CityFibre to create 11,000 jobs in broadband rollout push

CityFibre, the Goldman Sachs-backed broadband infrastructure provider said it was creating 10,000 new jobs as it looked to deliver full-fibre broadband across Britain by 2025.

The company on Thursday said it would invest £4bn over the next three years to recruit people from towns or cities where new fibre optic cables will be laid, and was targeting those who had lost their jobs due to the coronavirus and also from under-represented Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

CityFibre is competing against bigger rivals such as BT's Openreach and Liberty Global's Virgin Media. Chairman Steve Holliday, chairman at CityFibre said the government's target of full fibre across the country by 2025 in the wake of the Coronavirus “could not be more important”.

“Of all the infrastructure projects and industrial policies under consideration, full fibre will have the biggest impact in the shortest time, and for the least public money. It will help ensure that the UK not only recovers economically, but that it swiftly transitions to a greener, smarter and fairer economy in which to thrive,” he said.

Since the UK government announced it is backing full fibre roll out through the country, there has been a growing number of deals among fast-fibre broadband providers.

CityFibre recently acquired TalkTalk's FibreNation division and US infrastructure fund Alinda agreed to take over student broadband provider Glide Group.