21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

33 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue from the industry We’ve seen them perform handbrake turns and have now committed to full-fibre investments. Other companies might treat such a u-turn as a serious threat. Well yes, but the country is actually now seeing the benefits of that competitive landscape, as there has been a doubling of full-fibre coverage since the last General Election. The key now to unlocking further success is nurturing and protecting competition. This is where Ofcom is playing a pivotal role. Their forward-thinking strategy to generate competition in this market has been a success, but it would be wrong to say the job is done; they must help ensure that competition is protected and encouraged. Training remains a hot topic; the recruiting and upskilling of engineers can’t happen fast enough. How are you overcoming this as a company and how do you retain your staff? CityFibre is a challenger brand with real purpose – to equip the UK with infrastructure for the data age. As such we provide an attractive opportunity for skilled people across our industry and beyond. We’ve grown rapidly as a business, nearly doubling in size in the last 18 months alone, and our people love working here, which is testament to the incredible culture at CityFibre that we’re all so proud of. What are you actually doing to that end? Our people have helped us achieve some extraordinary things, but we are constantly looking at ways to enable them to enhance their skillset and capabilities. A great example is the CityFibre Planner Academy which is attracting young talent from across the UK and offering them the training and support to design the networks the UK will rely on for the next 100 years. At the same time, we know we have to take care of each other, and we have made mental health a priority focus. All of us have been under incredible strain during the pandemic and the message right from the top is that people must put their mental well-being and family first. If that is in order, then it will take care of the work they are doing for CityFibre. 2030 is the target date for all homes to be deployed and you are clearly rolling out at an impressive pace. What plans does CityFibre have after that date? Ultimately, we want to establish CityFibre as the UK’s third national network and the largest independent Full Fibre platform. Our rollout is on track and we’re still getting faster. We expect to substantially complete our 8m rollout by 2025, approximately a third of the market, and should we participate in BDUK’s Project Gigabit, we could even exceed our 8m target. Those are ambitious targets. But this is not just about scale – it’s about quality. Without the requirement to make concessions to legacy infrastructure, platforms, systems and products, we have a unique opportunity to design a network capable of delivering a vastly improved service experience, offering customers better products at better prices. This is what we call being ‘better by design’ and it’s working. More and more communication providers are choosing CityFibre and more consumers and businesses are choosing them as a result. Best of all, by raising the bar, we are encouraging investment and innovation across the industry which can only benefit us all. A rising tide lifts all boats, that’s very true. Very admirable. Nobody saw Covid coming, and Brexit has thrown a few curveballs at us as well; we are living in unpredictable times. How does CityFibre handle disruptors as a company? How agile are you and what would you do differently now that we are - more or less - out the other side of Covid? While we’re growing fast, we are still a lean business and have, by necessity, always been an agile one. With a The UK needs a third national network if we are to ensure a healthy competitive market for the long term. The duopoly model failed and resulted in the UK lagging behind much of the rest of Europe.