People living and working in Peterborough in the UK are set to benefit from a city-wide, pure fiber-optic network delivering gigabit speeds, says infrastructure provider CityFibre. The company plans to make a wholly private investment into Peterborough of up to £30 million.
CityFibre is considering investment to create gigabit cities in a number of locations across the UK (see “CityFibre plans to invest up to £500m in UK fiber rollout”). The company says it picked Peterborough to be part of its Gigabit Cities initiative due to its attractive high-growth business, residential, and public sector markets as well as its progressive, ambitious local authority. Peterborough is one of UK’s fastest growing cities with a record 1400 new businesses launched in 2012.
A gigabit city will provide local businesses, carriers, service providers, and the public sector with access to a future-proof fiber-optic infrastructure that will deliver substantial capacity, an ultrafast experience, and significant cost and service advantages, CityFibre asserts.
CityFibre will implement the metro network to its own high-capacity specification. The company will initially invest in over 90 km of fiber infrastructure, ensuring the new network passes 80% of Peterborough’s businesses.
The fiber network will also enable consumer Internet connections offering speeds up to 1 Gbps, approximately 40 times faster than current superfast broadband. This will enable schools to increase educational standards, the local government to realize efficiencies and improve public services, and businesses to thrive through technological advantage.
Greg Mesch, chief executive officer at CityFibre, said, “Cities, like Peterborough, should have the opportunity to benefit from widespread deployment of fiber infrastructure. The first stage of our deployment will include the major commercial districts of the city, covering over 4000 businesses, all of whom will benefit from gigabit level speeds and services. The second phase will bring that same level of speed to up to 60,000 homes, making Peterborough truly a gigabit city.”
Peterborough City Council has formed a strategic partnership with CityFibre to provide a framework to meet the council’s strategic objectives in the delivery of Gigabit services.
“Peterborough will soon have one of the fastest networks available in the UK and will be on its way to becoming a gigabit city, which is another boost to the city’s growth agenda,” said Councillor Marco Cereste, Leader of Peterborough City Council. “We therefore welcome the proposed CityFibre investment in the city. Peterborough’s economy is rapidly growing and the CityFibre investment will allow businesses of all sizes to utilize the Internet for growth, as well as bringing new business to Peterborough, inspire new start-ups, support homeworkers and create jobs.”
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