Press Releases

CityFibre adds one million ready for service homes to full-fibre network in 2022

February 3, 2023

Posted by: Janmesh Chintankar

CityFibre, an UK’s independent full fibre platform, added over 1 million ready for service (RFS) homes to its full fibre network in 2022. The achievement marked its most productive year ever and a 40% increase on the previous year’s performance.

CityFibre’s network footprint increased 83% in 2022 with rollout underway in 75 metropolitan areas. At year end, the network exceeded 2.5 million premises passed, 2.2 million of which were RFS, enabling ISPs to serve new customers immediately in those locations.

The significant increase in build productivity was due to CityFibre having fully mobilised its supply chain during 2022. In the second half of 2022, it achieved an average run rate of 22,000 premises passed per week, reflecting a major increase in network construction operatives and ongoing operational improvements.

During 2022, CityFibre completed its primary build plans in Milton Keynes, Stirling, Peterborough and Coventry, though it will continue to densify and extend these networks over time.

In a major ramp-up of its ISP enablement, CityFibre onboarded 19 new partners onto its network, bringing its total to 36 live and trading at the end of 2022. This enabled CityFibre to add 115,000 new residential customers to its network in the year, bringing its total to over 175,000 and almost doubling the rate of the previous year.

On average CityFibre’s mature networks continue to increase their take-up by about 1% per month. In Stirling, penetration has exceeded 23% and in Milton Keynes, its most mature network footprint, penetration has now passed 27%.

Notably CityFibre also secured a debt package totalling [£4.9 billion (€5.47 billion)] following further equity commitments from its shareholder group. The facilities formed one of the largest single financings dedicated to full fibre deployment across Europe and fully funds its rollout to 8 million homes, a third of the UK market.

Greg Mesch, chief executive officer at CityFibre, says “We’re delighted at the huge progress we’ve made over the course of last year. We now have a fully financed rollout, fully mobilised supply chain and an established portfolio of onboarded ISP partners. After years of constant scaling, we are now entering a new phase of our development where we can focus on efficiencies and optimising our operations at scale.”

Comment on this article below or via Twitter @IoTGN