CityFibre to acquire Kcom long-distance network for £90 million

NEW DELHI: UK's leading network infrastructure provider CityFibre said that it has agreed to buy Kcom’s national fibre and duct network assets  for £90 million.

The Kcom group is a leading provider of communications solutions to both consumer and business markets across the UK.

These transactions will immediately increase the number of CityFibre’s metro footprints to 36 cities and enable CityFibre to target a total of 50 cities by 2020, reaching 20% of the UK market.

"The new financing comprises £80 million of new equity and £100 million in debt facilities. Both the financing and acquisition transactions are scheduled to complete in mid-January, making CityFibre the UK’s largest wholesale infrastructure provider after BT and the first challenger to the national incumbent, nearly 10 years to the day since the formation of BT Openreach," the company said.

The acquisition of Kcom’s national communications infrastructure (excluding Hull and East Yorkshire) will extend CityFibre’s UK footprint by more than 300 per cent. The physical infrastructure assets comprise 1,100 km of duct and fibre network in 24 UK cities, as well as 1,100 km of national long distance network that connects these cities to major data-centres across the UK and to internet peering points in London.

On completion CityFibre’s expanded footprint, spanning 36 cities and interconnected by the national long distance network, will address more than 7,000 mobile cell sites, 24,500 public sector sites and 245,000 businesses.

Furthermore, it positions CityFibre as an enabler for gigabit speed, ultrafast broadband to support FTTH deployments to 3.5m homes. In line with CityFibre’s shared infrastructure strategy, the physical network has abundant capacity to support the UK’s unrelenting demand for high-bandwidth, ultra-low latency services.

CityFibre will accelerate commercialisation of its wholesale fibre networks through its growing portfolio of service provider partners, including Kcom which will now have access to CityFibre’s full national footprint. The expanded network footprint will enable CityFibre to deliver end-to-end wholesale dark fibre connectivity to national and regional service providers, data centres and mobile operators in search of a genuine alternative to connectivity solutions offered by BT Wholesale and BT Openreach.

The acquisition builds upon CityFibre’s successes, including its rollout of Gigabit Cities, the UK’s first deployment of Fibre-to-the-Tower (FTTT) with EE and Three UK, the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployment in York with Sky and TalkTalk and a master services agreement with Vodafone. Now, meaningful scale can be offered to partners that will transform the UK’s connectivity landscape.

“This is the most significant event to take place in the UK’s digital infrastructure market in a decade. The UK now has a secure independent infrastructure alternative. Cities, service providers, mobile operators and investors have boldly embraced a new model of future-proof infrastructure provision and paved the way for its acceleration across the country,” said Greg Mesch, CityFibre CEO.