Reading & Bracknell Businesses Get Access To 1Gbps FTTP Broadband

The M4 corridor is where many of the world’s leading technology companies call home in the UK and the area’s SMBs are set to receive a connection boost with a new fibre to the premise (FTTP) network in Reading and Bracknell.

The CityFibre-built network was launched late last year and the first customers were connected this week, gaining access to speeds of up to 1Gbps.

The Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) claims the superior connectivity could generate £1.2 billion for the region over the course of the next five to seven years.

CityFibre Thames Valley

“Our digital connectivity is of paramount importance to our business community at large: our tech-based businesses depend on it, and more broadly, it is a critical infrastructure for our small business community in our rural and urban areas alike,” said the Thames Valley LEP’s Bill Hicks.

CityFibre has either built or is building FTTP networks in 40 UK cities. It typically builds networks for local authorities before expanding them to other parts of the city to serve businesses and residences. It sells capacity wholesale to third parties and wants to become a nationwide rival to BT Openreach.

“Reading is already recognised as a centre for innovation across the UK, surpassing London last year with the fastest growing economy in the country,” said Nick Gray, city development manager at Cityfibre. “Similarly, Bracknell continues to raise its economic prospect with ambitious plans for regeneration.

“This new 100 per cent fibre infrastructure will play an enormous role in supercharging both towns’ economies whilst also attracting new talent and investment to the wider Thames Valley region.”

Do you know the history of BT? Try our quiz!