Sky, TalkTalk & CityFibre bring York 1Gbps broadband

Sky and TalkTalk have partnered with CityFibre to provide York homes and businesses with ultra-fast internet, offering speeds up to 1Gbps.

CityFibre already provides the city with its fibre-based broadband solution and once the new network is installed, both Sky and TalkTalk will offer competing ultra-fast internet services in the area.

Stephen van Rooyen, managing director of Sky's sales, marketing and brand group, said: "This trial will help us understand the potential for cutting-edge technology to help us give customers an even better quality of service."

Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk Group, said the partnership will allow Sky and TalkTalk to offer better value services for faster speeds in comparison to what is currently available, forming part of TalkTalk's current broadband rollout strategy.

"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," she explained.

Fujitsu will deploy the fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network, allowing Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre to test a new cost-effective solution to building an ultra-fast fibre network, separate from BT Openreach.

York will be the first of three cities to test the set-up, with two others being announced in the coming months.

Councillor James Alexander, leader of City of York council, said: "This announcement makes York the digital infrastructure capital of the UK. Gaining ultra fast broadband across the city is a huge boost for our economy; providing significant new opportunities for businesses based here and better quality and value to our residents.

"I'm delighted that York has been chosen as the first city, building on work over the last two year's to improve the city's digital infrastructure, and that we'll see this in place as soon as 2015."