CityFibre's gigabit network set to transform digital infrastructure of Sheffield City Region

CityFibre is set to open up a pure fibre network across Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham.

This will enable these destinations to join other Gigabit Cities as the company continues to introduce fibre infrastructure nationwide.

Spanning 110km, the fibre network will provide businesses with some of the fastest download and upload speeds in the world, up to and exceeding 1000mbps.

This pure fibre connectivity will significantly enhance Sheffield’s business community, which currently struggles with speeds of only 18.36mbps on average.

The city-wide pure fibre network is expected to transform the digital infrastructure of Sheffield City Region, enabling gigabit speed and fast connectivity for the entire community.

The Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham Gigabit City projects are being delivered in partnership with Exa Networks, a Yorkshire-based telecoms provider based in Yorkshire which has been delivering internet services to schools and businesses for over a decade.

Exa Networks is already delivering ultra-fast connectivity across CityFibre’s networks in Bradford and Leeds.

Rob Hamlin, commercial director at CityFibre, commented: “We’re delighted to be expanding our partnership with Exa Networks to offer world-class digital infrastructure to Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham.

“Organisations large and small now require reliable, fast, low latency internet services to compete and succeed in an ever changing digital world.

“We are opening up a new world class digital infrastructure in the region, which will provide internet services like never seen before. We look forward to our market launch and to connecting the first customers soon.”

Mark Cowgill, co-founder of Exa Networks, said: “By using CityFibre’s pure fibre infrastructure we are able to offer customers in the Sheffield City Region a world class connectivity service.

“Having worked with CityFibre across the Leeds and Bradford network, we’re really looking forward to expanding our service offering across Yorkshire.

“As a UK leader in providing internet services to the education sector, we understand the crucial importance of ultra-fast connectivity in our schools as well as our businesses and anticipate a huge demand for increased bandwidth in both the education and business communities of Sheffield and the South Yorkshire region.”