CityFibre vs Openreach

Apologies if this has already been answered or a bit of a noob question:

I can see CityFibre laying cables in my area. Some roads have already been cabled by Openreach. Is there any point that the two "meet" or is CityFibre's infrastructure completely separate?

If it's separate, do CityFibre have their own exchanges?

It's completely separate. They may share ducts and poles but don't share any fibre or fibre equipment.

Cityfibre do have their own exchanges that they call FEX's (fibre exchanges). They tend do be recently built shipping container like buildings.

Here's a couple examples.

Cityfibre FEX 1
Cityfibre FEX 2

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 31-Jan-23 11:54:00)

Thanks for the reply.

Is there any way to find out where these exchanges are?

In reply to a post by mattan:

Thanks for the reply.

Is there any way to find out where these exchanges are?

Planning permission applications often give them away, or following the direction of all the roadworks in an area.

There isn't a list of locations anywhere.

Two separate networks, like Open reach and Zzoomm is here, You will probably find that CityFibre network is better than Openreach with symmetrical connection. As far as I can tell, CityFibre have different providers using the network, like Openreach do.

If you are going for FTTP, then go for CityFibre if you can.

Cityfibre big hand down win!

Don't join Openreach useless FTTP (fastest download but slowest upload)

Join Cityfibre (both fastest download and upload same speed)

Can someone with a BT phone number move it to cityfibre?

In reply to a post by bowdon:

Can someone with a BT phone number move it to cityfibre?

Cityfibre is a network not an ISP so there isn't a yes or no answer to that.

A BT phone number can be moved to a provider who uses the Cityfibre network, but it depends on the specific provider and what migration agreements they have in place.

Cityfibre don't sell to end-users.

You could however take service with an ISP that uses Cityfibre's network and offers voice services - for example Vodafone - and Vodafone will happily port your BT phone number. That all works fine.

(IMO you would be better off porting it to a third-party VOIP provider, even if it costs you a few quid per month. It gives you much more flexibility about where you can receive calls, avoids all future porting issues when changing providers, and widens your choice of ISPs to include those who don't provide voice services)