Truespeed and CityFibre accelerate UK fibre roll-out

Two of the UK’s leading regional gigabit network providers, Truespeed and CityFibre, have revealed plans to light up with fibre the city of Bath in England and Inverness in Scotland, respectively.

Internet services provider (ISP) Truespeed said that its aim to bring the benefits of affordable, full-fibre broadband to left-behind locations and communities across the South-West of England continues apace with its latest roll-out.

After a prolonged period of bringing gigabit connectivity to places such as the counties of Somerset and Devon, and the city of Wells where it provided full-fibre using innovative means, Truespeed has started rolling out its ultrafast, gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband network in its home city of Bath, in a move that it said brings the city into the gigabit era. In parallel, the firm is expanding its footprint into neighbouring areas in Somerset, including Keynsham, Saltford and South Widcombe.

The build in the city of Wells began in earnest in June 2020, and Truespeed has now passed more than 3,000 premises. Today, the firm has announced that it is boosting its investment in Wells, with plans to connect more areas of the city and continue expanding its current building works in surrounding areas such as Wookey and Coxley.

“We’re excited to get going in Bath while stepping up the roll-out of our full-fibre network in Wells and surrounding areas in Somerset,” said Truespeed CEO Evan Wienburg. “We’re lighting up our map of the South-West and bringing under-served households and businesses the future-proofed gigabit capable connectivity they deserve.”

Truespeed has already connected more than 200 communities that it said have been ignored by UK national broadband providers. With its new infrastructure, Truespeed is able to deliver 10 gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband directly into premises, and the company said that it is en route to its ambitious target of passing 500,000 properties by 2025. 

For its part, and in the third large deployment of fibre in three days after unveiling similar plans for the Yorkshire cities of Bradford and Sheffield, CityFibre is claiming that digital transformation in Inverness has reached another milestone now that the first homes have connected to its gigabit-capable full-fibre network.

The former altnet turned UK’s third national digital infrastructure platform provider is investing around £20m to bring this future-proof digital connectivity to the city.

Since construction began in November 2019, works have been largely completed in the Culloden, Balloch and Smithton areas of the city. Services are being offered by launch partner BrawBand, a broadband offering launched recently by Inverness-based ISP HighNet.

TalkTalk, from which CityFibre acquired infrastructure and services firm FibreNation in March 2020, is expected to join the network soon. Crown, Drummond and Inshes are set to be the next areas of the city to benefit from the roll-out. Once complete, the network will be within reach of almost every home and business in Inverness.

“At a time when the internet has become an essential gateway to work, school, family, friends and entertainment, it’s so important to ensure our infrastructure is up to the job we need it to do, both now and in the future,” said Allan McEwan, CityFibre’s city manager for Inverness.