CityFibre announces £28m full fibre boost for Stockton

CityFibre has named Stockton as the next UK town in line for a multi-million-pound investment in its digital infrastructure – a move that will see it join the nation’s growing list of full fibre enabled communities.

Today the Prime Minister met with Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre, and Matt Vickers MP for Stockton South, to finalise plans for the rollout and to visit a state-of-the-art training facility that will skill-up new CityFibre employees as part of the Government’s Way to Work campaign.

CityFibre is set to invest £28m in a new town-wide network that will bring fast and reliable full fibre-enabled internet services within reach of almost every home and business across Stockton. Nationally, CityFibre is building new and better digital infrastructure for up to eight million homes and businesses through its up to £4bn Gigabit City Investment Programme.

Construction work on the full fibre network in Stockton will begin later this year. As work is completed in each neighbourhood, CityFibre will designate the homes ‘ready for service’, which means residents can choose to connect to full fibre-enabled broadband services when they go live in their area.

Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100% fibre optic technology to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download (up to 1,000 Mbps), near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on.

A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed. As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits, such as making us more productive and innovative.

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre, says: “We are delighted to be adding Stockton to our nationwide full fibre rollout. Investments like this in the digital infrastructure of our towns and cities are critical to unlocking economic growth, new jobs and more efficient public services. Thanks to burgeoning infrastructure competition, CityFibre is making hundreds of similar investments across the country, helping address the digital divide and level up the UK.

Speaking of CityFibre’s full fibre rollout plans for Stockton, Matt Vickers MP for Stockton South, comments: “I am delighted to hear that CityFibre is investing up to £28m in Stockton, delivering full fibre broadband to local people and business across the area.

“A future-proof digital infrastructure is a crucial part of levelling-up constituencies like mine, and it will help unlock the potential of local businesses and lift the local economy.”