Henry Smith MP has given his support to CityFibre’s full fibre rollout in Crawley, being given a tour of the works to get a closer look at the £23 million project as it gets underway.
Henry said;
“Securing fast, reliable broadband for all residents, businesses and services across Crawley has long been a key priority, so it’s fantastic to see work now underway on CityFibre’s ambitious £23 million infrastructure rollout.
“Investments such as this will help us to build back better, with this once in a generation upgrade future-proofing our network infrastructure at a time when digital connectivity has never been so important.
“Not only will this make Crawley an even better place to live, work and visit, it will strengthen our position as a key travel hub.”
The Crawley MP saw the full fibre digital infrastructure with demonstrations of the typical build process, including excavation and reinstatement.
The project forms part of CityFibre’s up to £4 billion Gigabit City Investment Programme which will bring full fibre networks within reach of up to 8 million homes and businesses across the UK.
Unlike the majority of the digital infrastructure accessible to households today, full fibre networks use 100 per cent fibre optic cables to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users consistently faster speeds for upload and download (up to 1,000 Mbps), near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on.
The project, which kicked off at the end of 2020, is expected to be completed by 2023; but the first services will go live for residents to take advantage of much sooner as each neighbourhood is finished.
Anne Krausse, CityFibre’s City Manager for Crawley, commented;
“It’s great to see such enthusiasm and excitement for the digital infrastructure we’re building beneath the streets of Crawley. This is the start of an exciting chapter for Crawley to embrace the fast, reliable and future-proofed digital connectivity that only full fibre infrastructure can provide in order to fully realise the vision to be a modern, vibrant and healthy town.
“It’s important to remember that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term – once the network’s built, it will serve the community’s connectivity needs for decades to come.”
The network is not yet live, but once activated, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers. Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and pre-register their interest at: www.cityfibre.com/residential.
