CityFibre and Fujitsu announce engineering agreement to roll out pure fibre infrastructure in UK

CityFibre and Fujitsu agreement is worth an initial £50 million 

London, 30 April 2012 – Leading fibre optic infrastructure firm CityFibre and Fujitsu have today announced an engineering agreement, worth an initial £50 million in estimated contract value to Fujitsu, to progress CityFibre’s plans to deploy gigabit capable, pure fibre infrastructure throughout the UK’s second tier cities. 

Under this agreement, Fujitsu will be responsible for the key elements of planning, building and operating CityFibre’s carrier-grade next-generation fibre infrastructure. Fujitsu’s scale and experience will accelerate CityFibre’s deployment plans and give confidence to partners, customers and investors.

Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s CEO commented: “We are delighted to be working with Fujitsu. It is invaluable to have an outsourcing partner of such reputation working with us in our roll-out of transformational fibre infrastructure to over 1 million UK homes and over 50,000 businesses throughout the UK’s second tier cities.

“Fujitsu’s credentials in network deployment could not be stronger and few companies have as much knowledge of UK telecoms infrastructure. They are uniquely positioned to assist CityFibre in meeting our ambitious objectives across the entire fibre infrastructure spectrum, from mobile backhaul to metro networks and Fibre-to-the Premises.”

CityFibre selected Fujitsu for its unparalleled experience of building carrier-grade networks worldwide and for its extensive and highly skilled field force spanning the whole of the UK. The two companies have already worked together as Fujitsu built CityFibre’s 103km fibre optic network around the City of York. This network forms the backbone of the city-wide Fibre-to-the-Premises network announced last month.

Andy Stevenson, chief executive officer, Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe added: “We are very happy to embark on this agreement with CityFibre. This project takes advantage of all Fujitsu’s core competencies including planning, building and operating next generation access networks across the world. We are excited by the opportunity to work with such a forward thinking company and look forward to delivering world-class infrastructure across the UK”.

ENDS

About CityFibre Holdings

CityFibre (www.cityfibreholdings.com) is one of the UK’s leading fibre optic infrastructure providers. We are providing the UK’s second tier cities with transformational fibre optic infrastructure capable of delivering gigabit services, changing the way businesses and consumers can communicate.

Instead of trying to use and repurpose aging networks we are building dedicated carrier-grade pure fibre networks for the public and private sectors which comprise point-to-point connections, metro rings and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP and FTTH).

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 30,000km of fibre in the ground, connecting more than 350 sites and data centres across the UK, we are the country’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 in 2012, the network enables service providers to deliver unprecedented superfast broadband with speeds of up to one gigabit per second. 

About Fujitsu: 

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Over 170,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$54 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com

Fujitsu UK and Ireland is a leading IT systems, services and products company employing 11,400 people with an annual revenue of £1.7 billion. Its business is in enabling its customers to realise their objectives by exploiting information technology through its integrated product and service portfolio. This includes consulting, applications, systems integration, managed services and product for customers in the private and public sectors including retail, financial services, telecoms, government, defence and consumer sectors. For more information, please see: http://uk.fujitsu.com

Press contacts:

CityFibre

Deborah Simcock
Bell Pottinger
M. 07810 834548
eMail: cityfibre@insightmkt.com 

Fujitsu
James De Vile                                                
Harvard PR
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7861 2832
eMail: teamfujitsu@harvard.co.uk                  

CityFibre bolsters its board with three key appointments

New non-executive directors bring investment and expertise to strengthen fibre optic infrastructure firm’s ability to deliver superfast connectivity in the UK.

Fibre optic infrastructure firm CityFibre Holdings has today announced that it is strengthening its board with three strategic appointments preparing it for the next phase of its growth.

Massimo Prelz Oltramonti, Bruno Ducharme and Michael Williamson join as non-executive directors and bring a wealth of experience in capital markets, the mobile industry, private equity and venture capital. All have elected to invest in the current private funding round anchored by veteran UK private equity pioneer Jon Moulton.

