said: “I’m immensely excited and proud to see work getting underway in the town. This is the start of a new chapter for Bognor Regis as it gets ready to thrive in the digital age. It’s important to remember that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term - once the network’s built, it will serve the community’s connectivity needs for decades to come.”

Speaking of the project, Councillor Shaun Gunner, Leader of Arun District Council, said: “The public ask for more infrastructure spending. This is that infrastructure spending, delivering speeds of up to one gigabit across Arun. This multi-year project from CityFibre will transform connectivity and enable residents and businesses to access faster broadband. In doing so, it will help to close the digital divide and ensure that Arun is suited to an increasingly digital economy.

“The new infrastructure will help to future-proof our district and will be key in attracting new investment – building on the work the council is delivering to make Arun a better place to live, work and visit.”

Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100% fibre optic cables to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download, near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on.

A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed. As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits, such as making us more productive and innovative.

CityFibre is bringing full fibre connectivity within reach of up to 8 million homes in towns and cities across the UK as part of its up to £4 billion Gigabit City Investment Programme.

Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and register their interest at www.cityfibre.com/residential.