York NHSFT and its patients benefit from superfast fibre optic network

CityFibre’s network helps to deliver savings for the health economy.

8 December 2011 – A superfast fibre optic connection has allowed York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (York NHSFT) to offer its patients an entirely new service that reduces the number of visits, costs and time.

The new fibre optic connection which has been built by CityFibre and is operated by Pinacl, links the Trust’s Clifton Park Clinic site (the Chapel) to the rest of the hospital network via a fibre optic metro ring that was built by the same partnership for the City of York Council and announced in October.

CityFibre’s metro ring, which already connects more than 100 council buildings, has been designed to allow the City of York to take advantage of superfast connectivity including broadband and city-wide wireless. York NHSFT chose to install a CityFibre connection as it could be built and finished in a far shorter timeframe than any other network provider.

Adrian Shakeshaft, network manager for York NHSFT said: “There were only three months from when the contract was signed to when the service needed to be up and running and I knew that other network providers and operators would need around five to six months to deliver a project of this scale. CityFibre and Pinacl were confident that they could deliver the project within the timescales and I was confident in their ability.”

The Chapel site is offering an entirely new community-based Extended Scope Practitioner (ESP) service – part of the Musculoskeletal Clinical Assessment, Triage and Treatment Service (MSK CATTS) – offering ‘one stop’ clinics for adults experiencing musculoskeletal problems.

Melanie Liley, directorate manager for therapies and trauma and orthopaedics at York NHSFT added: “The new service benefits everyone – it delivers real, tangible savings for the health economy, not to mention the benefits to patients in terms of quality service provision, cost and time.

“The commissioner will also benefit from the lower cost of this service. We now operate the MSK CATTS service at a lower tariff than when it was previously delivered and because the new service may only require one appointment, the commissioner is not charged for two separate appointments, meaning further cost savings.

“The new high-speed connection to the Chapel site has made all this possible. It is integral to the successful delivery of the service and without it we would have had to source an alternative community-based location for the ESP clinics. If this had proved difficult, we may not have been able to tender for the contract.”

ENDS

Media contact:

Deborah Leah

Bell Pottinger

M. 07810 834548

e. cityfibre@insightmkt.com

Government funds must be bolstered with private investment to ensure true future-proof network is built

FTTP provider encouraged by Chancellor’s commitments but this will not be enough to build a superfast UK infrastructure.

Government funds must be bolstered with private investment to ensure true future-proof network is built.

1^st December 2011– Leading fibre optic infrastructure provider CityFibre welcomes the Chancellor’s commitment to superfast broadband in his Autumn Statement. However, it believes that this investment must be put into context, as the £100m additional funding for the improvement of broadband networks in 10 cities across the UK will not be nearly enough to build the best network in Europe by 2015.

Mark Collins, CCO of CityFibre said: “This country is still a long way behind the rest of the Europe when it comes to the provision of digital infrastructure, therefore improvements to our broadband networks are essential if we are to compete and succeed in a service-driven digital economy.

“Though it is clearly great news that £100m has been earmarked to create 10 super connected cities, this is not enough to fund truly future-proofed Fibre-to-the-Premises infrastructure and there is a real danger that taxpayers’ money will be ploughed into sub-standard Fibre-to-the-Cabinet technology. It’s important to remember that although the copper networks have served us well, they were never designed to cope with the bandwidth requirements of today, let alone those of tomorrow.

“This type of incremental approach would put the UK at a huge disadvantage for years to come as well as creating the need for another wave of significant investment to future proof the infrastructure.

“Therefore we feel that it is important that the Government’s vision for the super-connected cities is built on a foundation of transformative true FTTP infrastructure that can continue to support economic growth for these cities for many years.

“If the UK is to meet the Government’s aim of having the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, it is both healthy market competition and additional funding from public and private sources including the incumbents and new entrants such as CityFibre, that will make it possible.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

CityFibre is to invest £500m of private funding in the delivery of town and city-wide Fibre-to-the-Premises networks. This transformational approach will deliver gigabit capable services to more than 1 million homes and 50,000 businesses in 15 secondary cities across the UK. It will be these locations, including Bournemouth and York where CityFibre is already building true fibre networks that will become our real super-connected cities with future-proofed fibre networks that will be a foundation for their social and economic development. It is our intention that our privately funded rapid roll-out strategy, we will bring the wealth of advantages of fibre networks without impact on the public purse. 

