U.K. fiber network operator CityFibre expanded its relationship with ISP Zen Internet, securing a third wholesale agreement covering its entire national footprint. The announcement came just after the operator scored a £300 million ($394 million) investment from Mubadala, increasing its total funding raised to more than £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion).
Zen initially partnered with CityFibre in 2020, signing on to use its infrastructure in four locations. Under the latest deal, however, Zen will be able to tap CityFibre’s network in all 285 cities and across all 8 million homes it is planning to reach with fiber. Zen expects to begin expanding service availability in the coming weeks and expects it will cover CityFibre’s entire footprint by the end of this year.
To date, CityFibre has rolled out its Full Fibre network to 1.5 million locations (with 1.3 million of those ready for service) and has set a goal to reach its 8 million target by 2025. It also recently deployed its 100th fiber exchange. CityFibre CTO David Tomalin described these exchanges as “the beating hearts of the networks we build,” noting each not only enables gigabit connections to 60,000 premises but also serves as a “micro-edge data center” which provides processing power closer to customers.
“The CityFibre rollout provides a level of healthy competition and providers like us here at Zen have a critical role to play in delivering reliable connections whilst looking after our customers really well,” Zen CEO Paul Stobart said in a statement. “We’re seeing great consumer demand and interest in our early cities and are excited to ensure more homes can access an award-winning full fiber service at what is a pivotal time for connectivity in the home.”
Zen is the third ISP to seek access to CityFibre’s nationwide network. Vodafone expanded its own partnership with CityFibre in November, and TalkTalk made long-term commitments across CityFibre’s existing and future network when it sold FibreNation to the operator in 2020.
The news about its expanded partnership with Zen came shortly after CityFibre announced it had secured an additional £300 million from Mubadala to help speed its infrastructure rollout. The investment adds to an initial contribution of £500 million Mubadala made in September 2021. All told, CityFibre said it has raised £1.425 billion over the last six months.