CityFibre to turn Southend-on-Sea into 'gigabit city'

Southend-on-Sea was set to become a 'gigabit city', with the announcement on Thursday that the borough council had selected CityFibre to build a 50 kilometre future-proofed dark fibre network through the town.

The AIM-traded builder and operator of fibre optic infrastructure said the deal, worth £3.24m over 10 years, will provide scalable, ultra-fast connectivity to underpin the council's ambitious digital strategy.

CityFibre said the network will provide the council with a dark fibre platform, from which they can upgrade the existing connectivity provided to schools, colleges and council offices - many of which are currently served by the legacy BT Openreach network.

Mobile masts could also be connected to the network to enable upgrades to 4G, and forthcoming 5G services, and ultimately provide a backbone for fibre-to-the-home deployment.

"We're delighted to add Southend to the growing ranks of Gigabit City projects, further endorsing our belief that significant demand exists for our services across the UK," said CityFibre chief executive Greg Mesch.

"Southend demonstrates many of the key indicators of success. It has a forward thinking council with an ambitious digital strategy and the appetite to become a leading example of a smart city, while its business community is growing and is increasingly demanding best-in-breed connectivity options," he added.