Glasgow businesses will be able to tap into gigabit speeds in 2016 thanks to a joint venture between CityFibre and HighNet.
Due to kick off early next year, the rollout will initially be concentrated in the city centre, putting roughly 7,000 city centre businesses in close reach of download speeds of up to 1,000Mbps. Once the rollout is completed, CityFibre expects that up to 15,000 businesses across Glasgow will be able to sign up for ultrafast services.
CityFibre’s CEO Greg Mesch said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with HighNet to launch Scotland’s newest Gigabit City. HighNet have made this project possible and their strong customer base and impressive partner network will be crucial to its success.
Related: Sky and TalkTalk connect their first customers to 940Mbps fibre“This announcement marks our third Gigabit City project in Scotland, and upon its completion, CityFibre will have an established network presence in Scotland’s four largest cities, making us the largest wholesale fibre infrastructure provider in the country after BT Openreach.”
David J Siegel, managing director of HighNet, added: “This fantastic collaboration marks a step change in HighNet’s evolution as a Business-to-Business ISP and we are looking forward to providing Glasgow’s business sector with best in class connectivity upon which they can develop and grow their business.”
While this might not be exciting news for anyone who isn’t an IT manager shopping around for business services, it’s worth bearing in mind that CityFibre’s core networks can be used as springboard for domestic services.
It’s happened in Bournemouth, it’s happened outside of Peterborough and if the trial in York goes well, then Dido Harding’s vision of bringing ultrafast TalkTalk services to 10 million UK homes could come to pass – using CityFibre’s infrastructure instead of BT’s Openreach network.
Other so-called ‘Gigabit Cities’ under CityFibre’s belt include Aberdeen, Coventry and Edinburgh, paving the way for future commercial offshoots.
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