CityFibre’s £14m full fibre Lowestoft project gains momentum as new build partner joins

Residents in Lowestoft will soon have access to the best digital connectivity available with significant progress being made on the full fibre network rollout in the town.

CityFibre is investing £14m to bring full fibre to the town and has been building in Lowestoft since early 2020. Following a change in build partner, construction has once again ramped up, with engineering specialist Pod-Trak now resuming work in Harbour and Normanston, before moving on to Gunton and St Margarets.

The town-wide rollout is due to reach substantial completion in 2022, benefiting almost every home and business locally. The first premises will be able to access the network much sooner, with access to full fibre available from a choice of internet service providers.

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.

Speaking of the announcement, Charles Kitchin, CityFibre’s City Manager for Lowestoft said: “We are thrilled to be working with Pod-Trak on the rollout of full fibre in Lowestoft. In just a few short weeks, their team has made steady progress and we are firmly on track to deliver the digital infrastructure this town deserves.

“Currently, less than 20 per cent of premises in the UK can access full fibre broadband services, which is why so many households still battle with slow and unreliable connectivity. By building new and better infrastructure, we aim to provide residents with a network that delivers not just faster download and upload speeds, but more reliable services that can scale as data consumption grows too.”

The Pod-Trak team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Suffolk County Council, East Suffolk Council and local communities to deliver a fast rollout while minimising potential disruption.

Brian Gildea, Pre-Construction Director at Pod-Trak, added: “Pod-Trak is delighted to be working in partnership with CityFibre and its Lowestoft build team and look forward to delivering the new full fibre rollout.

“We also look forward to working with Suffolk County Council in minimising disruption during the works and ensuring swift completion of the project rollout plan, while working hand in hand with local organisations within the Lowestoft area to maximise opportunities for employment and engaging the local supply chain in our plan to complete the rollout.”

As work is completed in each neighbourhood, internet service providers (ISPs) will ‘light up the network’ with some of the fastest and most competitive broadband packages available in terms of both data and price.

In Lowestoft, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers, with services available now from Air Broadband. 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 and other providers are expected to join the network in the future.

Lowestoft is one of a growing number of locations in the UK to benefit from CityFibre’s up to £4bn Gigabit City investment programme which will bring new and better broadband infrastructure within reach of up to eight million homes and businesses nationwide.

Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build, pre-register their interest and find out when new ISPs join at www.cityfibre.com/PR-Register.