The UK has become something of a hotbed of activity by alternative fiber providers, aiming to reduce the power of BT’s Openreach wholesale division. CityFibre is one of these companies, and scored a significant boost to its plans last year when it secured Vodafone as a key partner. Vodafone, which has acquired wireline companies in markets like Germany and Spain, in order to move from mobile-only to quad play services, has more limited reach in its home market. It owns C&W Worldwide, but this is mainly focused on the enterprise, so CityFibre could provide an economical way to add fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) access, and small cell backhaul, to its portfolio. CityFibre said it would start work on its latest fiber network,…