Brsk announces new full-fibre roll-out region as CityFibre focuses on Warwickshire

Marking more key milestones in the national network expansion of gigabit broadband, two UK companies of very different sizes and scale have announced significant full-fibre roll-outs, with Brsk adding the West Midlands and south Birmingham towns to make the fourth area of its coverage and CityFibre working to bring full-fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Binley Woods in Warwickshire.

A relatively young company that started building its full-fibre network only 15 months ago in West Yorkshire, Brsk has already established a network roll-out in the north-west across south Manchester, Burnley and Bradford. The new network will deliver gigabit speeds to approximately 250,000 homes and businesses across the towns of Dudley, Brierley Hill, Kingswinford, Halesowen, Cradley Heath, Stourbridge, Selly Oak, Northfield and Rubery.

New fibre cables will be installed throughout the area, but existing poles and underground ducts will be used where possible to keep disruption to a minimum.

“I am delighted to announce the kick-off of our fourth region as we continue to ramp up our build,” said Brsk founder and CEO Giorgio Iovino. “Our consistently increasing build rates and focus on scaling up our operations to support our growing network have given us the confidence to open up a new front in the West Midlands. We are delighted with the feedback we are receiving from customers about their experience with Brsk so far and look forward to connecting even more homes to better broadband.”

Construction of the CityFibre £500,000 town-wide full-fibre network has begun in Binley Woods in Warwickshire and is being delivered by Callan on behalf of the infrastructure provider. The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Warwickshire County Council and local communities to deliver a roll-out while managing potential disruption.

The overall project is expected to reach completion by late 2022, but the first services will go live for people to take advantage of much sooner. As the network 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.

In Binley Woods, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers. Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with launch partner Vodafone to supply full-fibre infrastructure for customers on selected Vodafone Pro Broadband plans, while TalkTalk, Giganet, IDNet, Zen and other providers are expected to join the network soon.

“I’m immensely excited and proud to see work getting underway in Binley Woods. This is the start of an exciting new chapter for the town as it gets ready to thrive in the digital age,” said Neal Wright, CityFibre’s area manager for Binley Woods. “It’s important to remember that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long term – once the network’s built, it will serve the community’s connectivity needs for decades to come.”