CityFibre sells Lit Fibre consumer business to co-founders

Following the purchase in May, Lit Fibre – whose customer base is spread over Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Worcestershire, Essex and Suffolk – is now fully onboarded to CityFibre’s national infrastructure platform, which it says provides symmetrical speeds of up to 2.5Gbps anywhere over the network.

Selling the consumer ISP part of Lit Fibre ‘aligns to CityFibre’s commitment to a wholesale-only model and demonstrates CityFibre’s ability to rapidly integrate and commercialise acquired footprint to drive network growth,’ says the release.

Work to integrate Lit Fibre’s 10Gbps XGS-PON network infrastructure into CityFibre’s carrier-grade network is expected to complete later this year, and the integration will expand CityFibre’s nationwide full fibre network by up to 300,000 premises, we’re told, and the firm has plans to reach at least 8 million premises.

“Our strategy has always been to be the wholesale provider of choice, building a nationwide, full fibre network that enables all of our partners to access market-leading products, pricing and service and gives consumers a greater choice of full fibre ISPs,” said Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre. “We are really pleased to see Lit Fibre continue with its co-founders, who are passionate about the business, and we look forward to continuing to partner with Lit Fibre across our network.

“As the nation’s third digital infrastructure platform, we continue to evaluate potential acquisition opportunities alongside accelerating CityFibre’s build to reach at least 8 million premises across the UK.”

Tom Williams and Ben Bresler, Co-Founders of Lit Fibre added, apparently with one voice: “Lit Fibre has built an enviable reputation for providing excellent service and support and we are delighted that we will be able to continue delivering that for our customers into the future, along with our partners at CityFibre.

“The landscape for internet services is changing where the in-home experience is becoming more important. We believe consumers should expect more from their internet provider and Lit Fibre has an exciting roadmap of product improvements including improved WiFi coverage and enhanced security and protection for all connected devices to meet these higher expectations.”

CityFibre completed the Lit Fibre buyout in May this year from the owners at the time Newlight Partners, a New York-based investment firm. At that point it had a subscriber base of around 10,000 retail customers.