CityFibre brings Full Fibre to Gateshead & South Tyneside in £42m build

Work to bring full fibre connectivity to homes and businesses across Gateshead and South Tyneside gets underway as CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, breaks ground on a new infrastructure rollout that will future proof digital needs in the region for generations to come.

Construction of the £42m town-wide full fibre network has begun in the Bridges area of Gateshead and is being delivered by GCU UK Ltd, a long-time CityFibre build partner, who is recruiting a local workforce for the project out of its Team Valley base. The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Gateshead and South Tyneside Councils, as well as local communities, to deliver a fast rollout while minimising 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 2025 and 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 Gateshead and South Tyneside, 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, as well as TalkTalk and Zen, with other partners expected to join the network soon.

Speaking of the project, Jason Legget, Regional Partnership Director, CityFibre, said: “Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for homes and businesses in the area, with work now underway in Gateshead and soon to progress much further. Our full fibre network will bring a whole wealth of benefits to residents and businesses alike, including unbeatable home-working and digital entertainment experiences.

“We’ve already seen hundreds of residents register their interest and we’re really pleased to see that there’s a real appetite for full fibre in the region. 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.”

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. Find out more at www.cityfibre.com

Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and register their interest here.