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At the risk of asking a "how long is a piece of string?" question, is there a normal amount of time that needs to pass between CityFibre changing their availability checker over to "GREAT NEWS! FULL FIBRE BROADBAND IS AVAILABLE" and ISPs actually being ready for service? I look after a site based in Loughborough which is a new CityFibre area and the checker status changed this week. I am having trouble finding any ISP that will offer the service, and also having trouble finding a business one that will respond to an email enquiry. It's possible that I am being a bit too keen and just need to wait a few weeks, but I have no experience with CityFibre so thought I'd ask.
I did phone Zen who said they don't provide business services on the CityFibre network and said TalkTalk or Vodafone sometimes have exclusivity arrangements, but talking to either of those two providers was about as productive as you might expect, they both ignored my "CityFibre say the service is available" point and went with what their internal tools said, which gave the same result as their website checker.
A&A have provided the most information so far, but also can't serve business premises over CityFibre which is a distinction I was not familiar with as I've only ever dealt with Openreach before.
At a guess we're in a position where the cables are in the ground and things are connected back to the FEX, but ISPs haven't signed up to use it yet.
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7 months and counting here, some people dont get this stage at all, others it seems it can last a while.
I also queried AAISP about it, they checked if they could order yet and answer was no.
In my case its consumer though so when, if CF ever get their act together AAISP would serve me.
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At a guess we're in a position where the cables are in the ground and things are connected back to the FEX, but ISPs haven't signed up to use it yet. Or its still within the exclusive period to an ISP, often Vodafone?
23 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Register (or login) on our website and you will not see this ad.
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Apparently there isn't an exclusivity period, since CityFibre have been sending enquiries as a lead to a partner ISP who then can't place the order. According to the guy I spoke to these leads only go over if CityFibre are sure the premises can be served so who know what is going on with that company.
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Strange then!
If Swindon this might explain:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/12/cityfi...
23 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
They built a new exchange up the road, we would see teams with chambers open obviously splicing fibres, but that stopped a few months ago.
Strangely the CF website says I cant get service, but if I put my address in the octaplus website it says I can order.
Recontracted with Virgin in the summer so they have until March 2025 to get it sorted! Unless CF is part of Virgin by then!
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Feels like we waiting for the council or VM to buy/bail them out.
Also yeah octaplus says I can order also. Thats interesting. CF own website says waiting for ISPs, coming "soon".
For me VM recontract is April 2024, when I signed up to this contract I remember CF telling me 5-6 months, and now the 18 month mark is approaching lol.
Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 04-Dec-23 22:16:27)
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Ever thought of contacting CF directly, and asking them if they know of any ISPs in your area providing Business Services?
They might not know, but most ISPs I've seen on CF are purely after the consumer market.
Wonder if that'll change in the future as I know businesses are more likely to cover the actual real costs of ISP bandwidth etc.
Regards,
Haydn
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but if I put my address in the octaplus website it says I can order.
Octoplus show availability on Openreach fibre area when I just checked.
Things were better under Labour.
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I am with 'No one' https://noone.co.uk/ business and I think they can use city fibre and BTOR.
Very good support.
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Also yeah octaplus says I can order also.
Some ISPs take service from Cityfibre's national network, which means they can pick up all the traffic in one place and add new locations quickly.
Larger ISPs with their own national network may decide to build their own interconnects to each Cityfibre location. That is cheaper for them in the long term, but they might decide not to serve every Cityfibre area - or there may be delays while they get the interconnect installed.
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I'm also with NoOne (Residential) and can confirm the support seems to be responsive and useful.
Hopefully the business side would be even better 
Regards,
Haydn
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
I've been on City Fibre in Leicester for nearly two years.
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
I've been on City Fibre in Leicester for nearly two years.
Yes I know. They stopped half way up Fosse Road and haven’t activated any more towards us. Despite all the civils being done months ago!
Very frustrating!
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
They built a new exchange up the road, we would see teams with chambers open obviously splicing fibres, but that stopped a few months ago.
Strangely the CF website says I cant get service, but if I put my address in the octaplus website it says I can order.
Was that their exchange near Western Park? I think that was their newest one in Leicester.
If so checking a few local postcodes now shows a long list of ISPs available, I don't think that was the case a few days ago though.
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List is indeed updated today and ISPs are showing.
Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 06-Dec-23 19:18:35)
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
I've been on City Fibre in Leicester for nearly two years.
They did a 3rd of the city and then it all went to pot. You lucky you in that first part.
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Yeah they showing here now, I will take your word for it they did it perhaps a few days ago as I stopped checking until I read your post.
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CF build completed summer 22, still not available here in Leicester.
They built a new exchange up the road, we would see teams with chambers open obviously splicing fibres, but that stopped a few months ago.
Strangely the CF website says I cant get service, but if I put my address in the octaplus website it says I can order.
Was that their exchange near Western Park? I think that was their newest one in Leicester.
If so checking a few local postcodes now shows a long list of ISPs available, I don't think that was the case a few days ago though.
Yes, its on Glenfield Road at the corner of the New College site.
Just checked and indeed we can now order, this has changed in the last few days.
