New CityFibre installation timeframe expectations?

Notwithstanding recent news, we have recently seen a new CityFibre box appear at the pole outside our house: https://imgur.com/7ZLkxhY

We would like to sign up to a 900Mbs FTTP service ASAP. Especially as our two-year BT contract has just expired.

CityFibre's website currently displays the following results from their postcode availability checker:
https://imgur.com/0zxBNeG

Out of all CityFibre's listed partners, Giganet's website is the most helpful, returning the following result:
https://imgur.com/yzKXyrJ

Can anyone provide any experience or suggestions as to how likely we may need to wait before we receive further news?

If, say, we were indeed able to "pre-order" by 30 Sep 2023, what sort of timeframe would we likely have to wait for an install?

PS: We are also location in one of the regions cited in the first paragraph of the news article above. If this matters?

CityFibre installed ducting, toby boxes and small green cabinets in my road in December 2022. At that time, Giganet said pre-order in March 2023. In March that changed to pre-order in June. In June it changed to pre-order in October 2023. I think you get the picture.

You could also try https://gigabitnetworks.co.uk/ they give connectivity dates, mine is December 2023.

Contacting CityFibre was a waste of time, they replied saying I might be able to connect in 6 or 12 months time

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear that your install has been repeatedly delayed. That does not bode well for us here.

I am hopeful that the CityFibre-Kier contract split happened after Kier had completed the infrastructure in our area.

Gigabit Networks say that "connectivity will be in my area around November 2023". I hope it does not get pushed back.

I am now signed-up to three mailing lists: Gigabit Networks, Giganet (who said "pre-order from Sep 2023) and CityFibre.

I wonder who will contact us first? Whoever it is, if any of them did a leaflet drop here they would make a fortune.

I cannot understand why this rollout has been so slow. That CityFibre box has been outside our house for six months!

Edited by Pipps (Wed 06-Sep-23 06:51:55)

In reply to a post by Pipps:

I cannot understand why this rollout has been so slow. That CityFibre box has been outside our house for six months!

The box is just a miniscule part of a lot of complex and interacting infrastructure. There is a whole lot of work to connect that box to the internet with varying levels of physical and technological input through the chain. Unless you are privy to the CityFibre work plans you have no way of knowing whether the installation of the box was at the front end or the back end of the roll out plan. This could be driven by a number of factors like availability of staff or equipment of which you will have no knowledge.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by Pipps:

I cannot understand why this rollout has been so slow. That CityFibre box has been outside our house for six months!

The box is just a miniscule part of a lot of complex and interacting infrastructure. There is a whole lot of work to connect that box to the internet with varying levels of physical and technological input through the chain. Unless you are privy to the CityFibre work plans you have no way of knowing whether the installation of the box was at the front end or the back end of the roll out plan. This could be driven by a number of factors like availability of staff or equipment of which you will have no knowledge.

If it's anything like Lightning Fibre in my area, they put in their ducts and boxes first. Mind you in the areas where they first built out nearly 2 years ago, it's still not possible to order.

And as if by magic, the previous Giganet postcode checker search result that said "pre-order from Sep 2023" is now saying "pre-order from May 2025": https://imgur.com/QL414ij

Similarly, Gigabit Networks are no longer saying that they can fulfil an order in this area at any point at all.

Looks like I will have to re-sign for another 18 months with BT Business.

In reply to a post by Pipps:

And as if by magic, the previous Giganet postcode checker search result that said "pre-order from Sep 2023" is now saying "pre-order from May 2025": https://imgur.com/QL414ij

Similarly, Gigabit Networks are no longer saying that they can fulfil an order in this area at any point at all.

Looks like I will have to re-sign for another 18 months with BT Business.

Sorry to hear that, sadly its not uncommon for this to happen and its a forgotten part of fibre rollout. Paul Kirby and I have had waits for up to six years for proposed rollouts to be complete (Paul's was just weird!).

I didn't want to a "me too" thing in, but the reasoning to add my own experience, is that, it can be a painfully long wait and many "oh i'm out of contract - what do I do" thing. Also look into mobile broadband but it may be a no go for you.

CityFibre installed their hardware for us in July 2022, were still waiting for it to go live.

Re contracted with Virgin last month, had enough of waiting.

At least they are honest when they say they have no idea when they will go live!