CityFibre announces its full-fibre broadband covers two million UK premises

CityFibre has announced that its new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network now covers two million homes in the UK, representing 25 per cent of its target.

The network operator, which passed the milestone of covering 1.9 million homes in August this year, is carrying out builds as part of its £5 billion Project Gigabit rollout, through which it is aiming to make full-fibre broadband available to up to eight million premises in 285 cities, towns and villages across the UK by the end of 2025.

Commenting on the latest milestone, Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said: “As the UK’s second largest fibre network, we’re thrilled to now provide two million households with access to the nation’s fastest and most reliable broadband services."

“As the nation’s true digital infrastructure challenger, we’re determined to keep raising the bar with better products, better services, and better economics. This won’t just benefit our customers and theirs, it will help unlock innovation and economic growth across the UK.”

CityFibre is currently building at a rate of over 100,000 premises passed per month across 75 metropolitan areas, a speed which is increasing, with the company having passed the second million mark three times faster than the first.

However, despite this progress, only 1.8 million of the premises that are now covered by CityFibre’s network are considered to be ‘Ready For Service‘ (RFS), meaning that residents are able to place an order with a number of ISPs.

The remaining 200,000 premises are in locations where CityFibre says its network has been built, but ISPs have yet to adopt it.

CityFibre’s existing FTTP network is in the process of being upgraded to a 10Gbps symmetrical capable XGS-PON platform from an older GPON technology. So far, only the city of York has been upgraded to support this new platform.