Shame I recontracted with Virgin a few months ago!
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At the risk of asking a "how long is a piece of string?" question, is there a normal amount of time that needs to pass between CityFibre changing their availability checker over to "GREAT NEWS! FULL FIBRE BROADBAND IS AVAILABLE" and ISPs actually being ready for service?
I registered with City Fibre and Zen to be told when the service was available when I watched the ducts &c being installed locally but didn't hear from either of them until after I'd been connected.
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I ended up contacting CityFibre who replied to say we are definitely able to order and to fill in the form that I had already filled in that resulted in our enquiry getting referred to a partner ISP who phoned me up and said their systems showed that we weren't live yet.
Every interaction I've had with Openreach has been more fruitful than dealing with CityFibre.
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I registered with Zen and they haven't come back to me. Went to iDNET for 2 years.
As you are in Loughborough, Giganet should be on your doorstep?
Steve
Happy iDNET Customer
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Also in Loughborough and been waiting to order. Likewise have filled in both residential and business notification forms and not heard anything since September (will be able to order soon) and two advertising emails both leading to same "list of providers soon" result.
Not found a way to get through to CF other than automated chatbot which just says to contact preferred ISP to see when they can offer service.
I've spoke with Yayzi who have confirmed according to their systems cabinet was released on 27th September and there are no exclusive deals in place however orders can't be placed with no reasons why and to take it up with CF.
Trying to make do with rubish internet not wanting to start a new contract with VMB but thinking I am going to have to bite the bullet.
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Sounds like the same frustrations I am having. CityFibre stopped replying to my query after sending their initial "you can order, fill in the form on our website" response, ignoring that in my initial query I did lay out the problems I was having with their checker not agreeing with their own ISP partners. The few ISPs (shoutout to IDnet here) that have engaged past "our site says no, sorry" seem like they are trying to get CityFibre to show some interest but are getting nowhere.
Either the CityFibre checker and their own staff are misrepresenting the availability of their own services, or they are amazingly relaxed about whether or not they take any revenue from a network they've just paid to build.
Edited by jpm (Tue 12-Dec-23 14:50:14)
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Have seen several articles how they are struggling financially so you think they would want to open parts that have been built ASAP to get some revenue coming in from the ISPs.
It is frustrating CF won't engage, I understand they would probably want to filter out those who had pavement dug up yesterday bombarding them but when you have ISPs saying you should be able to sign up but can't then at least give a reason why.
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Have seen several articles how they are struggling financially so you think they would want to open parts that have been built ASAP to get some revenue coming in from the ISPs.
Are CF 'struggling financially' or making losses while still building their network and spending their shareholders' investment, which is what would be expected.
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Update on this is that it's still unable to order, but the checker has been updated to clarify that the network is in a testing phase, whereas before it was saying that everything was ready and you should be able to order - the thing where each build phase is shown seems to be new so it looks like a case of being given incorrect information rather than the build rolling backwards.
In case anybody case, the FEX is here: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/52%C2%B047'06.9%...
Associated planning documents for it can be read at https://portal.charnwood.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningEx... - it's all fairly standard and boring stuff.
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Three months now since the checker updated to say that business services are available, no ISP can do anything other than suggesting I ask CityFibre.
Quite frustrating stuff this.
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im in the same situation i have no idea when it will show all the isps it's annoying
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Four months now, CityFibre have stopped replying to my emails and are still insisting the service is available.
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I made a bit of a nuisance of myself and now someone at CityFibre has admitted that they don't have any carrier networks connected to their FEX, and the marketing teams have jumped the gun a bit by announcing the service.
This means anybody from CityFibre that has been telling me or ISPs acting on my behalf that the service is ready to order since November has not bothered to actually check if that is the case, and was working off some incorrect set of data.
Somehow they've been building all the network out to homes since March 2023 and there's not even a link to their National network in place at the FEX.
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I am connected now, it wasnt easy though I had to deal with some property classification issues, but once they agreed to make those changes they escalated my installation and everything moved fast.
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For me was about 8 months if I remember right for the ISPs to come online.
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Been 18 months since CityFibre started rollout in Warwick/Leamington Spa. And getting on for 3 months since I last saw them digging.
I did find the FEX planning application which and it's apparently going in on a corner of the old IBM site in Warwick - but no work has been done there yet.
Hunting around the ISPs, they are saying fibre service not available, except one which is currently quoting July this year. I'm not holding my breath.
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Seeing I replied In this thread in Dec it was I think actually closer to 5-6 months because I think it changed to waiting for isps around may last year, still a silly delay for something they should be installing whilst they working on local deployment, but at least it was under half a year.
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Post deleted by seb
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Three months now since the checker updated to say that business services are available, no ISP can do anything other than suggesting I ask CityFibre.
Quite frustrating stuff this.
Business just means the metro network is in place nearby, nothing to do with availability of FTTP. No idea what they're talking about and sounds like they don't have any idea either. If the FEX were actually live and you could order it would have Vodafone or TalkTalk attached to it at least.
Edited by XGS_Is_On (Mon 20-May-24 23:38:51)
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Three months now since the checker updated to say that business services are available, no ISP can do anything other than suggesting I ask CityFibre.
