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Network operator CityFibre appears to be getting close to completing the integration of Connexin’s 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband infrastructure, which is present across parts of East Yorkshire (Hull etc.), Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire (England), into their national UK network.
In case anybody has forgotten. CityFibre announced the acquisition of Connexin’s broadband network back in March 2025 (here). The deal included Connexin’s built network assets of more than 80,000 premises passed, as well as work-in-progress to a further 20,000 premises and options to extend further throughout Hull over time. PATRIZIA’s European Infrastructure Fund II also became a minority shareholder in CityFibre.
The acquisition also saw CityFibre take on responsibility for Connexin’s £58.6m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract for rural parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10), which has been stuck in a state of limbo since the agreement but originally aimed to cover 34,320 hard to reach premises (this will also make it possible to reach over 50,000 non-subsidised premises in the target regions).
Overall, CityFibre expected the deal to eventually enable a total expansion of their existing FTTP footprint by “up to” 185,000 premises, while the associated retail customer base would remain controlled by Connexin as a now independent retail ISP. At the time CityFibre said they expected to complete the integration of Connexin’s network “later this year“.
The latest development, as spotted by Thinkbroadband, is that Connexin’s main footprint in Hull is now starting to come up via CityFibre’s availability checker, which suggests that the network integration work is starting to make some real progress. But at present Connexin is the only ISP on CityFibre’s wholesale-only network able to serve this; it’s unclear if this is related to a degree of time-limited wholesale exclusivity (they’ve done that before) or just the fact that other ISPs haven’t had a chance to expand into it yet.
However, some testing reveals that not all of Connexin’s network patch has been integrated yet, since we saw positive results for tests with the HU5 2JN postcode area and others, but negative ones when testing a few like HU7 5DF and HU8 9PD (those two do come up as positive via Connexin’s website, but not CityFibre’s checker). Clearly there’s still some work left to do.
Take note that we didn’t check the status of Connexin’s other FTTP builds in Tickton, Leven, Brandesburton, North Frodingham and Beeford. We have asked CityFibre if they could provide a progress update on their network integration work and will hopefully be able to share their response later today.