Full speed ahead: CityFibre's build now underway in all Project Gigabit areas

CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, today announced it has begun work in all nine of its ‘Project Gigabit’ areas¹, as work gets underway to connect over 50,000 rural and hard-to-reach premises in Kent to full fibre broadband. In total, over 1.3 million homes and businesses² across rural or hard-to-reach areas stand to benefit from CityFibre’s ‘Project Gigabit’ rollout over the next five years.

CityFibre’s Project Gigabit rollout was made possible by the award of £782m of Government subsidies to CityFibre, which is also contributing its own investment to deliver the project and reach even more homes and businesses in rural or hard-to-reach areas. CityFibre’s Project Gigabit rollouts are part of the company’s commitment to reach more than eight million premises nationwide.

Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “No one – no matter where they live or work – should be held back in their personal or professional lives because of lack of digital connectivity.

“Project Gigabit is providing the tools for people up and down the country to prosper in the digital world, allowing communities to stream, work and learn online with buffer-free broadband. With this latest rollout of gigabit connectivity in hard-to-reach parts of Kent, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, we are breaking down even more barriers to opportunity in Britain.”

Customers are already making the most of full fibre broadband in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk³. The first Project Gigabit customer connected by CityFibre was Josh Newman in Cambridgeshire. Josh is taking Vodafone’s new ultrafast 2.2Gbps symmetrical broadband service, Vodafone’s fastest home broadband service and is available exclusively on CityFibre’s national network.

Josh is a lecturer in film, requiring the frequent transferring of large video files, and has a young family.

Josh Newman, from Grantchester, Cambridgeshire said: “I'm a filmmaker and a film lecturer, so I deal with quite large files. But my upload speed used to top out at 18Mbps, which meant that uploading cuts or rushes took a really long time whilst throttling the internet for everyone in the house.

“With full fibre, I can work much more easily and my wife’s often on video meetings, which are now reliable and high quality. Even with the children online for school work and entertainment, the upgrade has meant our household never has to think about bandwidth or worry about getting online.”

Project Gigabit customers in Grantchester have also been joined by customers getting online in Norfolk and Suffolk as towns, villages and households previously at risk of being left behind become some of the best connected places in the UK, able to choose from gigabit broadband speeds.

Kent is the most recent of CityFibre’s Project Gigabit lots to begin work, meaning that build is now underway in all nine of the Project Gigabit lots awarded to CityFibre, bringing next-generation speeds and unparalleled reliability to harder-to-reach areas that may have otherwise missed out.

Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said: “Project Gigabit made the rollout of full fibre broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas possible and we’ve already seen the difference that full fibre connectivity makes: supercharging small businesses, connecting communities and powering your local pub. Our teams have worked incredibly hard to map routes, lay cables, climb telegraph poles and engage with local communities, as we continue to expand the reach of network and bring the benefits of full fibre broadband to over 1.3m premises in hard-to-reach areas and more than eight million premises across the UK.”

Over the next five years, around 1.3m homes and businesses will be connected to CityFibre’s next generation, full fibre broadband network as part of the government’s Project Gigabit programme. Funded by Building Digital UK (BDUK), Project Gigabit enables rural areas across the country to access reliable full fibre broadband, bringing ultrafast connectivity to homes and businesses that would otherwise have missed out.

CityFibre’s ‘Project Gigabit’ rollouts are part of part of the company’s commitment to reach more than eight million premises nationwide.

Those who wish to sign up to the CityFibre network can see when services are available in their area by using the postcode checker at www.cityfibre.com.

¹ The nine Project Gigabit Lots won by CityFibre are:

• Cambridgeshire

• Norfolk

• Suffolk

• Hampshire

• Leicestershire and Warwickshire

• East and West Sussex

• Kent

• Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes

• East Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire
  

² Project Gigabit contracts underpin CityFibre’s rollout to over 1.3m subsidised and commercial premises and will see CityFibre become the principal provider of fibre infrastructure in these areas.

³ First customer in connected to CityFibre’s ‘Project Gigabit’ network with Vodafone’s new 2.2Gbps broadband service (8 July 2024)

First ‘Project Gigabit’ customers in Norfolk connect to ultrafast full fibre (30 September 2024)

First ‘Project Gigabit’ customers in Suffolk connect to CityFibre’s full fibre network (12 December 2024)

About Project Gigabit

Project Gigabit is the UK government’s rollout of lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. The programme targets homes and businesses that are not included in broadband companies’ commercial plans, reaching parts of the country that would otherwise miss out.

To date, CityFibre has secured nine Project Gigabit contracts, totalling over £782m in government subsidies to serve more than 464,000 hard to reach rural homes and businesses in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes. Alongside co-investment from CityFibre, the awards have unlocked almost £1.2bn in combined public and private investment in rural broadband.

By the end of 2025, the government is targeting 85% of the UK to have gigabit-capable connectivity, and then nationwide coverage by 2030.