Quite frustrating stuff this.
Business just means the metro network is in place nearby, nothing to do with availability of FTTP. No idea what they're talking about and sounds like they don't have any idea either. If the FEX were actually live and you could order it would have Vodafone or TalkTalk attached to it at least.
The last update I had was them saying nothing was connected onwards from their FEX, copying in some CityFibre colleagues to provide more information, and nobody has come back on that email thread for a month. If the only other service at this particular location wasn't Openreach EAD then I wouldn't be interested in CF, the organisation seems dysfunctional.
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CityFibre installed the cables in our street 3 years ago in March 2021 and I kept pestering Zen to tell me when they will be offering the service and I got all sorts of misleading replies. In the end, I wrote to the CEO and I was told that Zen need to install their equipment before they could offer the service. Meanwhile, according to CityFibre's checker, there were at least 14 other ISPs offering CityFibre to my house.
I had registered with Zen to be informed when the service would be available and I still haven't heard from them despite the installation taking place a couple of weeks ago (yippee!). I only knew I could order fibre when I checked on CityFibre's site and Zen appeared there.
The good news is that ordering using Zen's website was easy and, following a phone call to them to cancel the ADSL service was simple, with a refund for the unused part of the month.
Zen's map of places on its website is not up-to-date, but at least they got rid of the text that said much of the country would be covered by the end of 2022!
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I think Zen have backed out of the idea of covering all of CF's footprint, they dont cover my CF area (as is the case talk talk also dont cover it).
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I think Zen have backed out of the idea of covering all of CF's footprint, they dont cover my CF area (as is the case talk talk also dont cover it).
Some CF areas are exclusive to a launch ISP for a few years. I think Vodafone is commonly a launch ISP.
24 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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I think Zen have backed out of the idea of covering all of CF's footprint, they dont cover my CF area (as is the case talk talk also dont cover it).
Some CF areas are exclusive to a launch ISP for a few years. I think Vodafone is commonly a launch ISP.
I think that deal was canned a while back, my area certainly isnt exclusive to Vodafone.
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Update today from CityFibre is that this area is going live at the end of August/September, which will be ten months after they told everybody that they'd finished.
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Wish you luck though looks like you need to be patient. We now have an issue with City Fibre at our church. They went live in the street several months back. Vodafone, where we already had a 4G data contract, suggested we moved to CF fibre and yes, it was available, even a choice of two toby boxes. Three CF vans turned up eager to install then somebody noticed that our church building was not in the CF database so no, they couldn't install it. Even though the original installers had put a toby box obviously for us outside. How long they will take to sort this out remains to be seen but from your experience doesn't sound soon.
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How did you manage to message Cityfibre out of curiosity?
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You did well to get a estimated date, hopefully they were over conservative on the estimate.
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I reviewed them negatively on Trustpilot and said they were impossible to get any sense out of, and they contacted me.
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Ah nice one.
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Some addresses in the town are going live on the checker now, though only TalkTalk is appearing as an ISP.
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And today Martin (who has been very helpful) at Aquiss has been told that this premise has been descoped as they are unable to install, this is despite them having already pulled cables to the BT chamber in our car park.
I have never had such contradictory messaging from a company as what CityFibre have managed to deliver. Seb is there any chance that you have contacts at CityFibre who might be able to explain accurately what is going on? CityFibre have already told Ofcom that this premise is now served with a 1Gb service but they're telling me that they can't do it.
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Final update on this, it's connected to the national network as of this week. So roughly a year after their availability checker said it was ready.
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That’s slightly bonkers. Timescale wise.
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Wouldn't have even gotten to this point if I was using the 'official' communication channels to talk to CityFibre (asking an ISP to ask them on my behalf). One person was responsible for correcting the database entry to remove the site classification as a complex one that lots of ISPs could have simply opted to not bother putting the effort in to installing at, letting me know what was going on, and then providing the final update when the network actually went live.
So like lots of organisations, there are individuals who are helpful but I really don't think the CityFibre attitude of not talking to end users can be sustained.
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Yeah they very bad, the person I was in touch with begged me to not tell my ISP I was dealing with CF direct, which suggests this insistence on no communication might be a request from certain partners. Either way its not pleasant, and horrid when compared with generic things like "coming soon", which in your case the "coming soon" lasted nearly a year, simply not good enough.
The communication issue is made even worse on MDU orders, where the end user is basically reliant on the partner ISP giving enough of a **** to get it moving and provide a reasonably accurate description of whats going on.
Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 24-Nov-24 22:45:48)
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I've seen an oddity this week. Since out of contract with CIX for a few months I've been scoping out who's offering what on CF,. FYI - I'm in a previous Lit network area (live since Dec 23). After showing wide availability on range of ISPs last week, including top tier packages at Yayzi and VF, this week absolutely nothing on the checker and nowt on any CF ISP's. Doesn't exactly breed confidence.
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I looks like CityFibre are *finally* starting to offer service in Warwick/Leamington - over 2 years since they dig up all the roads. A contact is getting connected up on Thursday this week via TalkTalk.
Unfortunately still not available in my particular street.
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