CityFibre has won the first project funded under the UK Government's Local Full Fibre Networks initiative (LFFN) stimulus programme.
CityFibre was selected by West Sussex County Council to provide gigabit connectivity to nine urban areas within the council's jurisdiction.
The framework agreement is for four years over a 30 year IRU (Indefeasible Rights of Use), with a total value of £52.7m. CityFibre will construct new future-proof full-fibre networks to 152 council sites in Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Worthing.
The initial contract value of this first phase call-off under the framework is £5.7m.
Construction on the project is anticipated to begin in August 2018, with the first connections expected to be activated early in 2019.
Upon completion this will extend CityFibre's full fibre network coverage to 51 towns and cities across the UK.
The Group estimates that the expanded footprint will address 4.5m homes, 300,000 businesses, 29,000 public sector sites and 8,100 mobile macro sites.
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive of CityFibre, commented: "The LFFN provides a powerful mechanism for local authorities to attract full fibre infrastructure investment."