The move aims to provide a more cost-effective approach to building a pure fibre network, independent from BT Openreach’s infrastructure.
The joint venture will deploy a fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network that aims to deliver broadband speeds of 1Gbps to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in York.
It plans to work with Fujitsu to deploy the FTTP network, and will also leverage CityFibre’s existing metro fibre infrastructure in the Yorkshire city.
“Working with two of the largest and most forward-thinking service providers in the UK we will continue to extend our existing metro fibre infrastructure and introduce a new generation of gigabit-speed services to homes and businesses,” said Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre.
The service is expected to be ready by 2015 and is said to mark the first time that a UK city has been connected with such high speeds on a city-wide basis.
The three companies are said to be working on plans to bring ultra-fast broadband to two additional UK cities, and will announce further details in due course.
“TalkTalk has a long history and proven track record of disrupting new markets, and this is the next step in that journey,” said Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk Group. “This marks TalkTalk taking its first steps into investing in building infrastructure as part of our mission to make British homes and businesses better off.”
