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The company has recently secured a multi million pound investment from an independent wealth fund, to fast track its FTTH rollout plans in the UK
Rural broadband specialists, Country Broadband, has announced plans to proceed with a fibre to the home (FTTH) rollout programme, following a £46m million investment from Aviva Investors.
"Since securing the investment, we have been identifying target areas," said Lloyd Felton, CEO of Country Broadband.
Country Broadband currently provides FTTH connections to more than 3,000 rural properties in the east of England. The investment from Aviva Investors will allow them to scale this up to 30,000 rural homes and businesses.
"Many premises might have access to broadband but the ultrafast speeds that we will all soon need are only available to around 6 per cent of the UK. Household usage and data consumption is already predicted to increase ten-fold every six years and only ultrafast solutions will match this requirement," Felton said.
"Our goal is to provide a world-class, future proof infrastructure which will deliver ultrafast broadband speeds of 1,000Mbps now and even faster speeds in the future, as well as providing additional services such as telephony, home security and access to the vital services that the local authorities and health services plan for online access in the coming years.
"Aviva Investors recognise the vital need for future proof fibre infrastructure and their funding supports our strategy to support more than 30,000 homes and businesses in the region," he added.
The UK government has said that the country requires at least 15 million FTTH connections by the mid-2020s in order to safeguard its digital economy. While the UK’s incumbent network provider, Openreach has committed to providing at least 5 million connections by then, there is a growing trend of private investment funds investing in alternative network providers (altnets) such as Country Broadband to fast track FTTH rollout in the UK.
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