Fibre optic ending.

Just had a email from TT to say my UFO fibre optic is ending they say 'the existing fibre optic equipment is becoming obsolete' shame as it's been fantastic.
Looked up on City Fibre who sent a card saying available in the area, and it showed Zen, Vodafone, TT, Giganet, iDNET, Yayazi,air, digital home, no one, octaplus being available for my postcode.
several others in the area have tried to sign up with alternative suppiers, sadly no one has managed to get connected.
Any one else in a simmilar situation?

Have you actually tried placing an order with a CityFibre-based ISP?

The optic fibre is not obsolete, but the equipment at either end? Seems strange that they just don't replace the equipment. How many years have you had the service?

CityFibre bought the old TalkTalk UFO (FibreNation) network in and around York a few years ago and were supposed to have fully integrated it into their own ‘native’ network. This would involve changes / new gear at the headends and also CPE in the customers homes.

You’re right the fibre is all passive and would stay although it would have required some rework in places as part of any integration works with CityFibres FEXs

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

CityFibre bought the old TalkTalk UFO (FibreNation) network in and around York a few years ago and were supposed to have fully integrated it into their own ‘native’ network. This would involve changes / new gear at the headends and also CPE in the customers homes.

You’re right the fibre is all passive and would stay although it would have required some rework in places as part of any integration works with CityFibres FEXs

I see, thanks for that. So this is another problem with Alt networks.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I see, thanks for that. So this is another problem with Alt networks.

Or a problem with TalkTalk's low end pricing and revenue model.

Yes when one business buys or merges with another you often have many integration projects that need to be completed. I’ve worked on many in my career. Some are harder than others. They are all time consuming, and can be far more costly than first envisaged. This is no different.

This just seems like poor planning by CityFibre. Assuming the physical network is in good condition (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), they have had a while to do something like overlay XGS-PON and then enter a six-month notice period for people to sign up with Vodafone, TalkTalk, Giganet, Zen etc. and perform ONT swaps before turning the old kit off.

We had Fibrenation built out in our area (Kirklees, not York) some time ago (it must have been early 2020) and even got publicity bumf in the post about TalkTalk UFO being available soon, but we were never able to order. The kit seems to still be there, there are still Fibrenation manhole covers around the town, but the broadband service itself never materialised and the fibre has been under the ground for nearly three years now.

Areas nearby where CityFibre did the build post takeover have been live for quite some time, but areas like ours where Fibrenation did the build before the CityFibre takeover seem to have been forgotten, or there is some problem somewhere. It doesn't really bother me because I'm not immediately fussed about fibre, but I'm moving next year and would really quite like to be able to say "there's gigabit broadband available" rather than "there's 40Mbps DSL available" to bump the value of the house a bit!

It does seem like the Fibrenation build was problematic from the start, and now it seems that it's being abandoned altogether in its original areas like York - perhaps our area will see a totally new set of diggers and a totally new bunch of fibre being put down by CityFibre themselves at some point.

Edited by misstuned (Sat 29-Oct-22 12:26:05)

I've been very pleased with talk talk UFO started August 2017 £21.70 only small increases to £28.50 now these prices include include all inclusive landline calls.
Sadly end of contract end of November and will need to move to City Fibre supplier, could be a costly change.
Or I suppose I could go back to copper wire broadband and leave the fibre optic still buried in the garden.

In reply to a post by jpm:

This just seems like poor planning by CityFibre. Assuming the physical network is in good condition (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), they have had a while to do something like overlay XGS-PON and then enter a six-month notice period for people to sign up with Vodafone, TalkTalk, Giganet, Zen etc. and perform ONT swaps before turning the old kit off.

You mean like CityFibre announced they had done back in July https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/07/cityfi... - article states the whole city has been upgraded to XGS-PON. I've heard of former Sky customers on Fibrenation in York moving to new ISPs on CityFibre, so this sounds more like something specific to TalkTalk? Is it possible they have an exclusivity deal as part of the Fibrenation sale that is blocking their customers from moving to other ISPs at the moment?

In reply to a post by jpm:

This just seems like poor planning by CityFibre. Assuming the physical network is in good condition (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), they have had a while to do something like overlay XGS-PON and then enter a six-month notice period for people to sign up with Vodafone, TalkTalk, Giganet, Zen etc. and perform ONT swaps before turning the old kit off.

Believe CityFibre removed the UFO hardware already. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/09/cityfi...

FYI jpm CityFibre already overbuilt GPON with XGSPON in York. I imagine CityFibre want the UFO service gone as it's not a standard product on their network - see the price TalkTalk charge in regular CityFibre areas compared with UFO.

UFO (York) contract ending in 3 weeks, TT advised me the UFO service is ending, each time I call TT to extend the contract they say someone will ring me back but never do!
Enter postcode into City Fibre website try the other companys listed they come up with ' service not available in your area yet?

My contract with TalkTalk has just ended, and I have been able to migrate to another CityFibre ISP (Giganet).

I had to place an order with my new provider to get an install date, then cancel with TT from that date. I did actually need an engineer visit to replace the old Alcatel ONT (the "homeport") with a newer ONT (a Calix 100-05625) that supports 10gbps.

The migration itself went seamlessly, however I'm seriously unimpressed with Giganet so far (intermittent routing issues on ipv4, I'm stuck behind CGNAT, static ipv4 address option not available, support tickets go unanswered for days) so I may well be moving again shortly.