CityFibre partners with STL to support rapid nationwide network rollout

CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent Full Fibre platform, has signed a strategic multi-year, multi-million-pound deal with STL, an industry-leading integrator of digital networks. The partnership will see STL supply CityFibre with high fibre count Celesta Intelligently Bonded Ribbon [IBR] Cables with StellarTM bend-insensitive fibre and ribbon optimised joint enclosures.

CityFibre is on track with its £4bn investment programme to reach up to 8 million homes by 2025 – approximately one third of the UK market. It is also in discussions with the Government to explore opportunities to support BDUK’s Project Gigabit programme to bring Full Fibre to rural communities across the country.

More than one million homes are already able to receive Full Fibre broadband from CityFibre, with 26 construction companies mobilised and in build across over 63 towns and cities. By the end of 2022, CityFibre plans to have builds underway across more than 150 cities, towns and villages before expanding to 285 by 2025. STL’s sustainably produced and high-capacity IBR ribbon cable solution will deliver nearly 25% faster installations and contribute to CityFibre’s aggressive build-out plans as this programme continues to scale.

In addition to accelerating its rollout, CityFibre is increasingly the network of choice for many consumer ISPs thanks to its superior products and attractive wholesale pricing. It has secured long-term commitments from Vodafone, TalkTalk and Zen, and has attracted an exciting new generation of regional Full Fibre ISPs to the market.

For the past two decades, STL has been transforming billions of lives through digital networks across Europe and the UK. Recently, it acquired Clearcomm to augment its deployment and management capabilities and IDS for enabling data centre connectivity.

James Thomas, Director of Supply Chain at CityFibre, commented: “In such a competitive market for high class partners, we are delighted to have formed this partnership with STL. Working together we will secure the technology and supplies CityFibre needs to achieve its ambitious targets. STL’s IBR cabling technology and other supplies will play a key role in accelerating our build in more locations this year and beyond.”

Paul Atkinson, CEO, Optical Networking Business, STL said, “Our integrated optical connectivity solution with optical fibre, cable and interconnect products, will help CityFibre achieve accelerated network rollout with high scalability and agility, while keeping the overall costs low. We are confident that a combination of optical technologies and interconnect can change the game for FTTx at an industry level with superfast deployment, provisioning and enhanced network performance.”

CT Bureau