Sadiq Khan announces £10m for London “fibre-backbone”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced a £10 million investment to improve London’s fibre infrastructure, using the city’s Tube tunnels and public buildings to create a “fibre-backbone” for the capital.

The scheme will see the upgrade from some of the existing copper wire infrastructure to full-fibre optics and will involve laying the fibre cables along some of London’s TFL underground lines. These will then be linked to public buildings such as community centres and libraries.

The move is seen as the “first step” in efforts to support faster connectivity for 400,000 London properties and this initial stage will enable gigabit broadband at 118,000 South London properties. The aim is to tackle “not spot” areas which have slow connectivity.

While 97 per cent of London properties can currently access superfast broadband, only 13 per cent have access to full-fibre networks. This gigabit-capable connectivity is presently delivered by a mix of operators.

Commenting on the investment, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “London’s future digital connectivity will be built on fibre. High-speed connectivity is crucial for businesses of all sizes and sectors, not to mention Londoners accessing digital services at home and around the city.”

He added that he hopes the investment will provide “the catalyst for further investment from the public and private sectors – I’m urging them to match my ambitions to get all Londoners connected.”

London chief digital officer Theo Blackwell MBE said: “At the moment the existing infrastructure has supported London’s growth as one of the great tech cities in the world.

“However,” he added, “with demand for data set to increase by 30-50 per cent, will it hold up? Full-fibre is absolutely needed to support this growth in the future.”

The funding was secured from the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) and will be added to a further investment of £15.4 million from London Councils for west and north London, and £8.5 million for central London provided by the Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport.

Given the need for significant additional funding, Khan will allocate a further £1 million to encourage future private and public investment.