Council deal with Vodafone and CityFibre will make the town the first to get fibre-to-the-premise with gigabit speeds
Milton Keynes is to get a full fibre broadband infrastructure for the city under the new Vodafone and CityFibre fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) programme.
Under a deal between Milton Keynes Council and the two partners, the project will involve a private investment from CityFibre of at least £40 million. It comes two months after the announcement of a strategic partnership between the two companies and makes Milton Keynes the first location to receive the FTTP infrastructure.
It also marks the latest step in the council’s effort to establish the town as leader in the use of digital technology and in the smart places campaign. In July of last year it signed memorandum of understanding with ICT solutions provider Huawei to design and build new technology concepts for smart places.
Vodafone and CityFibre said that, with the infrastructure in place, the former will be able to provide residents of with broadband services capable of gigabit speeds (1,000 Mbps). As an example of what it could do, hospitals will be able to download a 2Gb CT scan in just 17 seconds instead of 11 minutes over a standard broadband connection.
CityFibre will start construction of the new FTTP network in Milton Keynes in March this year, providing an extension of its existing 160km full fibre network in the town.
Perfectly positioned
Councillor Peter Marland, leader at Milton Keynes Council, said: “As a modern city that prides itself on its smart city ambitions and projects, we are perfectly positioned to make the most of this major private investment in our digital infrastructure. We know that the city will get behind this project to ensure that every home and business unlocks their digital potential.”
Under the partnership between telco Vodafone and infrastructure provider CityFibre, there are plans to make FTTP available in approximately 12 cities and to reach a million homes and business across the UK. The companies said that FTTP is currently available to only about 3% of premises in the UK.
Image: Milton Keynes Centre, Queens Court by Cnyborg, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons