Edinburgh Gigabit City Construction partnership accelerates rollout of UK’s fibre future

CityFibre selects Amey to deploy £100m fibre network in Edinburgh Work in residential streets gets underway in Balerno this week 12 February 2019 - CityFibre has today announced an agreement with leading infrastructure provider Amey to extend its 150km network in Edinburgh to homes and businesses across the city. On completion, the state of the art communications infrastructure is expected to total over 2100km of network. The agreement with Amey is amongst CityFibre’s first strategic partnerships with construction companies as it accelerates its plans to reach five million homes by 2025. CityFibre’s total investment in the project is estimated to exceed £100 million. Preparatory construction work began in November last year and Amey will now significantly expand its recruitment drive. From team leaders, site supervisors and operatives to administrators, project managers, and quantity surveyors, Amey is looking to create around 300 local jobs over the project’s lifespan. This infrastructure project will provide a direct economic impact of over £50 million and unlock a vast, long term impact of over £4.3bn to Edinburgh’s economy.* The announcement follows the recent news that CityFibre has raised £1.12 billion of debt to fund the first part of its £2.5 billion investment plan to provide wholesale full fibre access to at least 20% of the UK market. The project is one of the biggest single investments ever made in the UK’s digital infrastructure. Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre said: “Amey has a formidable reputation in the sector and we are delighted to have them onboard for our flagship Gigabit City rollout in Edinburgh. This project represents a long, stable, city-wide build that will enable Amey to resource confidently and deliver at pace. This is expected to be the start of our partnership and that it will soon expand to cover further city builds across the country.” Andy Milner, Chief Executive at Amey said: “We’re delighted that CityFibre has chosen Amey to transform the broadband provision in Edinburgh. As a trusted provider of utility services, we’re looking forward to working with CityFibre on this flagship project in a transparent and collaborative way, to deliver a service that adds value, benefits local residents and in turn helps Edinburgh become a truly intelligently connected city.” Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron, Housing and Economy Vice Convener, said: “Becoming a globally competitive digital city, and the Data Capital of Europe is a key priority of Edinburgh’s Economy Strategy. “This continuing investment will see more Edinburgh citizens experience a transformation of their online world at home. For the wider Edinburgh economy, this brings increased productivity, employment opportunities, innovation and helps facilitate and underpins delivery of our Economy Strategy. As this project progresses we will work with CityFibre to minimise any disruption to residents and businesses.” CityFibre’s full national rollout to 5 million homes will see construction contracts awarded for the installation of over 50,000 km of cable and the construction of over 150 buildings to house the network equipment. At its peak, CityFibre expects to connect 125,000 homes a month. CityFibre’s commitment to full-city deployments provides certainty and stability to partners with committed work over several years. As well as connecting homes, CityFibre’s open-access, full fibre, city-wide networks are designed to serve all the needs of the city; including businesses and public sector locations and providing the essential fibre infrastructure for mobile backhaul and 5G small cells. To keep up to date with CityFibre’s progress in Edinburgh, follow @GigabitEdin * Regeneris Report: The Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure in 100 UK Towns and Cities