New meets old as CityFibre connects 200-year-old building to Full Fibre network

CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre network, has provided full fibre connectivity to a 200-year-old house in Stirling, working with the homeowner and local authority to ensure even the oldest homes in the city can access the fastest, most reliable broadband available.


The majority of work to bring CityFibre’s full fibre network within reach of around 17,500 homes and businesses across Stirling reached completion in August last year. However, as a result of growing demand across the city, CityFibre has now extended the build to a further 2,500 homes, taking the total investment in the city to £19 million.

Michael Glass was one of the many Stirling residents who signed up to connect his home to the network. A quick and easy process in most areas, but, due to the category B listing of Michael’s home, the CityFibre team was presented with some challenges when it came to attaching the small box – known as a toby box - on the outside of the building. However, by working closely with the local planning authority, Paul Wakefield, CityFibre’s City Manager for Stirling, was able to find a solution for Michael that enabled him to future-proof his historic home.

Local resident, Michael Glass, said: “Both my partner and I work from home, and with my job as a data analyst and my wife’s role as an editor we require access to large files that are very data heavy, making a good internet connection vital for us. When I saw that CityFibre had completed work on our street I was very keen to get connected to the network as I knew it would give us a faster, more reliable broadband. Our previous internet connection saw us have access to 70Mbps speeds, which on a good day meant it took me at least fifteen minutes to download files for work. We now have access to internet speeds of up to 500Mbps, meaning I can download my files in less than two minutes, which has made a huge difference to my working day.

“We really enjoy living in such a historic building but, as you can imagine, listed buildings can often bring their own challenges. We knew we’d need to engage with the authorities to secure the permissions we needed, but CityFibre was massively supportive and eager to help. We are so grateful for Paul and the team’s guidance and hard work, which has enabled us to connect to the service we need to do our jobs well. With the additional speed and bandwidth working from home is now easier, and we’re also enjoying the excellent quality television, film and game streaming full fibre allows.”

Paul Wakefield, CityFibre’s City Manager for Stirling, said: “At CityFibre, we are committed to making our full fibre network accessible to all. Sometimes, as was the case here, this takes a bit more planning to ensure our connection meets the specific needs of a building. However, I am very pleased we were able to resolve this for Michael and that he and his partner are now able to enjoy all of the benefits that come with having a full fibre internet connection.”

Unlike copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, full fibre networks use 100% fibre optic cables to carry data at lightning speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users consistently faster speeds for upload and download (up to 1,000 Mbps), near limitless bandwidth so everyone at home can work, study, stream or game simultaneously, while providing connectivity users can depend on. 

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 Stirling, services are available from launch partner Vodafone and TalkTalk, with other providers expected to join the network soon. 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.