CityFibre's response to the budget announcement

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City communications

CityFibre's response to the budget announcement

18 March 2015

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer, CityFibre said: The announcement today that the government will give further support to broadband underpins the importance of digital infrastructure to the UK economy. For too long, businesses across the country have struggled to grow and compete, suffocated by combination of both access infrastructure and lack of bandwidth. All the evidence shows that high-speed digital connectivity is essential to the success of a country. We welcome also the government’s ambition for ultrafast broadband, encouraging investment in faster connectivity to homes and businesses nationwide. However the target of at least 100 megabits per second is too low. As the British economy becomes more digitally based, it is vital that even faster Gigabit speeds are achieved. In infrastructure terms, the UK communications market is under performing, with one of the lowest shares of fibre-connected buildings in Europe, a result of a decade of underinvestment by BT. Investment in fibre infrastructure is critical for sustainable economic growth and future prosperity. Therefore, it is vital the government does all it can to encourage a competitive environment for fibre investment. CityFibre is one of the few companies that is both investing and building truly next generation ultrafast infrastructure with our rollout of UK Gigabit Cities. The CityFibre model is already stimulating ultrafast rollouts in York with the joint venture with Sky and TalkTalk and in Hull with Ultrafast dark fibre roll outs to mobile masts for Three and EE. A level playing field that enables the new generation of fibre infrastructure builders to invest in ultrafast broadband networks will generate greater levels of innovation, services, and GVA growth for towns and cities across the UK.

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