Fibreband announces superfast broadband services over CityFibre’s Bournemouth network

CityFibre breathes new life into Fibre-to-the-Home network

24 November 2011 – Fibreband is the first Internet service provider to take advantage of CityFibre’s revolutionary Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in Bournemouth by launching superfast Gigabit broadband services with minimum symmetrical speeds of 100Mbps. This means that users can upload content online at the same speed as they download it.

Adam Troman, general manager, Fibreband said: “As a local service provider, we understand the needs of the people of Bournemouth and want to provide a mould-breaking broadband service that is the envy of other towns and cities across the UK. CityFibre’s network is unique in that the fibre optic cable is connected directly to the property which means there is no compromise to the speeds that can be achieved, now or in the future.

“We have been working closely with CityFibre since it acquired the network earlier this year and have been extremely impressed with the work it has done to bring this new, true fibre optic infrastructure to Bournemouth. We look forward to being CityFibre’s first service provider partner and have high hopes for its continued rollout throughout the town in 2012.”

Bournemouth-based Fibreband, is inviting 250 households in the BH10 and BH11 postcode areas to take part in a trial of its superfast broadband services. Volunteers will receive the full service free of charge.

Mark Collins, CCO at CityFibre said: “We promised the residents and businesses of Bournemouth that we would complete the unfinished work from our predecessors, a commitment which we have kept. It’s imperative to CityFibre that we manage this network responsibly. We are really pleased to be now moving onto the next stage and that our first service provider partner Fibreband are launching their services.”

People can check whether they are eligible for Fibreband’s superfast broadband by visiting www.fibreband.co.uk.

CityFibre acquired this FTTH network in January 2011 and it currently passes more than 24,000 homes which are ‘service-ready’.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Currently there are two types of network that the UK accepts as delivering superfast broadband to residents. One is true Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) and the other is Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), which makes use of traditional copper or coaxial cable to the home. However, it is widely accepted on the world stage, that the only true next generation infrastructure is pure FTTH; where the entire network connection is delivered uninterrupted with fibre optic cable into the home. FTTC can only ever be a short term solution as it doesn’t matter how fast the network is to the cabinet, the service speed (both up and down load speeds)will always be constrained by this ‘last mile’.

About Fibreband

Fibreband is a specialist fibre optic service provider delivering super fast broadband with package speeds between 50Mbps and 1000Mbps (1Gbps). This enables people to change the way they work together and use the Internet in the UK.

Fibreband uses C4L’s infrastructure, one of the UK’s fastest Internet backbone providers with 400Gbps connectivity to Bournemouth, enabling Fibreband to provide its ultra fast services to Bournemouth residents.

Fibreband was one of the first companies in the UK to provide 1Gbps to the home in early 2010. Additional locations are planned across the UK in the future, enabling 1Gbps broadband to become a standard in the UK.  For more information please visit www.fibreband.co.uk

CityFibre at Smart Cities Conference – Wed 23rd Nov.

CityFibre at Smart Cities Conference – Wed 23rd Nov – QEII Conference Centre, London

James Enck, head of corporate development at CityFibre  is speaking at the Smart Cities Conference on the importance of future-proofed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructures in urban areas.

James will be speaking during the second stream of the conference, entitled ‘Smarter ICT’, which CityFibre is also sponsoring. He will join speakers from the European Commission and the Mayor of London’s Office.

In his session ‘The Gig Society’ James will discuss how superior FFTP infrastructures are at the heart of any Smart City Initiative, enabling everything from open data infrastructure to economic regeneration. He will also explain why FTTP and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) are widely acknowledged as the only future-proofed infrastructure that will cope with increasing consumer and business demand for bandwidth.

The UK Coalition Government has championed localism through its legislative agenda. The Smart Cities Conference is a new event designed to help local leaders respond effectively to challenges and opportunities around urban growth. This event brings together the people and organisations, both public and private, which will be crucial in generating thriving local and national economies.

If you would like to find out more or set up a meeting with James, please email james.enck@cityfibreholdings.com 

For more information on the conference please visit www.smartcitiesconference.co.uk 

CityFibre appoints Macquarie Capital to realise its vision for UK-wide Next Generation Access

CityFibre to build fibre infrastructure connecting local authorities, 50,000 businesses and one million homes

Construction of CityFibre’s metropolitan city networks will commence early 2012 to serve councils, public services, businesses and service providers
 

3 November 2011 – CityFibre Holdings Limited has today announced that it has appointed Macquarie Capital, a leader in infrastructure corporate finance, as advisor on its next stage of capital formation.

