CityFibre Install Questions

Hi All,
I currently have a 900mb service with BT, but paying over £70 p/m for the pleasure. I am finally out of contract as of tomorrow and can move away

I was just about to signup with Zen for their 900mb service @ £40 p/m for 18 months and didn't realise until speaking with Zen that moving off the BT backhaul service to CityFibre would involves new fibre to the property. I had assumed the cabling would remain and maybe a new ONT or router attachment and they snipped and reconnected my line in the shared underground ducting or something.

Anyway my question is:

Are CityFibre installers happy to go the extra mile? my BT openreach guy laid some extra cable to install the ONT in an upstairs bedroom, utilizing a hole in my garage roof that went through the garage loft and a hole in to the bedroom. Its not a big a deal as it sounds but I have held off ordering just yet to get opinions on what a CityFibre engineer has to do.

Do they install their own ONT's? will they not use the existing holes in the wall so I dont have new ones?
that I have read, is it a Fritzbox you get with CityFibre as the router? I would prefer to use my own ASUS router.

Any advice much appreciated?

Also, as I havent signed up yet, any opinions on my choice of Zen over any other provider using CityFibre's network would be appreciated if there are better current deals.

Edited by Scoot (Mon 27-Nov-23 16:21:10)

Vodafone are charging £29 per month for a 24-month contract. I know they don’t have the best reputation for customer service, but I couldn’t resist that deal. I’ve signed up to move in January when my BT contract runs out. (We only have CityFibre here, not BT fibre.)

BT new customer offer is £55/month , first three months half price ( 24 month deal ) £51.56 equivalent per month , so although nothing like as cheap as £40 / month and a longer minimum term , it’s significantly cheaper than the £70 you are paying , that’s a price quoted on BT.com , it’s possible that negotiating with BT retentions may get a better offer .
As far as getting City Fibre , regardless of them using PIA , then they shouldn’t touch the Openreach kit , but install theirs alongside, so new another CSP , and other access hole to gain access to inside , and a new ONT , the flexibility of the CF installers isn’t widely discussed, if they use contractors ( rather than direct labour ) much like Openreach contractors , if they are paid per job , they are not likely to spend anymore time than is absolutely necessary on any one installation.

You obviously can power down the Openreach ONT but you shouldn’t remove it , although if you did , it simply means any return to an Openreach based provider may not be seamless.

Edited by Iniltous (Mon 27-Nov-23 19:03:34)

I chose "Noone Internet" via CityFibre and have the 900/900 service (about the same price as Zen - only 12month Contract though).

My experience of the Installers (think it was MJ Quinn actually), was good. They wanted to run it a particular way, I said that it wouldn't work for me due to where my networking kit was and they were happy to discuss an alternative workable solution. I live in a bungalow however, and there was no massive need for tall ladders etc.

It will be a new External CSP and Internal ONT, usually mounted at ground level for the CST on an external wall.

CityFibre were happy to run my cable from the BT pole, following the existing Copper line route, and then around the Soffits to the required area of the house, and then down the wall into the CSP so a fair bit of fibre to run.

As for using existing holes, anything thats easier for them (and practical) I don't think they'd have an issue with, though it may depend on the engineers on the day though.

You CAN use your own router, so long as it supports changing the VLAN ID to 911 (which is what CityFibre use).

City Fibre (AKA Kelly's) have literally said goodbye and was fairly impressed.

They have 5m & 3m extensions they can use, they pulled the cable from the inside to the brown box outside. My ONT is next to the BT master (now defunct) some 3 M from the external wall point.
Got enough space to turn the double socket into a triple.

The ONT I got was a new Nokia one - this could be because I'm with IDNet, but this was different to what they normally use and had to wait for it to come over from the Depot.

Only issue was the battery on the drill was not fully charged and the front door was wide open, thankfully the heating was off.

IDNET 500/500 currently pushing 546/448 with a ping of 4.0 and jitter 0.37 (using A&A Librespeed)

Edited by blfamily (Tue 28-Nov-23 11:47:56)

Talk to the guys on the day. I found them accommodating.
But I'd suggest you let them set it up using the Fritzbox, because that's what they know. Then swap to your Asus when they've gone. That's what I did.
Go to LAN/IPTV/LAN Port/Internet to change the VLAN to 911.

Your ONT will be down to the specific OLT servicing your house, nothing to do with the ISP you sign up for.

Openreach use Nokia ONT for Nokia and Huawei OLTs and Adtran with Adtran.
CityFibre seem to match ONT and OLT vendors, they use Calix and Nokia now across their network. There seems to be quite a few ONT types now around with CF.

Good news is Nokia is XGS-PON on CityFibre and I think the ONT actually has a 10GE port on it, so should be future proof for quite a while!

City Fibre's availability checker for my address lists two providers offering 2.5G to my address (which already has a CF/Zen) installation, Yayzi and Rocket Fibre. The former is offering 2G now and is taking pre-orders for 2.3G for the same money, £50 per month. Rocket Fibre is not offering anything above 1G on its website.

I took the plunge from BT 10 months ago and never looked back with Octaplus via CityFibre.
These offer exceptional customer service based in Hull, know exactly the status of any outages when you give postcode, even answer emails within 10 mins. These are the cheapest because they dont pay to advertise to get at the top of any listings, they didnt show up on here until a few months back. 900meg £27 p/m with 3 months at £1.

All went as planned 6 days before BT ended but went even further i laid the purple fibre optic cable myself and the head installer signed it off.
Just tell them what you want, i wanted no cable showing going round 4 90 degree bends and under a door. Cables easy to shorten.

Cheers. I know CF called up to switch me on and that was automatic.And I understand different ONT to different ISP's - I guess the guys knew about Fritzbox as were surprised when I swapped it for the Asus on iDNET sent.