They join CityFibre at a time of significant growth as it recently announced it was working with Macquarie Group to raise funds and secured a senior banking facility from Citigroup in order to develop its alternative fibre infrastructure offering to serve UK homes and businesses.

Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s CEO commented: “All three appointments bring unique benefits to CityFibre. Massimo’s experience of private equity will reinforce the company in the next phase of our growth and development, while Bruno’s expertise in the mobile industry will be of great advantage to us as this is one of the most promising markets for fibre. As our company’s business model is so capital intensive, Mike’s experience in the capital markets will be invaluable.

“As well as the wealth of experience they will bring to our team, their investment demonstrates a critical vote of confidence in the progress and direction of our business. Each will assist CityFibre in executing our plans to bring the benefits of true fibre access to local government, businesses and millions of homes throughout the UK.”

For the last 23 years, Massimo Prelz Oltramonti has been one of Europe’s leading venture capital investors in telecommunications and media companies. Since 1998, he has completed over 24 venture capital investments across Europe and the US and has been a director of several public and private companies including Jazztel, SBS, ESAT Telecom and Kabelmedia.

Bruno Ducharme has spent more than 20 years operating in senior roles in the telecommunications industry including co-founder, Chairman and CEO of TIW from 1994 to 2005. Since 2005 he has been a private investor in several telecommunications companies. He was instrumental in the buy-out of TIM Hellas in 2005 and of Vizada in 2007 and served as CEO of Vizada in 2010 until exit in 2011. He is currently chairman of Bité Group, a mobile operator in the Baltics and a non-executive director of several other companies.

Michael Williamson has extensive experience in capital markets. He is currently a senior advisor to Cairneagle Associates but spent the bulk of his career at SGWarburg (now UBS Investment Bank), and ultimately as global head of financing. He was also global head of corporate finance at Barclays Capital. Mike has a long and proven record of successfully advising CEOs, and major financial institutions and telecom companies such as Telefonica, BT Group and France Telecom.

ENDS

Media contact:
Deborah Simcock
Bell Pottinger
M. 07810 834548
e. cityfibre@insightmkt.com

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 transformational fibre infrastructure 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 30,000km of fibre in the ground, connecting more than 350 sites and data centres across the UK, we are the country’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 in 2012, the network enables service providers to deliver unprecedented superfast broadband with speeds of up to one gigabit per second.

York to become the digital infrastructure capital of the North

York to be at the forefront of digital connectivity as council builds on partnership with CityFibre to plan next phase of pure fibre optic network 

27 March 2012 – Fibre optic infrastructure provider, CityFibre Holdings has today announced it will be building on its partnership with City of York Council to bring next generation broadband to York’s residents and businesses.

York has a digital ‘backbone’ in place, as CityFibre built a 103km fibre optic ring last year which has already connected 110 sites in the city including schools, council buildings and York NHS. The council and CityFibre are now planning to build a city-wide network from the existing infrastructure to give businesses and residents access to pure Fibre To The Home and Premises.

Speaking at the York and North Yorkshire NextGen roadshow today, James Alexander, leader of City of York Council said: “High speed Internet access is essential for success in a modern world and we’ve already benefitted from this in terms of delivery of council and local NHS services as well as trialling free Wi-Fi access.

“Now we want to take this to the next level to allow York’s business community to benefit from this superfast digital network to help them develop new markets, attract new customers and be more competitive on both a national and international level – a truly exciting prospect.”

In its Council Plan, the City of York Council has announced a bold target to put York at the forefront of digital connectivity in the UK with 95% of all its businesses having access to minimum connection speeds of 25 megabits per second by the end of 2014. The completion of this superfast digital infrastructure will allow businesses and residents to access unprecedented gigabit services which far exceed this target. It will now undertake a detailed planning exercise with CityFibre to decide exactly how this next phase will be delivered. Detailed planning has now commenced for the delivery of this new fibre network.

