Full Fibre - Will there ever be competion?

Mike_J_Smith · 15 Sep 2023 at 10:59

Our neighbourhood has recently been upgraded to Full Fibre by GigaClear and I intend to take one of their packages next year once my 2 year deal with Virgin for normal broadband finishes.

Gigaclear are doing lots of deals at the moment to try and get people to make the switch; but most of them are 18-24 months, after which the rates pretty much double.

As far as I know, I can only get Full Fibre through Gigaclear so I was wondering whether that will ever change (like now the broadband lines are owned by BT but you can get broadband through a number of suppliers). Without that competition, I fear prices might soar once we've made the switch. Is there any news out there on how this will play out long term?

Caged · 15 Sep 2023 at 11:01

You have a choice of two gigabit-capable services which is quite good going compared to a lot of people. If Gigaclear don't give you a decent renewal deal then go back to VM on a new customer deal, rinse and repeat.

picnic · 15 Sep 2023 at 11:04

I was in the desert of no fibre until last year and then in the space of 4-6 weeks I could get an alt.net (LitFibre), BT Openreach and Virgin. I guess depending on where you are BT or Virgin may come and join the party.

Also it appears GigaClear do have resellers, https://gigaclear.com/our-partners

Mike_J_Smith · 15 Sep 2023 at 13:05

Caged said:
You have a choice of two gigabit-capable services which is quite good going compared to a lot of people. If Gigaclear don't give you a decent renewal deal then go back to VM on a new customer deal, rinse and repeat.

VM don't offer the fibre, just standard broadband.

picnic said:
I was in the desert of no fibre until last year and then in the space of 4-6 weeks I could get an alt.net (LitFibre), BT Openreach and Virgin. I guess depending on where you are BT or Virgin may come and join the party.

Also it appears GigaClear do have resellers, https://gigaclear.com/our-partners

Ah OK that's useful. A bit of competition should hopefully keep prices in check, although I guess it'll be at a premium for a few years yet.

timmy85 · 15 Sep 2023 at 22:39

VM have plans to replace all coax with FTTP.

Virgin Media O2 announces 2028 full fibre upgrade plan

Virgin Media O2 has today announced its intention to upgrade its fixed network to full fibre to the premises (FTTP) with completion in 2028.

www.libertyglobal.com

So they might not offer full FTTP yet, but they will in the next few years if your on coax with them.

fish · 19 Sep 2023 at 01:53

thankfully city fibre are now cabling the whole of loughborough so we have some competition with vm.

Rroff · 19 Sep 2023 at 04:38

I do wonder what the future is with all this sprawl of alternative fibre providers often with different approaches and equipment, etc. I think the future is probably going to be a bit of a cluster ****.

We seem to be in a dead zone for BT FTTP ever coming here, GigaClear and Wessex are maybes that have been saying since forever they are "soon" another provider has been playing silly games in the area to try and put people off because they offer overpriced WiFi alternatives in the area but according to an ex-employee have zero intention of actually providing fibre to the area just saying it is coming sooner than the competition to try and put people off going with them in the hope they seem less demand and don't bother coming here...

Fortunately as things stand there is FTTC which manages 30-35/6 for latency sensitive stuff and lately EE 4G has been hitting speeds of 100+Mbit for downloads so we can make do, but many of our neighbours are still stuck on ADSL and get more like sub 20Mbit on 4G.

BUDFORCE · 19 Sep 2023 at 08:13

I get full FTTP through Zen internet, on a lifetime price guarantee, had it for a year maybe.

They gave me a pretty good discount for being a customer for so long.

Gigaclear are around here at the moment (literally outside my house today) digging all the bloody paths up (and even tried to dig up a neighbours garden) I'm not sure they realise openreach already has the infrastructure in lol.

Rroff · 21 Sep 2023 at 19:55

Got someone from Wessex, out the blue, coming tomorrow to do a survey - dunno what is up with GigaClear the rep said they'd be here end of September at the latest but still nothing and they don't appear to have even started doing any work to connect up the last 4-5 miles to us... (Wessex originally said they'd be here in June as well).

