Dundee moves towards world-class connectivity as CityFibre efforts progress

Thousands of premises across Dundee will soon be able to access full-fibre connectivity as CityFibre makes headway with helping it become one of the most digitally connected places in the world.

The firm is investing £40 million in the city, which is among a growing number of locations in the UK to benefit from its £4 billion Gigabit City investment programme that will bring new and improved broadband infrastructure within reach of up to eight million homes and businesses nationwide.

CityFibre, which says it is the UK’s largest independent full-fibre infrastructure platform, said the latest milestone sees Dundee’s Charleston and Ardler added to the increasing list of neighbourhoods where works are now largely complete, including Lochee, Downfield, St Mary’s and Menzieshill.

The next areas to benefit include Hilltown and Maryfield, and CityFibre added that once the project is finished, almost every home and business across the city will be able to access full-fibre services from a choice of providers.

From left: Councillor John Alexander, the leader of Dundee City Council, with Allan McEwan, CityFibre’s city manager for Dundee. Picture: Ross Johnston/Newsline Media.

Allan McEwan, CityFibre’s city manager for Dundee, said the company “has been making great progress in the city and we will continue to push ahead to connect even more neighbourhoods to the network”.

He added: “We know local residents can’t wait to experience the benefits of full fibre when services go live. The first service provider on the local network will be announced very soon, and it is exciting that we already have over 12,000 homes able to connect once they launch.”

CityFibre explained that full-fibre networks use 100 per cent fibre optic cables to carry data at “lightning” speed all the way between the home and the point of connection, in contrast to slower, copper-based fibre broadband services available today.

Capabilities

The full-fibre option “gives users consistently faster upload and download speeds with near-limitless bandwidth, so everyone at home can work, study, stream or game simultaneously, while providing connectivity users can depend on”, the company added. Construction is being delivered by GCU UK on behalf of CityFibre, working with Dundee City Council and local communities.

Councillor John Alexander, leader of Dundee City Council, commented: “It is brilliant to see such progress on Dundee’s new state-of-the-art digital network. Reliable connectivity will help future-proof the city and we welcome this hugely important investment into its digital infrastructure.

"The city-wide network will help make Dundee one of the best-connected cities on the planet, something which will no doubt stimulate further inward investment. It is fantastic that residents and businesses across the city will very soon be able to take advantage of the many benefits of full fibre.”

Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen and an increasing number of partners. Its full-fibre network rollout programme is on track to serve up to a third of the UK by 2025, including 800,000 businesses. The firm has already announced 285 cities, towns and villages that will receive a “transformational” digital upgrade as part the initiative.

They include Glasgow, with CityFibre last month announcing that plans to future-proof the city’s digital infrastructure had moved a step closer with the firm having pushed the button on work to connect homes and businesses in the north-west of the city to its full-fibre network.

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