MATTHEW PEACH HIGH FIBRE
constitution HIGHFIBRE DIET is good for your
Regions with strong digital infrastructure experience greater economic growth. However the UK’s
MATTHEW PEACH
aging copper networks have
required constant upgrades, which is unsustainable. In order to stay ahead of demand and meet the needs of a growing population a solution with long-term potential is required. This solution is fibre, argues Clayton Nash, Head of Products at CityFibre, interviewed by Matthew Peach.
What are CityFibre’s objectives and its clients’ needs
change the way customers, suppliers and employees buy, sell and deliver services. In the mobile sector a bespoke dark- fibre solution to connect 37 mobile base stations in Hull helped Three UK deliver a 380% increase in data traffic, while significantly reducing their total cost of ownership. Beyond this, the ever-rising demand for full fibre to support a future of 5G and IoT across the UK is plainly inevitable.
class, copper-free foundations on which to build future-proof, ultra-fast and resilient mobile and digital services. THE LATEST CF DEPLOYMENTS Since mid-2016, we have increased our network footprint substantially and are now able to address over 30,000 public sector locations across the UK, including council offices, schools and hospitals. CityFibre’s public sector projects in York, Coventry, Aberdeen and Edinburgh for example, have not only helped city leaders position their cities as tech hubs ripe for inward investment, they have enabled the development of new digital teaching methods in schools and smarter traffic management and CCTV systems. In Gigabit Cities, many connected customers have reported increased productivity, growth and competitiveness. Our network is also supporting new innovation while helping cities attract talent and investment. CityFibre’s project in Peterborough is a good example: in 2015 it was crowned ”Smart City of the Year”, the same year it enjoyed record business start-up rates. Our national footprint addresses an estimated 280,000 businesses today and is set to grow further as we deliver our recently announced plans to develop over 500 business parks nationwide. This is certain to unlock new potential as the ‘fourth utility’ continues to permanently
CityFibre develops and operates an alternative communications infrastructure across the UK. We operate in competition with other network builders such as Openreach and Virgin. Our mission is to build a nation of Gigabit Cities, using optical fibre connectivity to transform public sector services, unleash business potential, drive economic growth and enable 5G and Internet of Things innovation.
What are the economics of the latest CityFibre installations?
What are the major trends driving new fibre networks
CityFibre operates a planned, shared infrastructure model to achieve maximum return on investment while staying true to the Gigabit City vision. Our approach starts with the identification of an anchor contract or partner that serves a demand aggregator for initial network design and build. This anchor could be a mobile operator, a business ISP or a public sector network requirement. Alongside preparations to connect the priority anchor sites, our network planners’ job is to look at how best to build the core infrastructure so that it can ultimately serve all verticals and bring gigabit full-fibre connectivity to every business, school, public building, mobile site and home in the most cost effective way. We aim to ‘build once and build right’ too, essentially by laying enough duct and fibre capacity
The UK is constrained by out-of-date, legacy copper networks, which cannot meet the nation’s growing digital demands. A quarter of UK businesses are still operating with a connection slower than 12 MBps, and almost half (40%) have connectivity slower than 24 MBps. In an era when 80 per cent of businesses employ remote working practices, 75 per cent say broadband is vital to their business and 94 per cent interact with customers and suppliers online, so the current national situation is unacceptable. The solution is the birth of the Gigabit City underpinned by brand new full-fibre infrastructure. Gigabit City networks provide entire communities with world-
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| ISSUE 9 | Q2 2017
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