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The first Project Gigabit customer was connected to CityFibre’s full fibre network last Summer in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire.
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CityFibre has begun its rollout across all its Project Gigabit areasi, from Leicestershire to Hampshire.
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Residents and businesses report an overwhelmingly positive experience, saying that CityFibre’s rollout has made a huge impact, from streaming and homeworking to serving customers at local businesses.
27 August 2025, London: CityFibre has reached its one-year milestone in delivering faster and more reliable broadband to homes and businesses in harder-to-reach areas of the UK, as part of the UK Government’s Project Gigabit programme.
The first area to benefit from CityFibre’s Project Gigabit rollout was Grantchester in Cambridgeshire. The very first resident to connect was Josh Newman, a filmmaker and lecturer with a huge need for a speedy and more stable connection. His previous provider offered a mere 80Mbps download speed and 18Mbps upload, but thanks to CityFibre’s Project Gigabit rollout in the area Josh was able to upgrade to full fibre through Vodafoneii. Josh’s new 2.2Gbps service boasts 27 times faster download speeds and 122 times faster upload speeds than his previous connection and has since transformed the way his family uses the internet.
Josh said: “Since connecting to CityFibre’s network a year ago, we’ve seen a huge difference. We can now rely on the internet for everything, from smoother Teams calls for my wife’s work, to faster uploads for my filmmaking and easy streaming for the kids.
“Before, we had to plan around our unreliable broadband, but now we have what we need when we need it. I’m so glad I took up the service; it’s been transformative for my family and many others in Grantchester and beyond.”
Another early adopter of the rollout in Grantchester was beloved local business, The Grantchester Green Man pub and rooms. Connecting to CityFibre’s network has helped their overall productivity in various areas, such as faster point-of-sale, booking and ordering systems, enabling them to better serve the local community.
Jules Gibson, Manager at The Grantchester Green Man, said: “Taking a full fibre connection with CityFibre has really boosted business for us. Processes that were a bit of a pain before are now much smoother and less of a hassle – it’s helped us to become more efficient and productive. Even tasks such as stock management are now far easier for the team as they’re not battling with an unreliable and unstable connection, and this even has a positive effect on how many customers we can serve. We’re happy to have joined CityFibre’s network with Vodafone, and we hope our customers will feel the benefits of a better experience at The Green Man for years to come.”
Thanks to its faster speed, lower latency and reduced error rate, a full fibre broadband connection could save pubs like The Grantchester Green Man approximately 1.3 seconds per card transaction, compared with an ADSL connection in optimal conditions. While 1.3 seconds might not sound like much, it amounts to just over two minutes saved for every 100 transactions. This time saving could directly translate to more sales for pubs; particularly at peak times, such as football game screenings and quiz nightsiii.
As for the county of Cambridgeshire overall, an increasing number of households and businesses continue to connect to CityFibre’s network, both through Project Gigabit and CityFibre’s own full fibre network rollout. CityFibre has also invested in Cambridgeshire non-profit organisations through its Community Fund to address digital exclusion across the area and help support residents towards a better-connected future.
Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “Our investment in broadband is transforming lives and businesses across Cambridgeshire. In today’s digital world, reliable internet access is essential for most people’s daily activities – which is why these upgrades are crucial to delivering on our missions to grow the economy and break down barriers to opportunity as part of our Plan for Change.
“CityFibre’s rollout is already making a significant difference. Whether it’s enabling smoother streaming and home working, or boosting productivity at local businesses, the benefits are evident across our communities. This project is revolutionising how rural areas live and work, creating the foundation for a connected future.”
Across the nation, CityFibre’s Project Gigabit builds continue to bring full fibre services to hard-to-reach areas. CityFibre is also investing in a number of environmental, social and governance (ESG) projects as part of its Project Gigabit commitmentsiv, such as partnering with STEM Learning and The Wildlife Trust, in addition to its Community Fund. CityFibre will continue to support local communities through its Project Gigabit rollout, dedicating efforts to bring ultrafast, ultra-reliable broadband to those that need it most.
To find out if services are live in your area, residents and businesses can use the postcode checker on CityFibre’s website, which covers both Project Gigabit areas and CityFibre’s own rollout.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
On 20 August 2025, CityFibre invited customers across Cambridgeshire to a celebration event at The Green Man pub in Grantchester to mark one year in the area. Pictured: Josh Newman, Grantchester Resident, and Stacey King, Senior Partnership Manager at CityFibre.
i: List of CityFibre’s active Project Gigabit lots; list not including the tenth lot, which was acquired via CityFibre’s acquisition of Connexin.
iii: A typical card transaction takes 2.5-4 seconds to complete on an ADSL broadband connection, compared to 1.5-2.5 seconds via full fibre broadband, thanks to its faster speed, lower latency and reduced error rate. On average, a full fibre connection saves approximately 1.3 seconds per transaction. That saves 130 seconds over 100 transactions – or just over two minutes.
iv: CityFibre’s ESG commitments includes the Community Fund (in body) plus partnership with STEM Learning, supporting their projects within schools. CityFibre’s work with The Wildlife Trust will aim to support local projects and organisations to upkeep or improve biodiversity in Project Gigabit areas.
About Project Gigabit:
Project Gigabit is the UK government’s rollout of lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. The programme targets homes and businesses that are not included in broadband companies’ commercial plans, reaching parts of the country that would otherwise miss out.
To date, CityFibre has been awarded nine Project Gigabit contracts, totalling over £865m in government subsidies to serve more than 464,000 hard to reach rural homes and businesses in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes. CityFibre has also recently taken over responsibility for a tenth contract following the recent acquisition deal of Connexin’s infrastructure.
Alongside co-investment from CityFibre, the awards have unlocked almost £1.2bn in combined public and private investment in rural broadband.
About CityFibre:
CityFibre is the UK’s largest independent full fibre infrastructure platform, providing carrier-neutral digital infrastructure to its wholesale customers and enabling ultra-fast, reliable and futureproof broadband, Ethernet and 5G services to serve homes and businesses as well as schools, hospitals and GP surgeries.
CityFibre’s full fibre network rollout programme targets at least a third of the UK market: more than 8m homes, 800k businesses, 400k local authority sites and 250k 5G access points.
As the only 100% full fibre wholesale network in the UK, CityFibre is trusted by major Internet Service Providers and mobile operators including Sky, TalkTalk, Three, Vodafone and Zen as well as a new generation of smaller regional ISPs dedicated to delivering full fibre broadband.
CityFibre is based in London and is owned by funds managed by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Infrastructure at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Mubadala In-vestment Company, Interogo Holding, Newlight Partners and PATRIZIA’s European Infrastructure Fund II.
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