- CityFibre connects its first Project Gigabit‑funded full fibre customer in Newton Longville, Buckinghamshire. CityFibre
- Government’s £58 million subsidy supports roll‑out to over 34,000 premises across Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and East Berkshire
What happened: First full‑fibre customer goes live
CityFibre has connected its first Project Gigabit full‑fibre customer in the parish of Newton Longville, Buckinghamshire. The milestone occurred at a ceremony held in Longueville Hall on July 3, 2025, with attendance by Steve Heath, the user, and local council leader Cllr Steven Broadbent. Steve Heath switched from a slow 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload FTTC connection to a symmetric 930 Mbps service via Rocket Fibre over CityFibre’s new network.
This development is part of a wider £58 million government-backed Project Gigabit contract that funds full fibre rollout to more than 34,000 homes and businesses across Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and East Berkshire. Build began in October 2024 and the initial connections have now gone live under the plan secured in January 2024.
The event highlighted how this upgrade solves connectivity issues in rural areas. Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant praised the gigabit service as critical for local businesses, remote schooling, and community resilience.
Why it’s important
The introduction of full fibre underlined a governmental push to bridge the digital divide. From a policy perspective, the £58 million subsidy demonstrates targeted investment in hard-to-reach rural communities. This approach contrasts with commercial rollouts that focus on densely populated urban areas. Citizens outside of major cities like London now gain gigabit speeds, which support remote working and digital education.
From a market view, CityFibre’s progress boosts competition with incumbents like Openreach and Virgin Media. Its collaboration with ISPs like Rocket Fibre showcases the potential of wholesale-first infrastructure to expand consumer choice. Faster, symmetrical upload speeds seen by early users like Steve Heath make remote professional work more feasible.
For society, the connectivity uplift empowers residents through better access to healthcare, entertainment and communication services. It supports local councils in delivering online services and helps bridge inequality in service access between urban and rural areas.
From a technical standpoint, the full fibre network offers reliability and capacity improvements. It sets a foundation for future upgrades to multi-gig speeds, leveraging technologies like XGS‑PON. Widespread deployment would also allow ISPs to test innovations like decentralized edge computing and dedicated enterprise-grade service tiers.
