CITYFIBRE has appointed a new lead for its £100 million investment in supporting Edinburgh’s smart city ambitions.
Paul Wakefield will spearhead the project to bring a city-wide full fibre network to the capital, which CityFibre said will enable faster, more reliable internet services while future proofing its infrastructure for decades.
Construction work has already been completed in several areas across Edinburgh as part of the project, including in Restalrig, Liberton, and Inch. The connections in these areas are being delivered via CityFibre’s launch partner Vodafone’s ‘Gigafast Broadband’ service, and CityFibre said TalkTalk is expected to join the network soon.
As city manager, Paul will act as the main point of contact between stakeholders and the CityFibre team in a bid to ensure that the project is implemented with minimal disruption to Edinburgh communities. He replaces Elaine Doherty, who has moved on to the role of head of data insight at the firm.
Paul is described as a ‘well-known’ figure in the capital by CityFibre. Originally a London police officer, he went on to spend six years as head of marketing and partnerships at Marketing Edinburgh, and was previously director of operations and communications at Scottish Land & Estates, prior to that he headed up marketing for property firm Bell Ingram.
Paul Wakefield commented, “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.”
