More than 1,100 businesses in the Wiltshire UK town of Swindon can now gain access to a new Gigabit speed capable “full fiber” service after Cityfibre announced that their network was “open for business.” Ultrafast broadband will eventually also be extended to local homes via ISP partner Vodafone, but not for awhile.
The figure of 1,100 reflects the number of businesses in the town that are currently deemed to be within 200 metres of the operator’s new 6.5km long Dark Fibre network. Local firms will be able to benefit from this by contacting Cityfibre’s local business ISP partner Excalibur.
At this point it’s worth clarifying that Swindon is also named as a future Phase Two city in Cityfibre and Vodafone’s £2.5bn project to roll-out a new Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network, which aims to cover 1 million UK homes and businesses by the end of 2021 and then 5 million by the end of 2024 (here). But it’s unclear when the extension to local homes will actually begin (still very early days).
Meanwhile members of Swindon’s business community are set to attend a launch event of the new gigabit-capable full fibre network at Excalibur in Swindon on Thursday 16th May 2019.
Elsa Chen, CEO of CityFibre’s Wholesale Business, said:
“We’re extremely excited to launch our gigabit-speed full fibre network in Swindon with Excalibur as our launch partner. This future proof infrastructure is exactly what a modern digital city needs, unlocking world class connectivity speeds of up to 1Gbps that will enable local businesses to succeed productively and profitably. They also need the guidance and support of a service provider with the experience to help them take advantage of full fibre, and Excalibur is ideally placed to deliver that.”
Peter Boucher, Excalibur CEO, said:
“Swindon’s businesses are crying out for a fast and reliable communications infrastructure on which to build their own competitiveness and success. With the launch of full fibre services from CityFibre, we’re excited about taking them on a journey that will improve their efficiency and productivity.”
As usual Cityfibre’s network can expect to face competition from rival ultrafast broadband networks. Cable operator Virgin Media already covers the majority of the town and Openreach are also known to be installing both G.fast and FTTP in several areas, although coverage of the latter two is still very limited.