Completion of CityFibre main build in Wellingborough increases competition – UPDATED

CityFibre has announced its primary build in Wellinborough has been completed to around 22,000 homes which CityFibre claims is around 82% of the residential footprint.

The rollout of our full fibre network and completion of our primary-build in Wellingborough is excellent progress. This will provide a significant boost to the local economy, making the town one of the best-connected places in the country as it benefits from faster and more reliable broadband. Residents can now enjoy seamless streaming, even when using multiple devices at once, with ample productivity and innovation benefits.

Charles Kitchin, CityFibre’s Partnership Manager for Wellingborough

The benefits of full fibre connectivity will be invaluable for residents in Wellingborough as we continue to strengthen the town’s digital infrastructure. This latest milestone in CityFibre’s rollout is an exciting step and we’d like to thank everyone for their patience as we recognise the disruption this may have caused. We look forward to seeing the community reap the benefits for generations to come.

Cllr David Howes, North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive Member for Rural Communities and Localism

We are a little confused as to why the councillor for Rural Communities is giving a statement when Wellingborough we believe urban. Fingers crossed its a sign that while the primary build is complete some of the villages closest to Wellingborough might benefit as the build continues though at a slower pace than to date.

In terms of Wellingborough being one of the best connected places in the country, this is because of the reality that Openreach already has its full-fibre network covering over 20,000 properties in the town and Virgin Media has its DOCSIS 3.1 service available to a slightly smaller amount. In terms of our map we’ve been plotting the footprint for a few weeks, but priorities mean we’ve been focused more on areas seeing full-fibre arrive for the first time, so our current CityFibre footprint in the town is lagging behind at 9,000 premsies. With this news today giving a footprint size we will endeavour to catch up over the next few days. Of the 9,000 we have mapped so far less than 100 properties are not covered by Openreach FTTP.

The difference between the CityFibre roll-out and Openreach is that CityFibre products are often symmetric in nature, alas with TalkTalk holding the exclusive retail option for now the speeds are asymetric i.e. Full Fibre 150 at £28/month is 152 Mbps average download and just 30 Mbps average upload.

Update Thursday 11th July 2024 The mapped footprint for CityFibre in Wellingborough has risen to 12,000 premises with our map showing the gaps being filled in the town. In terms of overlap with the existing Openreach FTTP footprint things have improved as there are now 2,000 premises where CityFibre is the sole full-fibre option.