WJA96 · 26 Sep 2023 at 13:46

We have a choice of Openreach (asymmetric 900/110), Upp (symmetrical 1Gbps) and LightSpeed (symmetrical 1 Gnps) and I can confirm that competition is a good thing. I’m currently paying under £35 per month for the 900/900 Upp service with a fixed IP address and it’s fabulous. We also have a business connection with Upp that is true 1Gbps symmetrical with a fixed IP address but since Upp are now offering fixed IPs to residential customers I’ll be ditching that for another 900Mbps residential connection when the contract expires.

Blinkz · 26 Sep 2023 at 22:24

I’m jealous of you all with multiple FTTP options. We were supposed to have Toob covering my area, and they even started laying cable in my street however they’ve now revoked all their plans for my area, and won’t release the reason for it. They now have no plans to cover us

I shouldn’t complain I supposed as I have VM but they are just so expensive it’s crazy. I’ve just come to the end of my contract with VM and was hopeful to move over to Toob but that’s now not an option. I’ll have to try the ‘cancel and wait for retentions’ trick.

Altho having look at the VM website, it seems they are now offering a lot more Sky channels, and Sky UHD channels so I might look at getting a deal with all of it so can cancel my sky package…

Hopefully one day I’ll get FTTP!

Delta3D · 26 Sep 2023 at 22:30

I feel like most of these little companies cropping up everywhere will end up being bought out by someone larger. YouFibre etc.
And then Openreach providing usual competition.

MrRockliffe · 27 Sep 2023 at 09:43

fish said:
thankfully city fibre are now cabling the whole of loughborough so we have some competition with vm.

Good news that. VM was always over subbed due to the number of students. Fine in summer but come autumn/winter/spring it could get really congested.

Hades · 27 Sep 2023 at 09:51

Lucky you to have a choice of two. I don't even get it in my area until 2026.

BUDFORCE · 27 Sep 2023 at 10:11

Delta3D said:
I feel like most of these little companies cropping up everywhere will end up being bought out by someone larger. YouFibre etc.
And then Openreach providing usual competition.

Yea 100%, they'll foot the cost putting all the infrastructure in, then get screwed and bought up by larger companies.

Modern day NTL.

WJA96 · 28 Sep 2023 at 08:15

Delta3D said:
I feel like most of these little companies cropping up everywhere will end up being bought out by someone larger. YouFibre etc.
And then Openreach providing usual competition.

There is truth in what you say, and also some of the “smaller” companies are actually trading names of already huge companies. Does it really matter in the final analysis? As long as they are not all owned by the same company there will still be competition.

Delta3D · 28 Sep 2023 at 16:33

WJA96 said:
There is truth in what you say, and also some of the “smaller” companies are actually trading names of already huge companies. Does it really matter in the final analysis? As long as they are not all owned by the same company there will still be competition.

I can't imagine it'll matter no. But will be good to have competition against the likes of BT.

I don't want to end up in a situation where the only provider in my street decides they want to charge £60 a month instead of £30

Rroff · 28 Sep 2023 at 18:50

Weird setup here - I'm not 100% on the details but BT seem to have run a fibre loop out to a field 200m from us despite no FTTP offering coming here from BT, then Wessex is coming in to dig to connect the houses, though no time frame given and generally just a shambles of no one really know what is going on... meanwhile GigaClear is coming in via the overhead poles but again just a shambles of no one really knowing when or where or why or what.

Rroff · 28 Sep 2023 at 18:54

WJA96 said:
There is truth in what you say, and also some of the “smaller” companies are actually trading names of already huge companies. Does it really matter in the final analysis? As long as they are not all owned by the same company there will still be competition.

Most of the smaller ones are essentially owned/funded by a small number of investment firms such as Infracapital, who just want a "oven ready" product, don't want to spend money on customer services, etc. etc. and I suspect will squeeze people in the longer run and/or sell them off if/as they become a cost burden, etc. etc.

bimbleuk · 28 Sep 2023 at 18:57

I didn't know I had FTTP available until Plusnet phoned me offering to move my FTTC bundle over for zero cost. Openreach had installed the boxes on my side of the street quite discreetly.

By the time Openreach had failed to turn up twice Lit started to offer a much better 500/500 deal with no inflation adjustments.