Posted 26 February 2024

City Fibre

I have FTTP installed by OpenReach and just wonder if I take City Fibre contracts, would there be any installation required? Reading on Internet, sounds like they have totally different networks, am I right? If so, better to stay with OpenReach? or if City Fibre any good? Not bother about speed, 150M DL is sufficient and UL is not important, but consistency in speed and reliability is more of concern for me. Thanks
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  1. Johnmcl7's avatar
    It's a separate network so yes, you'd need an additional cable installed from your pavement to the house and a new ONT in your house.

    If you're happy with your current connection then I don't see any point in changing to CityFibre, their main advantages are a symmetric upload, usually a bit cheaper and may be available in places without FTTP. However none of that sounds any benefit to you and they do have a number of downsides, there's far less choice on CityFibre, migration between ISPs on their network can be problematic and the engineers used for installation and fixes have a more mixed reputation than Openreach.
  2. KodaBear's avatar
    CityFibre is entirely separate so you'll need a new wire coming in to your house and a new optical terminal on the wall.

    The 2 major differences are that CF tend to be a bit cheaper, and also have symmetrical speeds compared to Openreach.

    If you are happy with Openreach stick with them. Their network is overall the best for reliability and uptime.

    Just beware that you don't always have a choice. TalkTalk and Vodafone are two examples where if both Openreach and CityFibre are available in your street you'll be forced onto CityFibre with no choice in the matter because it's faster and cheaper. Other companies are gradually starting to follow suit with this too it seems. So one to watch out for as you'll have less and less Openreach based choices over time.

    With all of the above in mind, I still have CityFibre in my house and am happy with it. So don't be put off them if you do fancy giving them a try.
    EndlessWaves's avatar
    Cityfibre are still fairly small fry covering only about 10% of the UK's houses so I suspect there's little danger of all ISPs only using Cityfibre where available, many won't have the numbers to make that viable.
  3. the-running-man's avatar
    We ordered CityFibre FTTP on Vodafone, on installation the enginieer turned up and said it wasn't yet live in the cabinet and was unlikely to work for "a few months", needless to say we cancelled and waited for Open Reach to get to our area, which they did. Now have flawless 500 that hasn't dropped once in 12 months.
  4. HotDealAlert's avatar
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    Thank you for all the info, I think I'll stick with open reach for now, until it disappoint me then I swap and try..
  5. dcx_badass's avatar
    A friend switched from OR to CF as soon as he could, it was cheaper and synchronous dl/ul's.
    HotDealAlert's avatar
    Author
    what does it mean by 'synchronous dl/ul's'? Important?
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