A SCOTTISH telecoms firm says it is on track to become the operator of the “largest privately-owned network in the UK” following deals with two leading infrastructure builders.

Edinburgh-based Commsworld is to build its own national optical core network which will enable it to connect to more than 20 UK cities, including Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and London.

Commsworld has agreed a 12-year deal with CityFibre and a 10-year deal with Zayo to access long-distance fibre networks, upgrading its core network capacity and allowing it to offer more than 250,000 businesses better connection speeds at competitive rates.

Ricky Nicol, chief executive of Commsworld, said the network expansion would take the firm from a “predominantly Scottish-centric provider to a UK provider”. It has previously used fibre networks owned and managed by others outside Scotland.

“While we’ve been able to comfortably provide fast speeds and a high level of service, this expansion of our network opens up so many more possibilities to us to transform the amount of business we will do south of the Border,” he said.

Commsworld's network will comprise a 2,058km service across the UK with access to CityFibre's 830km metro network, which services cities including Sheffield, Leeds and Bristol.

The firm will also have access to Zayo's London metro network, along with the option of utilising its subsea links to the US and Europe.

As a result of the expansion, the telecoms firm – which also has offices in Glasgow and Aberdeen – will open another 30 points of presence across the UK, largely in datacentres.