back to article CityFibre snaps up Entanet for £29m and plans to raise £185m

Small Brit broadband provider CityFibre has splashed £29m on connectivity service Entanet and is seeking to raise £185m in additional funds. The cash pile will be used to expand CityFibre's fibre metro area network from 42 to 50 UK cities by 2020. CityFibre said it expects to make around £3m per year by 2020 from the Entanet …

  1. defiler

    Are Cityfibre any good?

    Honest question, because they'll be rolling right past our door, and a few hundred Mb/sec connectivity would be really useful for certain things.

    1. Phil Endecott

      Re: Are Cityfibre any good?

      They also ran right past my door, but apparently they are only interested in "business" customers.

      This is a shame, because I'm in a localised not-spot; the cable TV network somehow missed us and BT decided our cabinet was not worthwhile for FTTC.

      1. defiler

        Re: Are Cityfibre any good?

        If it's *really* important to you, register a company. Pay it with your own money, and have it pay for the broadband.

        Bit of a faff having to submit accounts and all, so it may not be worth your while, but I don't know how desperate you are. :-/

        1. Phil Endecott

          Re: Are Cityfibre any good?

          > If it's *really* important to you, register a company

          Unfortunately it's too late now; they dug a trench under the road and only put "branches" to business premises. I.e. shops and offices. (And council premises.)

          As it happens I am self employed so in that sense I am a business, but it doesn't really make my home a business premises.

  2. Korev Silver badge

    "With Entanet now part of the CityFibre family, our combined offering will accelerate the take-up of services over our growing network footprints, leveraging Entanet's enviable channel partner network and continuing to transform digital connectivity for thousands of UK businesses."

    Does this guy speak English?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Translation:

      We've bought another company, so now we are bigger.

  3. WonkoTheSane
    Pirate

    A long way off.

    I expect they'll have to dig ME up to run cable, by the time they reach the small town where I live

  4. alain williams Silver badge

    Oooh, errr

    I have been with Entanet for 8 years ... maybe time to start looking at jumping elsewhere.

  5. tryptamine

    I've been using CityFibre for just over a year, we have two 1Gbp/s synchronous links although they only supplied the fibre our ISP is Level 3. Not had a problem with them tbh.

    Speed test results taken just now...

    http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6430523505

    Download speed is a little lower than usual today, usually around 800-850 :/

  6. Paul

    ElReg proof reader: "government's £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, aimed at boosting"

    the link in that sentence is broken

    1. Commswonk

      the link in that sentence is broken

      So, I suspect, is the "government's £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund". I even find myself wondering if the link defaulting to a snoozing vulture is actually deliberate.

  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Note. This is for businesses.

    Plebs can f**k off.

    Basically they are going to replay the Cable & Wireless business model.

    Let's see how well that plays out this time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Note. This is for businesses.

      It generally works out pretty well - business grade dedicated Internet access is a growing market.

      Consumers won't pay the prices that ISPs need to charge to offer FTTP without going bust. Most consumers (3 out of 4) will only buy the cheapest Internet service available even where better, faster options are available.

      FTTP won't become common until those two facts change.

      1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

        Re: Note. This is for businesses.

        Wait and see. FTTP won't become common until access costs fall to a point that's acceptable to a customer who's looking at a low per-Mbps price point.. Often made more challenging if customers will only sign 1 year contracts. Most of that is a simple civil engineering challenge rather than telecomms, or even the wacky world of the Interwebz.

        Challenge is losing £12.6m on sales of £15.4m, and what, if any efficiency savings might get made from spending £29m on Entanet. So possibly £3m by 2020. There's the £400m broadband carrot, but delivering that still involves substantial cost and risk, hence the general lack of interested parties.

        But borrowing money to buy revenues is nothing new in telecomms. This time, maybe it will be different..

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