CityFibre has connected the first customer to its new network in Cambridgeshire as part of the Project Gigabit Network.
The customer, Josh Newman, who lives in Grantchester, has subscribed to the ultrafast 2.2Gbps symmetrical broadband service provided by Vodafone.
Mr Newman is a lecturer in film, requiring the frequent transferring of large video files, and has a young family. He was previously served by a legacy copper-based fibre-to-the-cabinet network, delivering maximum speeds of 80Mbps downstream and 18Mbps upstream. Vodafone’s new 2.2Gbps service represents a significant improvement in service experience, offering over 27 times faster downloads and over 122 times faster upload speeds.
“Project Gigabit is a game-changer for rural communities, who can now enjoy the same full fibre benefits of gigabit speeds and improved reliability as those living in cities. Whether it’s for work, education, entertainment or socialising, our customers can do more of what they love online, with no limits,” said Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK.
South Cambridgeshire residents have experienced years of poor broadband through old copper-based networks.
“This is an important milestone for CityFibre and for the hundreds of thousands of hard-to-reach homes and businesses left stranded on legacy copper networks. We look forward to working with government and our partners to bring the benefits of full fibre and multi-gig services to rural premises nationwide,” said Simon Holden, Group Chief Operations Officer, CityFibre.
Project Gigabit is a £5 billion programme set up by the Conservative government to enable hard-to-reach communities to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband.