Greg Mesch, chief executive at CityFibre explained: “Our collaboration with City of York Council is leading the way as a solution that allows all public, private and residential sectors to be connected across a pure fibre optic infrastructure designed with digital services in mind; sparking economic growth, innovation and job creation.”  

James Alexander concluded: “We want York to become a template for the type of city-wide fibre networks that are so badly needed by the UK's towns and cities to help them overcome their challenges and thrive in a digital service economy while operating within the tightest budgets for a generation.”

ENDS

Media contact:
Deborah Simcock
Bell Pottinger

M. 07810 834548
e. cityfibre@insightmkt.com 

About CityFibre Holdings

CityFibre is one of the UK’s leading fibre optic infrastructure providers. We design and build superfast infrastructure for the digital age rather than piecing together networks that were meant for less bandwidth hungry services such as telephone or TV. By building these dedicated private networks for the public and private sectors, we unleash unlimited speeds on future-proofed technology. 

Our projects comprise point-to-point connections, metro rings that connect multiple sites in a town or city in a fibre ‘ring’ and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) networks that make possible Next Generation Access and gigabit level services direct to people’s homes.

CityFibre manages over 100 private fibre projects under long-term contracts with local authorities, police forces, healthcare organisations and universities, connecting more than 350 sites and data centres across the UK.

We also operate seven separate metropolitan fibre rings such as the one recently completed in the City of York. These extensive fibre networks cover a total footprint exceeding 2,000,000 people and over 57,000 businesses. With almost 30,000 Km of fibre in the ground 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 in 2012, the network enables service providers to deliver unprecedented superfast broadband with speeds of up to 1Gbps.

CityFibre and Citigroup agree financing package for metro fibre infrastructure projects

CityFibre passes critical milestone in its plan to roll-out vital pure fibre infrastructure throughout UK towns and cities.

CityFibre Holdings Limited has today announced that it has closed a financing facility with Citigroup (“Citi”), secured by CityFibre’s long term contracted customer revenues. Arrangements were also agreed for Citi to assist CityFibre in its future financing requirements.   

Citi will now join Macquarie Capital in CityFibre’s line-up of lead investment banks. Macquarie Capital were appointed in November last year as the lead advisor to CityFibre in the next stage of its capital formation to realise the company’s plans to build valuable metro based fibre infrastructure in a unique open access wholesale model.

CityFibre selected Citi for its consistent leadership in global telecom finance, its standing as a top-tier financing house as well as its commitment to CityFibre’s long term plans.

Proceeds from the facility will accelerate CityFibre’s development activities around new business opportunities in the deployment of metro fibre networks throughout the UK’s second tier cities. These cities are suffering from a lack of critical fibre infrastructure, which they see as indispensible to their future economic development. CityFibre has received a high level of interest in its innovative solutions for cities, and the added financial flexibility afforded by the Citi facility will enable the company to more rapidly respond to this demand.

Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s CEO commented: “I am delighted to announce the provision of a facility by such a prestigious financial institution as Citi. They understand the vital role of fibre infrastructure and recognise the unprecedented business opportunity afforded by acute underinvestment in the UK. CityFibre is perfectly poised to take full advantage of this unmet demand and looks forward to working with Citi to realise our vision”.

Michael Lavelle, Head of EMEA Capital Markets at Citi said, “We are pleased to offer CityFibre this facility as we believe that CityFibre is well-placed to develop its alternative fibre infrastructure offering to serve UK homes and businesses. We look forward to working with CityFibre in its future development.”

ENDS

Media contact:

Deborah Leah

Bell Pottinger

M. 07810 834548

e. cityfibre@insightmkt.com 

About CityFibre Holdings:

CityFibre 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 in 2012, the network enables service providers to deliver unprecedented superfast broadband with speeds of up to 1Gbps.

CityFibre was advised in the debt process by STJ Advisors.

About Citi:

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com

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