CityFibre takes on Openreach with £90m KCOM acquisition

UK independent fibre infrastructure provider CityFibre has announced the acquisition of KCOM’s national network, taking its coverage to 20% of the UK market.

As its name implies, CityFibre focuses on urban fibre connectivity and this deal will triple the number of cities it covers to 36. An additional £90 million of new funding will enable CityFibre to expand this further to a planned 50 cities by 2020. When the deal closes in mid-January 2016 CityFibre says that will make it the UK’s second largest wholesale infrastructure provider behind BT.

The specific assets comprise 1,100 km of duct and fibre network in 24 UK cities, as well as 1,100 km of long distance network connecting them to data-centres across the UK and to internet peering points in London. The new network will address over 7,000 mobile cell sites, 24,500 public sector sites and 245,000 businesses.

“This is the most significant event to take place in the UK’s digital infrastructure market in a decade,” said  CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch. “The UK now has a secure independent infrastructure alternative. Cities, service providers, mobile operators and investors have boldly embraced a new model of future-proof infrastructure provision and paved the way for its acceleration across the country.

“With our enlarged footprint and strong pipeline of cities demanding better infrastructure, we will continue to grow, offering existing and new partners an ever increasing opportunity to capitalise on a pure fibre future.”