CityFibre received proposals from several leading investment banks and selected Macquarie Capital for its extensive international advisory experience in large-scale telecoms infrastructure, including its role as financial advisor to Telstra on Australia’s NBN project, the world’s largest Fibre-to-the-Premises deployment. Macquarie Capital will act as financial advisor to CityFibre in raising new capital to realise the company’s plans to connect one million homes and 50,000 businesses, and in doing so creating thousands of jobs.

Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s CEO commented: “I am delighted to be working with such an experienced financial institution. Macquarie’s deep knowledge of financing infrastructure projects is coupled with a strong and experienced telecoms banking team that will be a great asset to ensure we achieve our goal of accelerating fibre optic network deployment throughout the UK.

“CityFibre looks forward to engaging with local authorities and business across the country to deliver new fibre networks that can power the next generation of public services and cloud based business networks.”

Bill Kennish, Head of Telecommunications, Media Entertainment and Technology at Macquarie Capital in Europe said, “We are pleased to work with CityFibre as it seeks to further develop its fibre optic infrastructure in selected UK markets, given the substantial unmet demand for superfast broadband services. We look forward to bringing our extensive telecoms infrastructure financing experience to CityFibre as it takes the next steps in its development.”

CityFibre, already the UK’s largest provider of fibre networks in secondary towns and cities, intends to invest up to £500 million to build further metro networks and pure Fibre-to-the-Premises networks in a unique citywide deployment, providing gigabit services in towns and cities across the UK.

Mesch said: “In delivering these new fibre optic networks CityFibre will be creating thousands of new jobs in the UK’s construction and telecommunication industries which will provide a vital role in sparking Britain’s economy.”

It is the Government’s goal to have the ‘best superfast broadband networks in Europe by 2015’. The reality is that today the UK ranks only 26^th in the world in the Akamai ‘State of the Internet’ report. This highlights the role CityFibre can play in supporting the Government’s plans, and in doing so, supporting economic growth in those towns and cities benefiting from this new future-proof infrastructure.

CityFibre’s networks will deliver cost savings to local government and create a new era of digital public services. Residents will benefit from true Fibre-to-the-Home capable of gigabit broadband speeds that will be deployed in conjunction with CityFibre’s service provider partners.

CityFibre will partner with leading service providers, technology vendors and construction firms to deliver its networks. Roll out will commence in early 2012. CityFibre has recently completed significant fibre optic projects in York, Ayr and Dundee.

ENDS

Media contact:

Deborah Leah
Bell Pottinger
M. 07810 834548
e. cityfibre@insightmkt.com 

Notes to editors

Macquarie Capital has advised on a number of large transactions in the telecom and media sector in the last two years, including the takeover of the leading Australian metropolitan radio broadcaster, the takeover of the third largest radio operator in the United States, the acquisition of a Czech broadcast transmission company and the recapitalisation of a major Australian media group.

Macquarie Capital is the lead financial advisor to Telstra for the creation of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN Co), the world’s largest open access Fibre-To-The-Premises project with committed capital of $A26 billion from the Australian government to connect next generation fibre to 93% of all homes and businesses country-wide.

About CityFibre Holdings:

CityFibre (www.cityfibreholdings.com) is one of the UK’s leading fibre optic infrastructure providers. By building dedicated private networks for the public and private sectors, we empower data-hungry users throughout the country, by unleashing unlimited speeds on future-proofed technology.

Our projects comprise point-to-point connections, metro rings and Fibre-to-the-Premises networks that make possible Next Generation Access and gigabit level services direct to local authorities, businesses and homes.

CityFibre manages over 100 private fibre projects and seven separate metropolitan fibre rings under long-term contracts with local authorities, police forces, healthcare organisations and universities. With almost 30,000 Km of fibre in the ground, connecting more than 350 sites and data centres across the UK, we are the UK’s largest independent provider of fibre in secondary cities

In Bournemouth, CityFibre owns the largest FTTH project in the UK. With over 24,000 homes ready for service by 2012, the network enables service providers to deliver unprecedented superfast broadband with speeds of up to 1Gbps.

CityFibre was advised in the selection process by STJ Advisors. 

About Macquarie:

The parent of Macquarie Capital, Macquarie Group Limited, is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and fund management services. Macquarie’s main business focus is making returns by providing a diversified range of services to clients, acting on behalf of institutional, corporate and retail clients around the world.

Macquarie Group Limited is listed in Australia (ASX:MQG; ADR:MQBKY) and is regulated by APRA, the Australian banking regulator. Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority. Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited is not an authorised deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia).. Macquarie's activities are also subject to scrutiny by other regulatory agencies around the world.

Founded in 1969, Macquarie employs more than 15,000 people in over 28 countries. At 30 September 2011, Macquarie had assets under management of $A324 billion.