COMMUNITY FIBRE BUILDING THE BEST FIBRE NETWORK IN LONDON

n today’s world, broadband connectivity has become an essential part of our daily lives. From remote work and online learning to streaming entertainment and staying connected with friends and family, high-speed internet access is crucial for many aspects of modern life.

As a result, some even argue that broadband should be considered the fourth utility alongside water, electricity, and gas.

“If I asked my kids if they would prefer to have the gas, water, or WiFi on, they’d unanimously say ’The WiFi,’” comments Richard Perry, Network Delivery Director at London-based broadband company Community Fibre.

“For everything else, we’ll put on another coat, or we won’t wash for a couple of days,”

2013 Community Fibre Ltd was founded he laughs. “Today, WiFi is such a key thing, for all ages. If I look at my parents, who are elderly now, they are so reliant on broadband for staying in touch with people, managing their bills, and switching on their heating. It touches everyone.”

Community Fibre is on a mission to provide a true fibre-to-the-home service to residents of one of the busiest cities in the world. It offers the fastest 100% full-fibre broadband in London, with up to 10,000 Mbps for businesses and up to 3,000 Mbps for consumers, at the most competitive prices on the market.

“We build, own, and operate our own dedicated 100% full fibre network,” comments Perry. “We’re at the cutting edge of the latest technology that’s available. We aren’t reliant on anyone else’s network, we are deploying our own. And that gives us superfast gigabit- capable broadband, delivered directly to the home.”

As Perry describes, Community Fibre is on a mission to build a network that provides Londoners with the fastest and most reliable fibre services at the most affordable prices, whilst being recognised for our outstanding customer experience and community spirit.

“We’ve got one of the largest fibre-tothe-home networks in Greater London,” he says, “and we’re striving to have the largest in the next couple of years.”

The aim: supplying full fibre to 2.2m Londoners Joining Community Fibre in 2021 after a number of years working for Vodafone and most recently Virgin Media, Perry has seen the business grow dramatically. The one millionth premises milestone will be reached soon, while the business has a north star target of reaching 1.3 million homes able to connect to its network by the end of 2023, and 2.2 million customers by the end of 2024.

This rapid growth is one of Perry’s favourite things about his current role. “I think one of my favourite things about the industry is the fast pace of change,” he says, “and the opportunity to bring our customers much faster and better connectivity allowing them to transform the way they can work, learn and relax at home.”

With the pandemic forcing people to work from home and homeschool, there was an enormous reliance on high-quality broadband. “The fact that I played a part in bringing that to as many

Richard Perry

TITLE: NETWORK DELIVERY DIRECTOR

INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM