Investment

There’s a lot of buoyancy in the telecoms industry with people looking to invest in the infrastructure that will support a UK-wide gigabit-capable future.

A £200m expansion into Great Britain will see Northern Ireland-based altnet Fibrus connect 40 Cumbrian towns and villages to fibre.

Fibre & Wireless Networks will dial up its south of England rollout following a £25m funding package from Santander UK.

In what has been hailed as one of Europe’s largest ever full fibre financings CityFibre has secured a £4.9bn debt package comprising committed facilities of £3.9bn and an accordion facility of £1bn.

Freedom Fibre has secured a £100m commitment of scale-up funding, to facilitate its rollout of full fibre to over two million premises in the North West. 

Netomnia is beginning its first network build in a major city, investing £39m to rollout full fibre in Liverpool. 

Wholesale full fibre provider ITS Technology Group has secured a further £100m investment from current backer Aviva Investors as it seeks to accelerate the roll out of its full fibre network said to be on track to pass circa 25% of UK business premises by the end of this year.

Netomnia’s target to hit one million premises in the next two years has been boosted by £295m in new funding led by DigitalBridge Investment Management.

County Broadband now intends to pass half a million homes and businesses by the end of 2027, following £100m investment from Aviva Investors.

Fibrus has secured £220m from a consortium of banks, including the UK Infrastructure Bank, to fund its fibre rollout in Northern Ireland where it is investing £0.5bn to reach 330,000 premises.