In the deal, which takes the number of metro networks owned by CityFibre to more than 40 across the UK, involves £4.5 million in long-term dark fibre leasing commitments from Redcentric, who will become a CityFibre customer.
The agreement adds networks in Cambridge, Portsmouth and Southampton to CityFibre’s assets, and also increases its footprints in existing locations including Nottingham, Derby and Northampton.
CityFibre said it will continue to support 188 Redcentric customer connections, and will make the network available to wholesale partners at an unspecified date.
Fraser Fisher, Chief Executive Officer of Redcentric said: “This disposal is in line with our strategy of control over our customer affecting core assets while not tying up capital where ownership is unnecessary. We will continue to service customers in Cambridge and Portsmouth exactly as before, and expect to generate additional revenues and network efficiencies over time as a result of our developing relationship with CityFibre.”
CityFibre recently announced plans to build a network in the northern English city of Hull to compete directly with local phone company Hull. It also recently completed a new 150km ultra-fast fibre network in the city of Edinburgh.
In December of last year, it bought rival Kcom’s national fibre network in a £90 million deal to compete directly with BT.
Greg Mesch, chief executive officer of CityFibre said: “We’re delighted with today’s acquisition of fibre network assets from Redcentric, which takes us to an important milestone of coverage of 40 cities.
“Once again we’ve shown that underutilised legacy fibre assets can find a new home in which to flourish within CityFibre’s wholesale shared infrastructure model. We’re very pleased to have secured a deal structure which benefits both our new partner and us, and we look forward to working with Redcentric across our broader national footprint.”
