Community Fibre

[jonneymendoza]

So it's a terraced house that is a room with a bay window, then the front door/hall, then to the right of that is a second smaller room a few metres back from the front of the house. Two guys came to install it and I spoke to the first one and he said it couldn't go into the smaller room as there was a radiator in the way on the inside a drain pipe on the outside so there was no room to drill. There is a 20cm-ish gap between the top of the radiator and window so I suggested drilling it there but he said the radiator would melt the wires. I never use that radiator so was happy for it to go half way up the wall even though it would look a bit weird.

Then the second guy who was doing the drilling told me that the cable coming from the telephone pole can't go round corners (since this bit is a few metres back from the front of the house) which seemed a bit ridiculous as the final installation definitely does a few 90 degree turns. In the end I gave up and let me stick it under the bay window.

Ahh damm ok sounds like they couldn't be bothered putting some work in...

When I eventually get mine done, I'll ask them to run it on the side of my house to go underneath my stairs as I plan to install a 6u network rack there with the Internet access point from community fibre and all my other network stuff

 

[Caged]

The competition between providers leading to every install being "free" has sort of led to a point where you get the most basic install possible. If an install is going to take a couple of hours then I don't think most people would mind being asked to pay reasonable costs, the problem is that this isn't even offered.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Hmmmm, this is not good news then. I'm due to be taking up Community Fibre's 1gb offer in the next week or so. And really do need the ONT in a specific place further inside the residence (into the living room, so more than what the initial fibre has available hanging outside the front door), because the traditional location (earliest point from entry with power, so less of the initial fibre is needed) is in a somewhat cramped hallway, that my elderly (and mobility hampered) mother would instinctively try and "avoid" (by using less space to move with her walking sticks) which means she'll be at a greater risk of falling in doing so.

Should I call up Community Fibre when ordering to get this approved first so the engineers that arrive know that they need to extend the fibre to a further location first and pre-empt any potential fuss by the engineers or prevention of doing so by their head office due to time constraints put on the engineers?

 

[jonneymendoza]

Hmmmm, this is not good news then. I'm due to be taking up Community Fibre's 1gb offer in the next week or so. And really do need the ONT in a specific place further inside the residence (into the living room, so more than what the initial fibre has available hanging outside the front door), because the traditional location (earliest point from entry with power, so less of the initial fibre is needed) is in a somewhat cramped hallway, that my elderly (and mobility hampered) mother would instinctively try and "avoid" (by using less space to move with her walking sticks) which means she'll be at a greater risk of falling in doing so.

Should I call up Community Fibre when ordering to get this approved first so the engineers that arrive know that they need to extend the fibre to a further location first and pre-empt any potential fuss by the engineers or prevention of doing so by their head office due to time constraints put on the engineers?

Yea try and get it confirmed by the engineer

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Thanks, I'll have it confirmed over the phone first then as I order next week.

 

[doodah]

A little over 2 months later and got my £100 Amazon voucher for signing up .

Edit - oops sorry mods, thanks for the clear up.

 

[chaosophy]

Nice to see a few more people signing up for this, their continued roll out seems to be going well.

Since being with from the beginning of 2019 I've not had any issues with them, changed contracts a couple of times.

Started on 1000/1000 for £30pm for the first 6 months on an offer that then switched to the normal £50pm.
Then dropped down to a 400/400 for £27.50pm on a 2 year contract, that they had as an offer, to save a bit of money.
But am now back on another 2 year 1000/1000 contract for £25pm, which they kindly let me switch to even though I still had a few months left on the slower, more expensive contract.
Didn't really miss the 1000 speed when on the 400 but didn't hurt to switch back to the higher speed for £2.50 less pm.

£25pm for 1000/1000 FTTP still blows my mind considering different prices I've paid over the years for internet plus a landline I never used and have now got rid of.

re: Their engineers and fitting, I was lucky with mine. I live in a flat and where the cables were run it came in by the bedroom window and the engineer was great.
He ran extra fibre cable from the plate under the window, out the bedroom into the hall and then into a small cupboard where I have a switch for my internal CAT cabling.
Bit of a pain as we drilled a couple of holes and had to go up an over the ceiling from the bedroom door to the cupboard door but it's not really noticeable and means all the equipment is nicely out the way.

