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[chenks]

Cityfibre are currently installing their network in my town, got the letter saying they are about to carry out construction, and already see them in surround streets.

1 question though, how do you know which ISPs can utilise it?

do you have to wait until construction is complete before ISPs offer services on their network?
can you choose anyone? or are you limited to who whoever decides to utilise their network?

[Alex Atkin UK]

You are limited to whoever decides to use their network and can check who that is once its available for your address. https://www.cityfibre.com/residential/

[chenks]

i have a horrible feeling it's going to end up being vodafone

[meritez]

I spoke to Triangle Networks recently, they advised their residential arm FibreHop will be rolling out in Northamptonshire soon.

£36 for a gig up and down will do, with a £75 setup fee and 12 month contract plus WiFi 6 router.

[Alex Atkin UK]

i have a horrible feeling it's going to end up being vodafone

They are one of them, but we know Zen use CityFibre also.   Of course there is no guarantee every ISP that can use CityFibre, will at launch on a given exchange as I'd expect they might need to order more backhaul first.

[Chrysalis]

How long is it taking them to do your town chenks? they saying its 5 years to do my city from start to finish.

Regarding isps, I expect you wont be able to order until the work is considered complete by cityfibre, I also expect if an isp already has backhaul presence in the area for LLU services the likelihood increases for that isp been available.

You can use Zen's checker to see if they will be available, they should tell you either if its coming soon or not available.

[chenks]

they are already digging up the streets.
no idea how long it takes from construction to "go live", and we've had letter thru the door advising it's being done.

samknows says the only LLU operators at the exchange are Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk.
if those are going to be the only options then i'll be giving it a miss.

https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WSJOH
the exchange is like 100 yards away from the house.

[j0hn]

Samknows availability checker is useless.
My exchange hasn't been updated in about 7 years. Most of the site is the same.
They concentrate on the speed testing and whiteboxes now.

You will also find that CityFibre ISP availability and local OpenReach LLU availability have little to nothing in common.

[Alex Atkin UK]

You will also find that CityFibre ISP availability and local OpenReach LLU availability have little to nothing in common.

That's what I was thinking, I do not believe they would (can?) share backhaul with their Openreach circuits so it would entirely be on a case by case basis if the ISP thinks its a viable market to expand coverage in or not.

As for installation time, if one.network is anything to go by they seem to be moving MUCH slower than Openreach on my exchange.  So far they just seem to be going over the areas they already supply FTTC for Vodafone.  Those would naturally be easiest as they already have aggregation nodes, the areas they do not yet cover at all are going to be much slower than Openreach as they have to blow fibre where Openreach already have it.

[Chrysalis]

Well I was told otherwise by Zen themselves directly.  Note they not present in all cityfibre areas.

Alex if they have their own backhaul, they can of course use it for any purpose they want.  That's one advantage of it, you would build one separate network for each type of access technology?

[Alex Atkin UK]

Well I was told otherwise by Zen themselves directly.  Note they not present in all cityfibre areas.

Alex if they have their own backhaul, they can of course use it for any purpose they want.  That's one advantage of it, you would build one separate network for each type of access technology?

I was thinking more that if you bought enough backhaul to service customers with an 80/20 profile, you're not going to be able to offer a 1000/1000 service down that same backhaul without upgrading it.  Especially as Zen service relatively few exchanges with their backhaul, using TalkTalk instead most of the time.

[chenks]

well that's them arrived in my street now to dig up and lay the fibre.
the exchange is on my street and about 150 yards up the road from me, so i guess they left this street until last as all the fibre already layed will end up at the exchange?

[chenks]

what a strange dig/installation process.

so they dig a trench down the pavement, lay 2 purple pipes side-by-side in the trench.
then lay, what appears to be, fibre cable sitting on top of the pipes (not inside) and cover up everything with sand, and brush the dug out rubble back into the trench.

a "t point" is run to the property edge, where 1 of the, i assume, fibre cables it run up to.

i have to wonder what the 2 purple pipes are for as it doesn't appear to be for the fibre cables to run inside. any ideas?

[Ixel]

No idea - I guess they know what they are doing though?

Here, CityFibre generally appear to be making a mess where they work around the town and often take longer compared to Lightning Fibre's various roadworks.

[chenks]

i should add, the purple tubes don't continue down to the left, they are just running the thin purples wires in the trench as they are covered with sand and filled in with the rubble.
so if someone comes along later and digs into the pavement they'll, no doubt, sever the cable.

oh, and it has been noted that the crack in the pavement just below the loose piece of purple cable on the road only appeared when they dug up the pavement, so i will be paying close attention when they come to re-tarmac the trench to see if they also fix that. if not i'll be letting them know.