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Gigabit CityFibre powers up Peterborough’s CityLAN gaming event

Pro gaming tournament CityLAN is coming to Peterborough this year, thanks to CityFibre laying four gigabit cables across the Cambridgeshire city. 

The tournament, which sees Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Minecraft and FIFA players gun for a £15,000 cash prize is taking place at the ABAX Stadium and Future Business Centre between August 20-22. 

Teams of up to four can compete for the top cash prize while less competitive folks will be able to mill around, make their own Arduino-powered robot and attend Q&A sessions with industry figureheads including UbiSoft Lead Game Designer Tim Browne, who will be delivering a keynote address from France. 

Terry Harris, Director at CityLAN said: “Bringing an event of this size to Peterborough shows that it is a hot bed of digital innovation. We are expecting thousands of visitors as well as hundreds of exhibitors and gamers to descend on the venue over three days so having a robust, reliable gigabit network was essential.
 
“Having CityFibre as a partner is something we are most thankful for – as many gamers know exceptional Internet and ultra-low latency is a must and with so many people in attendance a robust connection is one of the most important ingredient to CityLANs success. 

CityFibre has installed over 90 kilometers of fibre optic cable in and around Peterborough, as part of its Peterborough CORE project. 

This core network has seen over 140 local business and 100 public sector sites, including 70 schools able to plug into gigabit broadband services. 

While only firms and public sector customers will benefit from CityFibre’s core rollouts initially, the idea is that eventually the company will be able to offer residential customers these services too. 

CityFibre’s Peterborough CORE project is mirrored by similar efforts in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Kirklees, Bournemouth and York, where its currently involved in a trial with Sky and TalkTalk

In theory, CityFibre has the potential to reach 10 million homes with pure FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) broadband off the back of its core network investments. 

By contrast, BT’s superfast broadband, which uses FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) technology can’t currently deliver download speeds beyond 80Mbps, and its residential FTTP footprint covers over 160,000 premises at the last count

Virgin Media has announced plans to pass 16.5 million premises with its cable network in the next five years. While Virgin Media’s DOCSIS technology could deliver gigabit broadband services, the cable company has also been trialling FTTP services – in Cambridgeshire, coincidentally – suggesting it’s looking towards a full fibre rollout in the future. 

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