Saying all that though, I did notice that the time from me contacting them for my latest contract switch, to them getting back to me and then eventually getting moved to the new contract took a lot longer this time than the last time I switched.
This might have been down to me wanting to switch mid contract but I hope it's not a sign of them rolling out their service quicker than they are growing their back end support.

 

[R3X]

Got CF in my area, was considering a switch to them from VM how reliable has CF broadband been overall for you?

I have probably 12-15 outages per year by VM by comparison which is why I am considering them. BT 36Mb like once or twice in first 5-6 years.

 

[Kol]

Haven’t had a single bit of downtime since installed. I had a few with my BT FTTP. As mentioned above, my IP is pretty sticky, I’ve had to switch power off the house twice in the last couple of weeks and for over an hour yet retained the same IP. Speed is consistent, not suffered any slow downs.

This is my thinkbb quality monitor:



I’ve recently been streaming via game pass, when I was with VM a few years back GeForce now (similar game streaming platform) had what I eventually found was termed rubber banding. Not had anything like that on CF.

Plus, they have some decent intro deals and sweeteners to start off.

 

[chaosophy]

Got CF in my area, was considering a switch to them from VM how reliable has CF broadband been overall for you?

I have probably 12-15 outages per year by VM by comparison which is why I am considering them. BT 36Mb like once or twice in first 5-6 years.

I've been with CF for 3, coming up to 4, years and off the top of my head can only remember two issues.
Once when my speed dropped and my internet was patchy but that ended up being a damaged/loose cable outside of my flat that they fixed pretty quickly and one planned outage when they where doing some work.
May have been more that I don't remember but nothing comes to mind.
I have had a few mails from them over the years apologising for outages that never seemed to actually affect me.
Though I think they've grouped my building with another one nearby on their mailing list, so the mails weren't relevant.

Whatever the above, it's no where near the 12-15 you are seeing with VM. Think I'd remember if CF was that bad.

 

[R3X]

That is sounding positive, yeah pretty use to VM breaking down regularly my end its due to it being the main broadband provider, BT ADSL @ 36Mb is not really an option when VM do 1gig so id imagine the entire street leaped onto VM network.

 

[doodah]

Is Virgin really that bad for a lot of people? I hear so many stories of intermittent service, with my most recent experience of them - went down no more than a handful of times over 3 years. And then with CF, within my first month, had a near 2 day outage . Fortunately I was away on holiday.

 

[R3X]

Is Virgin really that bad for a lot of people? I hear so many stories of intermittent service, with my most recent experience of them - went down no more than a handful of times over 3 years. And then with CF, within my first month, had a near 2 day outage . Fortunately I was away on holiday.

It can be bad, having said that it never lasted 2 days like you had with CF, does CF have an accurate fault tracking website/page where its updated?

VM issues are strange, you can get yo yo dips or few hours offline or reduced speeds or just web page socket and time out errors, their fault tracking
site is ok but not accurate so for example if the bb goes sluggish it might not report any fault but then may suggest an engineer is tinkering to fix the TV issue on your area.

One thing I have learned is I need a back up internet hotspot, will be updating my phone and 5G and data plans next year.

 

[doodah]

It can be bad, having said that it never lasted 2 days like you had with CF, does CF have an accurate fault tracking website/page where its updated?

VM issues are strange, you can get yo yo dips or few hours offline or reduced speeds or just web page socket and time out errors, their fault tracking
site is ok but not accurate so for example if the bb goes sluggish it might not report any fault but then may suggest an engineer is tinkering to fix the TV issue on your area.

One thing I have learned is I need a back up internet hotspot, will be updating my phone and 5G and data plans next year.

No they don't, wasn't impressed with their systems (infrequently updated blog for service status) and method of contact when service was down. However been away made things a little more tricky, and they seemed to perk up once I tweeted them. I'll note this down as an outlier as they have been very impressive in just about every other department.

