Aberdeen to get city-wide gigabit network

Aberdeen will this month become Scotland’s first city to be fully covered by a high-speed fibre network.

More than 6,000 companies and hundreds of public sector sites will have access to gigabit speeds in Scotland’s third most populous city.

The network is being implemented by infrastructure provider CityFibre in partnership with Scotland-based IT services firm Internet For Business. 

Aberdeen accounts for 28% of Scotland’s GDP and 30% of the country’s top 100 businesses are located there.

The city also has the second highest broadband take-up rate in the UK, despite having no cable infrastructure.

The planning for what is known as the Gigabit City project is already underway and will initially focus on the centre and south of the city, including key industrial estates.

CityFibre CEO, Greg Mesch, said Aberdeen is the perfect candidate for a Gigabit City project: “Its economic power, business makeup and absence of alternative network mean that Aberdeen will be in a position to take full advantage of this transformational digital infrastructure.”

Aberdeen City Council leader, Jenny Laing, said: “The project to make Aberdeen a Gigabit City helps us realise the ambitions laid out in Accelerate Aberdeen of being at the leading edge of the digital revolution, with the world-class connectivity essential for continued growth and helps lay the foundations for significant improvements for residential customers in the future."

The plan follows successful roll-outs in several urban areas in England.

In June, Coventry City Council sold off its 140km metro fibre network, the Coventry Core, to CityFibre as part of a plan to bring gigabit internet speeds to thousands of local businesses.

In November last year Peterborough City Council signed a deal with CityFibre to build a 1Gbps fibre network.