Nearly three years have passed since CityFibre first started rolling out their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the Cathedral City of Chichester in South East England (West Sussex). The good news is that they’ve now passed 12,000 premises and are “fast approaching around 85% coverage of the city“.
The operator claims to have completed “most of its rollout in the area“, covering the “vast majority” of homes and businesses. CityFibre’s Chichester rollout also includes the areas of Fishbourne and Stockbridge, as well as other businesses and housing estates on the outskirts of the city.
The work supports CityFibre’s wider ambition of covering up to 8 million UK premises (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity, c.£4.9bn debt and c.£800m of BDUK subsidy) – across over 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK), although it’s unclear precisely when they will achieve this target (the original goal was for the end of 2025, but their current build + M&A plan may only get them to c.6m). The operator currently covers 3.6 million UK premises (3.3m RFS).
The company said they’re also exploring opportunities to reach more sites, including new build properties, multi-dwelling units, homes on private or unadopted roads and business parks – these are all often a bit harder to tackle due to issues of wayleaves (access), cost etc.
Adrian Smith, CityFibre’s Partnership Manager for Chichester, said:
“We’re really pleased to have brought our full fibre networks to the vast majority of homes and businesses in Chichester. This means even more people now have the opportunity to join our network and unlock the benefits of full fibre connectivity.”
As usual, CityFibre aren’t the only gigabit-capable broadband network present in Chichester, with both Virgin Media and Openreach also covering much of the area. Not to mention smaller deployments from Hyperoptic and OFNL etc.