UK awards five new rural broadband contracts to CityFibre

Antin Infrastructure Partners SAS

06/02/2024 24:01

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Britain has awarded five
contracts to CityFibre and one to Connexin to roll out fibre
broadband to 236,000 rural homes and businesses, taking public
investment in connecting hard-to-reach areas to more than 1
billion pounds ($1.26 billion). 
    CityFibre will build in areas in the south-east, while
Connexin, which is based in Hull, north-east England, will build
in the East Midlands, the government said, adding that the
contracts were worth more than 450 million pounds in total. 
    Britain launched its "Project Gigabit" scheme in 2021 to
support fibre broadband in rural areas where commercial networks
from BT, Virgin Media and others would not be viable.
    Data and Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez said
Project Gigabit was driving growth, creating jobs and putting an
end to snail's pace internet speeds.
    "We will continue to work rapidly to ensure people feel the
benefits of our rollout to even more places across the UK as
quickly as possible," she said on Tuesday.
    CityFibre, backers of which include Goldman Sachs and Antin
Infrastructure Partners, is a major partner. It won four
contracts last year for 262,000 rural properties, which it said
unlocked commercial expansion to 450,000 more premises.
    Chief Executive Greg Mesch said the project was 
transforming the digital capabilities of rural homes and
businesses. 
    "But that's just the start," he said. "We're continuing to
expand our commercial rollout alongside Project Gigabit,
extending infrastructure choice, multi-gigabit speeds, and
unparalleled reliability to hundreds of thousands of additional
premises in these regions."
    The project is helping Britain close the gap with
competitors in ultrafast broadband.
    The government said last month that gigabit coverage had
reached 80% of UK premises, up from just 6% in 2019.
    
($1 = 0.7963 pounds)

 (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
 ((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters
Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))