Yorkshire city claims to be digital capital after Sky and TalkTalk deal
SKY and TalkTalk have joined forces with digital infrastructure provider CityFibre to create a new company which will offer ultra-fast broadband services in York.
The new joint venture company plans to build a city-wide, pure fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network supplying broadband speeds of 1 Gigabit (1,000 Mbps) direct to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in York.
The new network will be developed through CityFibre’s existing metro fibre infrastructure in the city. Once the ultra-fast network is in place, Sky and TalkTalk will retail competing broadband services over the new infrastructure, with the first York customers expected to be connected in 2015.
The joint venture plans to work with leading global technology provider Fujitsu to deploy the pure fibre FTTP network. It will enable Sky and TalkTalk to offer customers better value for higher speeds than is currently available.
The roll-out will also give Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre the opportunity to test a new approach to building a viable pure fibre network, independent from BT Openreach’s infrastructure.
The joint venture partners said it will be the first time ever that a UK city has been connected with such high speeds on a city-wide basis.
Cllr James Alexander, leader of City of York council, said: “This announcement makes York the digital infrastructure capital of the UK.
“Gaining ultra-fast broadband across the city is a huge boost for our economy; providing significant new opportunities for businesses based here and better quality and value to our residents.
“I’m delighted that York has been chosen as the first city, building on work over the last two years to improve the city’s digital infrastructure, and that we’ll see this in place as soon as 2015”.
Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk Group, said: “This marks TalkTalk taking its first steps into investing in building infrastructure as part of our mission to make British homes and businesses better off.”
Stephen van Rooyen, managing director of Sky’s sales, marketing and brand group, added: “This trial will help us understand the potential for cutting-edge technology to help us give customers an even better quality of service and we’re looking forward to working in partnership with TalkTalk and CityFibre.”
Greg Mesch, chief executive of CityFibre, said: “Working with two of the largest and most forward-thinking service providers in the UK we will continue to extend our existing metro fibre infrastructure and introduce a new generation of gigabit speed services to homes and businesses.”
