Bristol is set to benefit from a fibre network with the arrival of ultra-fast provider CityFibre.
CityFibre will work to commercialise 82km of pure fibre network assets in the city and area.
The initiative will be conducted in collaboration with local ISP Triangle Networks, which is committing a minimum of 100 new customers on the network by the end of 2016.
"Bristol is already a UK leader in digital innovation, but its business community has not yet had the opportunity to take full-advantage," said Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre. "This project provides that opportunity and I could think of nowhere more exciting to begin our latest project."
According to figures collected by CBR from thinkbroadband.com in October, Bristol, which is gunning for a position as another UK tech hub, has the most superfast coverage of the UK’s 10 biggest cities, with overall penetration of 97.2 percent.
This gives it a download speed of 30.6 Mbps and upload of 5.4 Mbps. Bristol has used its existing infrastructure, a network of ducts built in the 1970s, to roll out fibre at a low cost.
This new network aims to complement Bristol’s smart city strategy.
For CityFibre, this follows an announcement in December, when CityFibre became the UK’s second largest wholesale broadband infrastructure provider after securing new funding and acquiring KCOM’s national network assets.
£180 million in funding allowed CityFibre to finance the acquisition of KCOM’s fibre and duct assets, excluding those in Hull and East Yorkshire, for £90 million.
This expanded CityFibre’s footprint to 36 cities and means CityFibre will be able to target 50 cities by 2020, or 20 percent of the UK market.
