CityFibre response to Ofcom’s Business Connectivity Market Review

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City communications

CityFibre response to Ofcom’s Business Connectivity Market Review

15 May 2015

CityFibre welcomes Ofcom’s proposal that BT is compelled to make dark fibre available by April 2017 as part of its Business Connectivity Market Review (BCMR) Dark fibre has been validated worldwide as the only infrastructure platform to deliver cost-effective, future-proof digital connectivity fit for purpose in the decades to come. As one of the UK’s largest independent suppliers of fibre infrastructure, CityFibre has long championed making dark fibre widely available in the UK, placing it at the core of our Gigabit City projects in York, Peterborough, Coventry, Aberdeen and Edinburgh over the last three years. Ofcom has made clear the need to balance investment, innovation and competition in the UK telecoms infrastructure and services space. CityFibre has a proven track record of investing, innovating and competing in the provision of state of the art fibre communications infrastructure. In the last year alone, we have delivered the UK’s first dark fibre solution to a Public Services Network (PSN) project, the first dark fibre solution to mobile operators, EE and Three and the first trial of a dark fibre Fibre-to-the-Home through a joint project with Sky and TalkTalk. In the process we’ve seen demand grow, which is evident in our plans to commit investment to dozens of new cities in the coming years While CityFibre welcomes Ofcom’s decision as a clear validation of our business model, we urge it in the strongest possible terms to ensure that any future approach to pricing in no way distorts the market or discourages investment by independent infrastructure builders. The task of redressing the legacy of decades of underinvestment in the UK for fibre infrastructure is too large and important to be left to solely one monopoly provider, and the role of smaller, entrepreneurial players must not be underestimated or undervalued. It is essential that a pro-investment environment, which preserves supplier diversity and encourages network competition, be established and safeguarded for decades to come. Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer, CityFibre

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