CityFibre look to bring faster internet to Leeds homeworkers

As demand for reliable internet surges, it’s more important than ever to stay connected.

Over these past months many of us will have found out, for better or for worse, whether our household internet is up to scratch when it comes to working and socialising from home.

Group video calls with friends and colleagues, as well as evenings spent with family members streaming on separate devices, have become routine. Indeed, many of us are now utterly dependent on all things digital for most aspects of our everyday lives.

Unfortunately for large parts of Leeds, home broadband often isn’t fast or reliable enough to make the transition to working, and living, from home a smooth process and this can add to our day-to-day frustrations.

In fact, CityFibre-backed research revealed that 78 per cent of UK consumers felt slowed down and frustrated by their internet connection. But for homeworkers, that figure increased to 82 per cent. Indeed, almost all homeworkers (99%) agreed that a better connection would enable them to work from home more.

So, what’s the solution?

Luckily for exasperated homeworkers the solution to this problem already exists – full fibre digital connectivity. Unlike the copper networks used by most of the country, full fibre is the fastest – and most reliable – option there is. The availability of full fibre is constantly increasing - currently, around 16% of the UK has access - and it’s something to look out for when considering your next broadband package.

Full fibre connections can deliver what is known as “gigabit-capable” speeds (1,000Mbps). This is a dramatic upgrade on what most of us will be accustomed to and makes all sorts of tasks much easier in terms of speeds and data handling.

For example, the gamers in the household will no longer have to wait hours for content to download, and when they are playing online, they will experience virtually no buffer or lag. It will make the whole process virtually seamless.

Group video calls will also run smoothly, whilst entire families can stream their favourite shows at the same time to their hearts’ content.

Is it just a speed upgrade?

While the speed boost provided by full fibre - and the ability to watch Netflix more smoothly - is a major advantage, there are other benefits.

Full fibre networks are much more reliable than copper-based networks and they are cheaper to maintain and operate. Once the fibre is in the ground, it’s there for good and maintenance work is drastically reduced – a welcome relief for households.

Network faults can also be identified and solved in a fraction of the time. It means if you rely on your broadband, as many of us do at the moment, you will experience far less downtime when you upgrade to a full fibre network.

Sounds great, when can I get it?

The good news for readers is that work is already well underway in Leeds to extend its existing full fibre network past almost every home and business locally, enabling both residents and businesses to enjoy unlimited bandwidth.

This £120 million investment in a new futureproof digital foundation for Leeds will help to unlock the workplace – and workforce – of the future. Already, thousands of Leeds residents are able to benefit, with Gigafast broadband services from Vodafone now live and available in Farsley, Pudsey, Stanningley and Bramley in the east, and Beeston, Hunslet, Belle Isle, Middleton and Morley in the south.

What’s more, new addresses are going live day by day as our work to extend the network continues through the city. So, if you’re keen to join Leeds’ digital revolution and sign up for full fibre services, but you can’t connect currently, there’s a good chance we’ll soon be coming to a street near you.

To check availability, and keep an eye on which ISP services are live in your street, use our dedicated CityFibre postcode checker here.