Two of UK’s leading broadband providers, Sky and TalkTalk, have come together to build their own fibre network and deliver 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) broadband to the City of York.
The two firms are joining hands with AIM-listed CityFibre to create a new company that will build a “state of the art, city-wide, pure fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network.”
The trio promises to offer broadband speed of 1 Gig per second (1,000 Mb), enough to allow 200 people to watch different high-definition videos at the same time without buffering, to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in York.
TalkTalk’s Chief Executive, Dido Harding, said “We are going to deliver a pure fibre network that will deliver speeds of 1 Gig per second (1,000 Mb) direct to homes and businesses in York independent of BT Openreach infrastructure,” notes Reuters.
Each in the trio will have a one-third stake in the new venture, with Sky and TalkTalk investing £5 million each. The ultra-fast network with competing broadband offers is expected to be rolled out sometime next year. Sky and TalkTalk plans to introduce similar schemes in two other UK cities.
“We are excited to be working in partnership with Sky and CityFibre to build this new network that will offer significantly higher speeds at much better value than is currently available,” Harding added.
This move comes weeks after the government was accused of failing to deliver competition in broadband market, resulting in BT’s monopoly position.
“Sky has led the growth of the sector since the launch of Sky Broadband, becoming the UK’s favourite provider of TV, broadband and home phone, and we see plenty of opportunity to continue to develop our offering,” Sky’s Stephen van Rooyen said.
“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.”
The news was welcomed by James Alexander, head of York council, who 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.”
