Stirling Council And Local Businesses To Get 1Gbps Broadband Boost

CityFibre is to build a 20km fibre to the premise (FTTP) network in Stirling, connecting council buildings and the city’s 3,000 businesses to 1Gbps broadband.

The company will start building the network in June 2017 and construction is expected to take 14 months.

More than 30 council sites will be hooked up, including schools, libraries, offices and community buildings, boosting public services, improving council efficiency and paving the way for faster backhaul for mobile masts and smart city infrastructure.

Stirling FTTP

“This is excellent news for those who live, work and study here,” claimed Johanna Boyd, leader of Stirling Council.

“This leap forward for our digital connectivity will make our existing businesses more competitive, encourage new businesses to the city centre, and enable us to deliver education and skills programmes, which not only ensure our students are the most digitally skilled in Scotland, but also provide people of all circumstances and skill levels with opportunities for employment. It will also allow those accessing council services to do so faster.”

CityFibre has either built or is building FTTP networks in 40 UK cities, including three others in Scotland (Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow). 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.

“By providing unlimited bandwidth and true fibre connectivity, CityFibre’s privately funded investment in Stirling will benefit all areas of the community,” said James McClafferty, CityFibre’s head of regional development in Scotland.

“As the first organisation to be connected, Stirling Council will, for example, explore the e-learning potential offered by Gigabit connectivity in schools and libraries, whilst improving the use of digital and web-based tools and services for both staff and customers.

“What’s more, as the project progresses we expect Stirling to benefit economically as the city becomes more competitive in terms of attracting new businesses, supporting growth amongst existing firms and creating jobs. We are already seeing this trend emerge in our Gigabit City projects across the UK and in others throughout the world.”

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