The company aiming to rollout fibre all over Edinburgh in a £100 million investment has appointed a new boss.
Paul Wakefield will lead on the project to introduce faster and more reliable internet services to the capital.
Paul will be the main point of contact between the CityFibre team and all the stakeholders in the city, ensuring that there is minimal disruption during the project, and takes the place of Elaine Doherty who is moving to another position in the company.
Paul is well known to us as Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Marketing Edinburgh which was so successful in achieving return on investment for the city, but was made redundant when the council shelved the company in 2019/20. He began his career as a police officer with the Met in London and worked as Director of Operations and Communications at Scottish Land & Estates, and with surveyors Bell Ingram previous to that.
Paul said: “I’ve been hugely impressed by the work CityFibre has done to date across the UK. I was there at the launch in Edinburgh in 2018 and it’s a real honour to be given the responsibility of leading this vital project.
“Elaine and her team have forged a strong partnership with The City of Edinburgh Council and built positive, long lasting relationships across many of the city’s communities, and I will seek to build on that.
“While any project of this scale isn’t without its challenges, the benefits of full fibre are immense and will give Edinburgh the ability to become one of the world’s leading smart cities. It is already proving a game-changer for households and businesses who are connected to the network and it’s our mission to ensure that as many people across Edinburgh can access the technology.”
Construction work has already been completed in several areas across Edinburgh, including Restalrig, Liberton, and Inch. The connections in these areas are being delivered via launch partner Vodafone’s ‘Gigafast Broadband’ service, and TalkTalk is expected to join the network soon.
Work is currently taking place in South Gyle and Carricknowe areas and is being delivered by contractors Glenevin and Topspec.
Elaine Doherty, who is now Head of Data Insights at CityFibre, added: “Paul knows Edinburgh inside and out, and has the right skills and experience to drive the project forward for the benefit of households and businesses across the city.
“Our ‘fibre to the premises’ programme is going to be a game changer in Edinburgh and nobody is better placed than Paul to drive home the message and help people discover more about the impact this investment will have on Edinburgh’s digital future.”
Edinburgh residents can find out more about the build, check whether services are live and register their interest here www.cityfibre.com/residential
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
