Strong progress in full-fibre rollout in London

This reinforces Community Fibre’s commitment to facilitate a better internet for all London communities, aiming to connect one million London properties by the end of 2023 with its affordable, faster, more reliable broadband.

This comes as Community Fibre has recently signed master wayleave agreements with three additional London boroughs, including Hackney Council, Barnet Council and Lambeth Council, enabling Community Fibre to roll out its full-fibre broadband network to an extra 85,000 new properties in the coming months. Residents living in those premises will be able to benefit from gigabit-capable internet connectivity once the installation of Community Fibre’s network will be completed.

Graeme Oxby, CEO of Community Fibre, said: “2020 was without a doubt an unprecedented and difficult year for many. Despite this, our teams have worked hard to provide high-quality, 100% full-fibre broadband to London communities. As a London-based company, we are proud to have reached this new milestone today and will keep pursuing our efforts to provide better connectivity to those who need it the most and connect up to a million properties across the city by 2023.

“These rollouts will not only cover social housing and large blocks of flats, our primary focus in the past, but also include individual properties and terraced houses.”

As a result of Community Fibre’s exponential growth, an extra 1,000 jobs in London will have been created over the past year and this year to help deliver fast, high-speed broadband to communities in times of need.

Community Fibre’s network provides 100% full-fibre internet with gigabit-capability straight into Londoners’ homes. It enables residents and businesses across the city to enjoy speeds up to 3Gbps or 10Gbps respectively with 99.99% uptime and lower costs. Furthermore, Community Fibre uses Openreach’s existing underground ducts wherever possible to lay its fibre optic cable to minimise costs and digging disruptions for London communities.

As the latest technology available on the market, the fibre network will not need to be replaced in the foreseeable future, in contrast to the legacy networks using copper, future-proofing London’s homes, at no extra cost.

Cllr Dan Thomas, Leader of Barnet Council, has said that gigabit fibre broadband will make Barnet fit for the future: “By enabling commercial investment in several new fibre broadband networks, we’re ensuring everyone will be able to benefit from highspeed internet connections as fast as possible. Life in the time of COVID-19 has increased our digital dependency for remote working, home schooling and staying in touch with our friends and loved ones. Having reliable and affordable broadband will ensure that Barnet will continue to be a great place to live, work and study.”

Community Fibre strives to support communities it serves in London and build a more inclusive digital future in the city. Community Fibre provides free gigafast broadband connection to 123 community centres across London and became the first fixed broadband provider to offer one-year free 50Mbps broadband in conjunction with our social landlord partners to vulnerable households in all the boroughs it serves to help with homeschooling through the lockdown.

Cllr Clayeon McKenzie, Hackney Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing Services, added: “The past year has shown how important good internet services are for our residents, and as we rebuild a better Hackney out of the coronavirus pandemic this innovative partnership with Community Fibre will ensure that those in Council homes don’t get left behind by poor connectivity, while securing other benefits to support our most vulnerable residents and tackle digital exclusion.”

Currently, Community Fibre is working with over 200 landlords in London to bring 100% full-fibre broadband to their properties at no extra cost to the community and is making inroads into connecting 1 million homes and businesses by 2023.