Cityfibre Regulatory News (CITY)

CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings plc

("CityFibre" or the "Company")

CityFibre selects Aberdeen as next Gigabit City

New city network anchoring approach focused on business segment demand aggregation, in collaboration with local partner Internet For Business (IFB)

CityFibre (AIM: CFHL), the UK's leading designer, builder, owner and operator of fibre optic infrastructure, is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement with Scotland-based ICT service provider Internet For Business ("IFB"), to deploy a gigabit-capable dark fibre network throughout Aberdeen, as the first step in the company's plan to establish Aberdeen as Scotland's first Gigabit City.

The initial 50km network build phase (of a total anticipated build of up to 120km) is backed by a contractual offtake commitment from IFB to migrate and upsell existing business leased line customers onto CityFibre's infrastructure, as well as to convert new customers from its strong pipeline. The Total Contract Value ("TCV") to capex coverage ratio during the initial phase of the contract-backed build is anticipated to be well within the Company's stated target range.

CityFibre selected Aberdeen as a highly attractive and strategically significant market for the Company to enter, as its strong local economy accounts for 28% of Scotland's GDP and lays claim to 30% of the country's top 100 businesses. The network will bring much-needed alternative local access fibre infrastructure to the city, which was passed over in the cable network deployments of the 1980's and 1990's.

Pending successful completion of this first phase of network build, CityFibre's pro forma fibre footprint (including in-progress projects in York, Coventry, Peterborough and Kirklees) will exceed 680 route kilometres of local access fibre and connect over 1,200 customer sites. This expanded footprint represents an addressable market of over 2,400 public sector sites, 1,200 cell sites, 40,000 businesses and 600,000 homes.

The network roll-out will be demand-led and will follow CityFibre's highly optimised "Well-Planned City" network design concept, accommodating current and future capacity requirements from the public sector, private businesses, mobile operators and local data centres. Ultimately, the network, comprising modern duct infrastructure with high-capacity fibre cables, could comfortably provide a backbone for the deployment of fibre to the home for the city's residents.

Based on a number of key sites selected in conjunction with IFB, planning for the network's deployment is already underway and will initially focus on the centre and south of the city, including key industrial estates such as Tullos and Altens, as well as the north as far as Dyce and The Bridge of Don. Subject to demand, the build programme will be extended to areas in the west of the city, such as Westhill and Kingswells. CityFibre will shortly launch a demand aggregation campaign allowing Aberdeen's 6,000 businesses to register their interest and help shape the network route.

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer of CityFibre commented: "Aberdeen has long been a priority target market for us, given its strong economic fundamentals and absence of alternative network infrastructure. CityFibre is honoured to be able to add to the proud history of this city by building an independent, modern, transformational metro fibre network that will digitally future-proof Aberdeen and its residents for the next 100 years.

"We're also delighted to be teaming up with such a strong and knowledgeable local partner as Internet For Business. During its two decades of operations, IFB has always been at the forefront of quality service innovation in the Aberdeen business communications market, and this tradition continues as it teams up with CityFibre to promote the independent delivery of much-needed supplier diversity in the local broadband infrastructure market. The partnership forms the cornerstone of our efforts to establish Aberdeen as the first Scottish Gigabit City, and marks our first city-wide metro network to be anchored by aggregated demand from the business segment."

Graeme Gordon, Chief Executive Officer, Internet For Business, commented: "We know how important connectivity services are to businesses in Aberdeen as there is always a high demand for more bandwidth. We have been strong supporters of investment in a modern infrastructure that can accommodate the additional bandwidth that is required and are delighted to be working towards giving businesses in Aberdeen the opportunity to grow.

"It's a great boost for Aberdeen to be the first city in Scotland to receive this service. This not only sends a signal to businesses that Aberdeen is a city with room to grow and progress, but it gives future investors confidence in the services that the city can offer."

Jenny Laing, Aberdeen City Council leader, commented: "We are hugely excited to see CityFibre and IFB bring this project to life ensuring that Aberdeen city and shire have a next generation digital infrastructure in place to further economic growth over the coming years. CityFibre's decision to make Aberdeen a Gigabit City helps us to realise the ambitions laid out in Accelerate Aberdeen of being at the leading edge of the digital revolution, with the world-class connectivity essential for continued growth and helps lay the foundations for significant improvements for residential customers in the future."

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Notes to Editors:

About CityFibre:

CityFibre enables gigabit connectivity through designing, building, owning, and operating fibre optic network infrastructure. It is the largest independent provider of fibre infrastructure to mid-sized cities and major towns across the UK, providing gigabit-capable infrastructure for enterprise and public sector organisations, service providers, mobile network operators and businesses.

The Company owns and operates 490 route kilometres of local access networks serving over 800 customer locations in 57 towns and cities in the UK, including York, Coventry, Peterborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Dundee, Bath, Derby and Doncaster.

To date the Company has launched three Gigabit City projects in York, Peterborough, and Coventry, where city-wide pure fibre networks known as 'COREs' bring world-class Internet connectivity and the benefits of gigabit speeds to every aspect of the city's community.

CityFibre is also a proud member of a joint venture with TalkTalk and Sky. Established in early 2014, the collaboration aims to prove the viability of gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks and services for homes and businesses. Work is currently underway to connect almost every home and businesses in York to a future-proof FTTP modern digital infrastructure.

CityFibre is based in London, United Kingdom, and its shares trade on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: CFHL).

To find out more, please visit: www.cityfibre.com

About Internet For Business:

IFB, founded in 1996, is a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) and provides ICT infrastructure for businesses across the UK. IFB provides cloud, connectivity, hosting, telecoms, back-up & recovery and work place recovery for our business customers through a national, multi-Gbit/s network that links Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London points of presence. IFB can be contacted on 0845 270 2101 or geton@ifb.net. More about the company can be found at www.ifb.net.