Neil McRae goes back to his broadband roots as CityFibre’s new CTIO

• CityFibre has appointed Neil McRae as its new CTIO
• The former BT Group chief architect is currently working at HPE
• McRae started his career in the 1990s at one of the UK’s first major ISPs

CityFibre has appointed former BT Group chief architect, and current chief network strategist at HPE Networking, as its new CTIO starting in the new year: The major UK altnet informed staff of McRae’s appointment on 8 December, TelecomTV has learned. 

McRae is one of the telecom industry’s best known and respected executives, having been in the communications networking industry since 1992, where he began his career at one of the UK’s first infrastructure-based ISPs, Demon Internet. 

Now, after stints at the likes of Colt Technology Services (1997-2007), Cable & Wireless (2007-2011), BT Group (2011-2023) and Juniper Networks, which was acquired by HPE in mid-2025, McRae is going back to his roots by joining the UK’s largest fibre access network altnet – see BT’s chief architect Neil McRae heads for the exit door and Neil McRae joins Juniper Networks.

McRae will become chief technology information officer (CTIO), a role currently held by John Franklin, who has been at CityFibre for more than 12 years. Franklin will take on a new role at the altnet as chief integration officer.

Both McRae and CityFibre declined to comment when contacted by TelecomTV. 

CityFibre has firmly established itself as a major wholesale high-speed fibre broadband access network operator in the UK and rival to Openreach, the quasi-autonomous wholesale fixed access network division of McRae’s former employer, BT Group. 

Its fibre network, which is used by the likes of Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk and others to offer broadband services to retail and enterprise end users, passes 4.6 million premises across the UK and has plans to eventually pass 8 million. At the end of September this year it had 730,000 active customer connections and is now adding more than 100,000 customer connections each quarter, giving the altnet an annualised revenue run rate of more than £172m. 

In July, CityFibre announced it had secured new financing worth almost £2.3bn and is seeking to grow through acquisitions as well as through further network rollout – see CityFibre girds its M&A loins as it secures £2.3bn in funding. 

CityFibre, which also recently appointed a new CEO, has since been identified as one of the companies sizing up another major UK altnet, Netomnia, as a potential takeover target: The UK altnet sector is set for major consolidation as many of the country’s small regional fibre access network operators are struggling to stay afloat, according to a recent report. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV