Milton Keynes council warns CityFibre

Milton Keynes council has issued CityFibre with a “Red Warning” over the service provider’s handling of its £40 million FTTH rollout.

The council revealed that it has received four enquiries or complaints per week over CityFibre’s works, which relate to the setting up of a new 1 Gbps capable Fibre to the Home (FTTH) broadband network in the town, supported by ISP Vodafone.

In addition to the high volume of complaint and enquiries, which equal one-third of all complaints and enquiries the council receives, inspectors have identified “poor practise” in CityFibre’s work, with reports that cables are not being laid deeply enough.

CityFibre’s installations currently comprise 70-100 metres of cable being laid by each of its teams per day. The company is said to have 23 teams working across the town as they aim to have the deployment completed by the end of 2020.

The council’s Scrutiny Management Committee said: “Inspections have shown that cables are not being laid deep enough in the footpath by CityFibre; voids appearing in the works recently completed. Increased public complaints and reputational damage for the Council. CityFibre have 23 teams on site, the works require significant MKC resource to respond to complaints, inspect complaints and provide adhoc supervision to ensure the scope, work quality and safety standards are being met.”

Despite holding meetings with CityFibre, the council adds, inspections have continued to identify poor practise, while complaints have increased.

CityFibre said: “The quality of the work we are carrying out is of paramount importance to us and for incidences where issues have arisen, processes are in place to help ensure they are resolved as quickly as possible. [We are] constantly monitoring the performance of our build partners helping to meet our stated target of completing the construction of the network in MK by the end of 2020.”