In reply to a post by philg:

Hopefully the infrastructure is fairly future proof.

It is. It uses Single Mode Fibre, which can run at 10G, 25G or faster as required - just by changing the equipment at each end. Since the different standards can run concurrently on the same fibre strand, individual customers can be upgraded without having to do a "big bang" upgrade of everyone.

The main issue with Cityfibre is their use of directly-buried microducts, instead of pulling them through a larger outer duct. If one microduct in the bundle becomes blocked or damaged, it's unlikely to be repairable.

Yes I noticed while they were digging the pavement that they had a chunky duct (presumably to feed the cabinet and then much smaller to each couple of properties) but they seems to be well protected and on my street at least, the distance to the cab is not great for all the properties. So hopefully that wont be an issue for some time! Got to be better than the mess that is Virgin media ducts.... What will be interesting is how they go from the little service point on the pavement to the property (hopefully they will be a better job than Virgin did haha?!)

In reply to a post by stevejm:

There's no complications here, there's a small cable cover outside our house and a cabinet not far away. Judging by local forums no-one has been connected yet.

I had an email direct from City Fibre which mirrors your experience.

"We are currently in planning stages in your street.

Our chosen service provider will be in contact in your area to introduce to you who they are and advise when services are available, which can sometimes take up to 6 to 12 months after the fibre cables have been laid."

Time to sit back and see how it goes! Shame because I might not be living here in a year!

In reply to a post by philg:

I was in a similar situation until yesterday (Jan 20th 2022) when I got the email saying I could order.
They dug up my street sometime around April/May last year (21), and it has gone live this week. I presume that putting in the ducts is only the first step - said ducting will then need to be populated with fiber (I believe that was around August last year) and all that will need to be connected up to the rest of the network and tested. They are working on the whole town (Maidenhead) here so I guess it just takes a while to connect everything up and test it all before they can start selling.

I don't know about others experiences, it was really quite difficult to find any estimates on how long it would be between digging and live - I hope my experience is helpful to someone!

Now I need to decide on ISPs but its quite refreshing to finally see the potential of 900Mbps. Hopefully the infrastructure is fairly future proof. I can't see 900Mbps being considered slow for some time - but I probably said the same when the first 512kps DSL arrived - I guess that was 20+(?) years ago lol how things have changed :/.

I already mentioned it on another reply but City Fibre said it can take 6-12months after digging up and stuff, so I'm just waiting now

In reply to a post by Marz:

Hi all,

City Fibre are digging on my door step but both Zen and City Fibre's checker say it's not available in my area.

Does anyone know if these checkers can say in advance that it's available to me or not?

I ask because I'm part of a much bigger building and I'm concerned that, even though it's definitely coming to my area (and street), do I still need to depend on them supplying to my building for me to get the service?

It's a big building and they'd still have a long way to route cable once they came in off the street. Would they need to agree on doing to the whole building before I get the option or would they go out of their way to supply to my door, another 50m upstairs?

It only seems like yesterday I was on here talking about 512mb/s ADSL - crazy times to think where we are these days. Fingers crossed!

Thanks

The checkers got nerfed, early 2021, the checker would have said they are currently building in your area and to expect it soon, now it will just say to check back for updates, and is very similarly worded to areas with no plans.

I expect when it is actually available it will jump to that with no "building in your area" in between, it could be months though, there is people who are still waiting a year after local works are done.

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

They would need to get an agreement with the freeholder of the building before they can build their network out to supply you service.

Is interesting that cityfibre seem to be one of a few who are going down this path, e.g. grain FTTP are letting students in rented accommodation order without any of that red tape, like wise when I first got ADSL in my rented property openreach didnt make me jump through that hurdle either. Likewise my sister when renting required virgin media to dig up her front garden, again no freeholder check. If its law its clearly not enforced which begs the question, why are cityfibre doing it?

Also it seems to be only flats, there is flat owners I know who are the freeholders, on cityfibre status checker reporting freeholder approval required whilst rented and leasehold houses dont have the check, they seem to have just put the barrier to any address with flat in the name. The description on cityfibre website states its a multiple occupancy thing, yet of course many flats dont count as multiple occupancy buildings, seems very lazily implemented.

The human responses I got back are that cityfibre "will" still build the network to outside the properties, and the approval is only required for the actual install to the property.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 14-Feb-22 11:20:16)

For anyone keen to sign up with a supplier using the CityFibre network I'd advise them to keep checking availability on the CF website, not to rely on having registered an interest.
I registered after the CF contractors started working outside my house, and the rest of the locality, last summer, and occasionally checked the CF website. A few weeks ago I checked and it said the network was still being developed, then last week it said service was available, with links to the providers so far available. I phoned Zen the next day, the router arrived on Saturday and I'm being connected next Thursday.
Still not heard a word from CF's marketing department, nor from Zen's come to that.

The other point I meant to make is that whether CityFibre uses microducts depends on the existing BT infrastructure.
So my installation should be direct from the new CF cabinet, located next to an existing BT chamber, to the house via the BT equivalent of a microduct, but other houses nearby will be served by CF microducts. The area was developed in the late 1980s/early '90s so I guess that the difference is due to different developers installing the BT infrastructure.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Is interesting that cityfibre seem to be one of a few who are going down this path, e.g. grain FTTP are letting students in rented accommodation order without any of that red tape, like wise when I first got ADSL in my rented property openreach didnt make me jump through that hurdle either. Likewise my sister when renting required virgin media to dig up her front garden, again no freeholder check. If its law its clearly not enforced which begs the question, why are cityfibre doing it?

In reply to a post by Marz:

I ask because I'm part of a much bigger building and I'm concerned that, even though it's definitely coming to my area (and street), do I still need to depend on them supplying to my building for me to get the service?

It's a big building and they'd still have a long way to route cable once they came in off the street. Would they need to agree on doing to the whole building before I get the option or would they go out of their way to supply to my door, another 50m upstairs?

The freeholder is unlikely to be enthralled if CityFibre rock up, dig their way to the building then place cabling either externally or internally a further 50m. CityFibre won't do this anyway, wouldn't be viable. Would need to be the entire building.

Somewhat different from students renting rooms in a house that is, from telco's point of view, a single dwelling, or a tenant ignoring the requirement to get permission from their landlord: VM don't check ownership on the Land Registry.

No company would carry out this install without permission from the freeholder. They would be sued into the ground.

yeah for sure I can understand it on HMO's. Especially tower blocks, but it seems to be applied to properties like mine which is basically a house.

Thanks for confirming VM dont check, I guess they have found out the risk of been sued doesnt affect profits enough.