Three UK has awarded a multi-million backhaul contract to CityFibre, to connect an additional 1,300 key mobile masts across 59 towns and cities. Full Fibre backhaul is an essential part of delivering a great mobile experience, so partnering with CityFibre is part of Three’s strategy to deliver the UK’s fastest 5G network thanks to its leading 5G spectrum portfolio.
The deepening partnership sees Three and CityFibre further align on their rollout plans. This will help to increase the speed and efficiency of each deployment, providing a high quality 5G service across CityFibre’s Gigabit City projects and delivering an improved network experience for Three’s customers.
CityFibre has gone from strength-to-strength since it was established in 2012, with network projects ongoing in over 60 cities and plans to reach eight million homes.
The partnership will also mean Three has access to small cell access points throughout each of CityFibre’s dense city-wide networks. This will ensure it has the local Full Fibre capacity in place to support the expected heavy demand of 5G services in busy urban areas, meaning a seamless service for customers.
Most of the locations identified for Three’s 5G rollout are well progressed and CityFibre is ramping up delivery ahead of the end of 2020.
Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre, said:
“We are excited to deepen our support for Three’s ambitious 5G rollout. It’s clear that the alignment of two national consumer and mobile digital infrastructure rollouts has huge benefits, not just for us, but for the cities and communities we are connecting.
Working together we can deploy 5G and Full Fibre further and more efficiently, creating a word-class digital infrastructure that allows agile and distributed applications for millions.”
Susan Buttsworth, COO at Three UK, said:
“We are increasing investment across our network to meet the ever-increasing demand for data by UK consumers.
Fibre backhaul is a vital part of a reliable network experience and this investment will mean better connectivity for our customers across the UK.”
Both companies reached a smaller agreement earlier this year whereby CityFibre became the preferred backhaul connectivity supplier outside of London for Three. The agreement supported Three’s rollout of 5G in more than 100 locations across the UK.
