https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/04/terms-agreed-for-cash-buy-of-uk-full-fibre-builder-cityfibre-by-bidco.htmlFibre optic (FTTP/H) network builder Cityfibre has announced that they’ve agreed the terms of a recommended £537.8m cash acquisition by Connect Infrastructure Bidco Limited (Bidco), which is a newly-incorporated company that is jointly-owned by a consortium of two key infrastructure investors.
Over the past few years Cityfibre has made a name for itself by gradually deploying their Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) style broadband and Ethernet network to help cater for businesses and public sector sites in various cities across the United Kingdom (they’ll have a presence in 50 by 2020).
On top of that they also run a legacy 1Gbps FTTH network for homes in Bournemouth and have previously teamed up with Sky Broadband and TalkTalk on a major deployment across the city of York. More recently they’ve also signed a joint £500m deal with Vodafone UK that will initially aim to roll-out their ultrafast network to a “minimum” of 1 million homes in up to 12 of Cityfibre’s existing cities and towns by the end of 2021.
So far the agreement with Vodafone, which after the first phase would have the “potential to extend” up to 5 million homes (approximately 50 towns and cities) by 2025, has already announced its first deployments for 3 UK cities: Milton Keynes, Aberdeen and Peterborough.
This is good news. The big boys with big money are coming on board. More money is never a bad thing.. especially with the track record of investing in fibre networks in other countries.