Community Fibre

I'm currently with Now broadband (FTTC), and have been for a few years. Overall, it's performed well enough for my purposes.

However, with another price rise in the offing, I'm considering Community Fibre, as there are some good offers available at the moment. But I have a couple of questions, one of which I'm a little reluctant to ask Community Fibre about!

That question is, how easy is it to change ISP, should I want to in the future? It's simple on FTTC and I've done that several times in the past. But once I'm with Community Fibre and on FTTP - presumably using their own cable - what happens?

The other question, which I'm more comfortable asking Community Fibre about, concerns the phone service. I'm not yet ready to abandon our landline phone, so I would be taking their phone service. I understand that they supply a box to connect to one corded phone, but we also have an extension, wired into our NTE5 socket. Is there an easy way of connecting the extension to their box?

You could move back to an FTTC supplier whenever you want. There will be a Community Fibre contract T&C which you will have to follow. (i.e. pay)

Community Fibre might allow other ISPs to use their fibres in the future.

You could port your phone number to a VOIP supplier such as Voipfone or A&A. Doing that will likely be cheaper than keeping your wired phone line. To do this you will need hardware such as a Cisco ATA 191 for wired phones or perhaps a Gigaset N300 for (prefereably) Gigaset DECT phones. You don't have to do this immediately but you may well have to do this by 31/1/27.

Thanks, that's reassuring about changing suppliers. I would have no intention of moving before the contract expires, but, after that, I'd hate to be stuck with the one supplier!

As for the extension issue, could the solution be as simple as plugging a doubler into the Community Fibre adapter box?

In reply to a post by calopez1:

Thanks, that's reassuring about changing suppliers. I would have no intention of moving before the contract expires, but, after that, I'd hate to be stuck with the one supplier!

As for the extension issue, could the solution be as simple as plugging a doubler into the Community Fibre adapter box?

Yes you could do that. You just need to make sure that the incoming telephone line is disconnected from your home phone wiring. You can then connect the home wiring to the adapter box.

I think that'll be a lot easier! If I can crimp a plug onto the end of the extension wire, I can avoid the old socket completely.

Currently there is no option on Community Fibre to choose another ISP. There are rumours that Community Fibre offer wholesale networks to TalkTalk. However, checking on the TalkTalk website it doesn't appear to be showing FTTP as available. Perhaps, this hasn't been officially launched as a package.

Community Fibre being an Altnet just like Hyperoptic, G.Network, etc don't offer you to switch on the same network. They become the exclusive dominated ISP.

The only way you can switch back to FTTC is to manually order FTTC again and manually cancel Community Fibre otherwise you'll be charged for 2 services at the same time.

In future if Openreach FTTP become available and you were to switch to an Openreach FTTP package then the switching will become much smoother being on the same network. But this means that if you were to join Community Fibre that will have to be cancelled separately.

You can add calls for £10 extra a month and you can port your number. So that means if you were to take a 1Gbps package for £26 you'll have to pay £10 extra for their phone service and that'll be £36 a month.

For me this is still expensive. I'm happy to ditch my landline as I don't need it any more. Obviously if you opt to cancel your Now broadband package and just switch to Community Fibre without phone service then you'll lose your existing phone number.

Alternatively, you could simply take a mobile RWG package for £2 a month. This seems like a more economical solution.

The existing NTE5 socket from Openreach for FTTC is basically redundant and will be of no use especially since Analogue phone line will no longer be supplied. The phone will need to be plugged in your router either via some Digital Voice phone adapter or if the router were to supply phone service like in the case with BT Smart Hub 2+Digital Voice.

I have Digital Voice service currently with BT FTTC. Phone doesn't plug into the NTE5 master socket anymore as on DV you don't get dial tone.

You'll get a Community Fibre ONT, which you can choose where you want it installed for your convenience that way you may not need to use the corded phone extension.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Currently there is no option on Community Fibre to choose another ISP. There are rumours that Community Fibre offer wholesale networks to TalkTalk. However, checking on the TalkTalk website it doesn't appear to be showing FTTP as available. Perhaps, this hasn't been officially launched as a package.

Community Fibre being an Altnet just like Hyperoptic, G.Network, etc don't offer you to switch on the same network. They become the exclusive dominated ISP.

The only way you can switch back to FTTC is to manually order FTTC again and manually cancel Community Fibre otherwise you'll be charged for 2 services at the same time.

In future if Openreach FTTP become available and you were to switch to an Openreach FTTP package then the switching will become much smoother being on the same network. But this means that if you were to join Community Fibre that will have to be cancelled separately.

I thought that might be the case, and that switching away from Community Fibre could be a hassle, if I ever want to do that. Will have to think about it!

And - for now, at any rate - I'm not ready to get rid of the landline and its number. Community Fibre's 150Mbps (more than adequate for my needs) option plus phone service is a bit cheaper than Now's equivalent that I'm currently on (£27/month, I've seen, vs. £30.50), but perhaps it would be better to stick with it for the time being and see if other FTTP operators come into my area and provide some competition.

Edited by calopez1 (Fri 14-Jun-24 19:27:29)

The hassle is inevitable. At some point we will all be going through this process just like with PC and operating system upgrades.

There is a new offer for Community Fibre £160 amazon voucher, £26 a month for a gigabit connection for 24 months. I'm also thinking myself whether I should join. But I pay £20 per month for BT FTTC for 80/20 and it has been rock solid and stable for 60+ days connection uptime!

I never had this sort of service and reliability with TalkTalk more than 2 years ago. TalkTalk was horrendous even though it was still more reliable than my old ADSL EO Line. That's one reason I never rushed to join Community Fibre because the service I get is very reliable unlike what I use to get with ADSL constant drop outs and never had a maximum uptime of more than 3 days in over a decade being on ADSL.

I myself migrated to BT 2 years ago from TalkTalk analogue phone service to Digital Voice. I know this is going to be a hassle as I have to manually cancel BT after switching to Community Fibre. I suppose after 2 years a wholesale network might be on offer or it might not be. It all depends on the economics and whether these Altnets can sustain themselves.

I needed this Community Fibre FTTP service 10 years ago, not now! This wayleave agreement was a massive obstacle and I'm not all that optimistic that a new wayleave will be agreed for another Altnet or Openreach FTTP any time soon. We may need new government legislation. At least in my case with EastendHomes I know what they are like, they are very difficult and incooperative. This wayleave happened after a long wait and there was a legislation for gigabit connectivity in March 2021 to help ease wayleave agreements. That's the only way I got upgraded to Community Fibre. But that doesn't mean that the authority that manages the building will agree for a second wayleave. They might make an excuse and say "well you've got Community Fibre", "what more do you want?!" That's their attitude.

I myself tried to request wayleave for Openreach FTTP last year and then someone else from my housing estate emailed me to inform me that Community Fibre was available. I was already well informed but I knew this was basically a mechanism to divert me from asking for an Openreach FTTP wayleave. I did not argue the case any further as I knew this was going to be pointless and lead to no avail.

So, I guess the hassle might be worth the sacrifice. Join Community Fibre at some point on a 24 month contract. If a better deal comes after 2 years and service is reliable then remain. If it's not available then a return to FTTC will still be available but it will be Digital Voice and not Analogue phone. If Openreach FTTP comes then migrating to FTTC becomes impossible as none of the packages will allow you to order FTTC (but that's only when Openreach FTTP becomes available, if at all).

Community Fibre has a 60 days satisfaction guarantee so if we are satisfied with the service or you have difficulty porting your landline then you can quit penalty free and remain on your old FTTC service. There's an option to get first month or 3 months free promo code for testing purpose.