 

[R3X]

No they don't, wasn't impressed with their systems (infrequently updated blog for service status) and method of contact when service was down. However been away made things a little more tricky, and they seemed to perk up once I tweeted them. I'll note this down as an outlier as they have been very impressive in just about every other department.

cheers yeah others mentioned poor support in this regards, I guess VM at least bit more up front about it via their service website status.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Well, I've got my 1gbps (£25 per month) connection ordered for the 10th for installation (although not contacted by engineer yet about installation so that hurdle about installing further in the residence still needs to be crossed).

Didn't realise they only recently implemented the +£2 for continued rolling "out of" contract thing. So I'll only be paying £27 per month for 1gbps in 2 years time without even needing to haggle or anything. And not a moment too soon, those Black Friday (current ones at least) don't have the 1gbps option anymore with a discount, and of course the rolling contract on them goes back to the full price half way through the contract, so the 500mbps is £18.75 now, but the rolling "out of" contract goes to £37.50 + £2 (£39.50 per month) at the end of the contract.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Well, I've got my 1gbps (£25 per month) connection ordered for the 10th for installation (although not contacted by engineer yet about installation so that hurdle about installing further in the residence still needs to be crossed).

Didn't realise they only recently implemented the +£2 for continued rolling "out of" contract thing. So I'll only be paying £27 per month for 1gbps in 2 years time without even needing to haggle or anything. And not a moment too soon, those Black Friday (current ones at least) don't have the 1gbps option anymore with a discount, and of course the rolling contract on them goes back to the full price half way through the contract, so the 500mbps is £18.75 now, but the rolling "out of" contract goes to £37.50 + £2 (£39.50 per month) at the end of the contract.

I still have not got my house so i missed out on that deal

Gutted and i am hoping there is another deal for 1gb or even 3gb before end of January 2023

 

[Meddling-Monk]

I still have not got my house so i missed out on that deal

Gutted and i am hoping there is another deal for 1gb or even 3gb before end of January 2023

Ouch.

I'm sure they'll drop a 1gb (decent) deal again at some point, I saw a few since their availability from last year. £15 a month (initial "early adopter" offer, but I'm sure that used the old out of contract prices, so was going to be £49 or more after), £20 a month (again, old out of contract price after though) and recently a £25 a month (probably the best one, as the out of contract thing is nuts in the industry as I don't think anyone else does that). All inside the span of 18 months and that wasn't including some other offers here and there. So the chances are good a deal of some kind for 1gb will come up again soon; I think I remember there was offers during xmas and new years too, so lots of chances. Just need to keep fingers crossed they're not doing the half price method for half the contract period. As that uses the price of your last month + £2 for the rolling contract price.

I've never see the 3gb go on offer except for early adoption for the area though, so that one is probably not going to happen unfortunately unless if the place you're moving is newly accepting orders. :-/

 

[Meddling-Monk]

And connected. The Linksys is showing 930 down and up (my own computer however is only hitting 900 down and fluctuates on upload, but it's a cheap QualComm Atheros Gigabit motherboard NIC so to be expected). All done up quickly and professionally.

The two engineers were chatty but not overly so (perfect level of communicating with the cusomter). They did manage to install into the location further into the residence as requested (sounds like they carry 10m fibre cables and either need to patch or splice another into it if longer was needed, or have possibly a longer fibre cable; unsure which. But it was done in 10m so that was nice all around).

They unfortunately got a bit unlucky with parking, heard a loud crack as they phoned up as they arrived and I directed them to the residence, and think they struck a bollard on the side of their van as they manuevered into parking/making a turn. Saw there was a nasty gash on the side. Sorry fellas!

So just waiting two weeks now before I hand in notice to BT about ceasing their service - Landline and Broadband (as I don't need any hassle if anything goes wrong, as a lot of stuff - primarily medical and banking my mother relies on is tied to the landline that's being transferred and I don't need the hassle of trying to chase it back down if it gets lost in translation, so forking out a bit more to keep it smooth - will be updating it away from the landline over the next two years), when Community Fibre officially takes over the number (currently it's still with BT).

All in all, looking good so far.

Hoping when my new rig is finally assembled, the onboard NIC is better and gives better (and more consistent) speeds.

 

[Caged]

900 down on a "gigabit" residential broadband is about right. If you can tweak your own settings to get a bit more then go for it, but it's not anything I'd bother hassling the ISP over.