One year on: How full fibre is already making a difference in Milton Keynes

By Jean Gowin, CityFibre’s City Development Manager for Milton Keynes What a year it’s been in Milton Keynes. Just 12 months ago, MK was announced as the very first city in the UK in our ‘fibre to the premises’ roll-out. We pledged to invest more than £40m into MK and promptly got to work to bring full fibre broadband to almost every home and business across the city. We have made huge progress. I’m thrilled to say that the first households are now connected to our network. Our network has doubled and now extends more than 350km across the city - we’ve built in areas including Bancroft, Blue Bridge, Great Linford, Willen, Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. And we’re just getting started. It’s full steam ahead for CityFibre in 2019 as we strive to bring full fibre to as many premises as possible. Working in partnership with Vodafone, we will be pushing ahead with our plans, ensuring MK has the digital infrastructure it needs and deserves. The benefits of full fibre really are huge – but you don’t have to take my word for it. Micaela Perez Amaro is a dance instructor and the first in MK. For her, the best thing isn’t being able to stream the latest entertainment in high definition – although that’s certainly made incredibly easy with full fibre. Instead, it’s having more control over her day-to-day life. She said: “Before we started using Vodafone Gigafast Broadband, I couldn’t work from home. There’s no reliable broadband where I live in Milton Keynes, so every time I wanted to send a video to a student, I had to drive to a relative’s house in London to use their broadband.” Being able to work from home sounds simple, but slow and unreliable broadband has held people back. With full fibre, we can expect more businesses to get behind home working as connectivity at their employee’s homes are more reliable – and that in turn will help people find the right work/life balance. Our homes will become smarter and more connected, helping free up valuable time. We’ll be able to stay in touch with family and friends abroad with ease and will be able to remotely monitor the health of our loved ones’. And our homes won’t just be smarter – they’ll be more valuable too, with full fibre estimated to add up to £119m to the value of homes in Milton Keynes. Businesses will benefit from full fibre too. It will support the city’s growing reputation as a tech hub and be able to underpin all the fantastic plans and ambitions for 2019 and beyond. It’s safe to say that Milton Keynes is the place to be – we’re so proud of what has been achieved over the past year. Now, let’s see what the future will bring. Jean Gowin is CityFibre’s City Development Manager for Milton Keynes. This article was first published in the March 2019 edition of MK Pulse. To find out more about the Gigabit City infrastructure in Milton Keynes visit: cityfibre.com/mk or follow @gigabitmk