UK's full-fibre infrastructure provider, CityFibre, has unveiled the country's first wholesale 2.5 Gbps symmetrical consumer broadband offering. The company says this announcement marks the beginning of a new era of affordable multi-gigabit broadband services for millions of UK homes.
Also Read: Virgin Media O2 Expands Broadband Services With XGS-PON Technology Across UK
CityFibre's ISP Customers to Benefit
According to the official release, the 2.5 Gbps product is being rolled out gradually to CityFibre's Internet Service Provider (ISP) customers, beginning in the most mature XGS-PON deployment areas of their network. Over the coming months, this service will reach all homes covered by CityFibre's XGS-PON platform.
Supporting Up to 10Gbps Speeds and Beyond
CityFibre said the network infrastructure supports symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Gbps and is designed to be upgraded to 50G PON, ensuring future scalability and meeting the growing demands of consumers. CityFibre plans to install XGS-PON equipment in over 90 percent of its fibre exchanges by the end of 2023. The 2.5 Gbps product will be available to around 20 percent of its ready-for-service footprint, which currently serves 2.5 million homes.
Net-Zero Commitment
CityFibre noted that the company and its customers can achieve their net-zero goals with the use of XGS-PON, which offers substantial carbon savings in comparison to GPON. CityFibre said XGS-PON technology significantly reduces carbon emissions compared to GPON, as it is twice as power-efficient and allows for more connections per port.
Also Read: EE to Launch Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps Broadband Service in the UK
Multi-Gigabit Speeds for Homes
Even homes that haven't received XGS-PON upgrades yet will be able to access multi-gigabit speeds. CityFibre plans to introduce an asymmetric GPON product offering speeds of 2 Gbps/1 Gbps soon, which will eventually be switched over to the XGS-PON platform.
CityFibre stated, "With the UK's fastest and most cost-effective connectivity products, we are demonstrating the benefits of infrastructure competition and raising the bar for all wholesale networks. Ubiquitous, high-quality, low-carbon connectivity is the keystone of all advanced and community-wide applications of the future."
"By working with our ISP partners to bring symmetrical multi-gigabit broadband consumer services to market today, with businesses to follow, the UK will finally have a network and services that will enable our future, rather than holding it back."
Competitive Pricing and Unmatched Performance
CityFibre said its new multi-gigabit products have set new standards in the wholesale market, surpassing competitors in terms of pricing, minimum speed guarantees, and installation times.
Also Read: Openreach Connects Over 700,000 Welsh Premises to Ultrafast Broadband
According to the company, the symmetrical 2.5 Gbps service provided by CityFibre is 2.5 times faster than BT Openreach's asymmetric 1 Gbps product while costing half as much per megabit. Furthermore, it delivers more than 20 times the upload speeds of BT Openreach's 1.8 Gbps GPON services, previously piloted.
