UK digital infrastructure provider CityFibre has won a multi-million-pound contract by Three to connect an additional 1,300 mobile masts across 59 towns and cities.
The announcement forms part of Three’s strategy to deliver the UK’s fastest 5G network leveraging its existing 5G spectrum portfolio.
Following on from the agreement announced earlier this year, CityFibre was named a preferred provider of backhaul connectivity outside London for Three and has already supported the rollout of 5G at more than 100 locations across the country. This new deal will more than triple Three’s initial commitment.
“We are increasing investment across our network to meet the ever-increasing demand for data by UK consumers,” said Susan Buttsworth, COO at Three UK.
“Fibre backhaul is a vital part of a reliable network experience and this investment will mean better connectivity for our customers across the UK.”
The expanded partnership will see Three and CityFibre further align on their 5G rollout plans, increasing the speed and efficiency of each deployment, providing a high quality 5G service across CityFibre’s Gigabit City projects and delivering an improved network experience for Three’s customers.
“We are excited to deepen our support for Three’s ambitious 5G rollout. It’s clear that the alignment of two national consumer and mobile digital infrastructure rollouts has huge benefits, not just for us, but for the cities and communities we are connecting,” added Greg Mesch (pictured), CEO at CityFibre.
“Working together we can deploy 5G and Full Fibre further and more efficiently, creating a word class digital infrastructure that allows agile and distributed applications for millions.”
In addition, the collaboration gives Three access to small cell access points throughout each of CityFibre’s city-wide networks.
Most of the locations identified for Three’s 5G rollout are progressing well and CityFibre is accelerating delivery ahead of the end of 2020.