Forest Hill telecoms upgrade - Community Fibre is coming

Bit of a weird one this, but has anyone else noticed all the white lines and arrows suddenly on the pavements all over Forest Hill?

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Seems to be always in white and often marked ‘BT’ or ‘NT’ (NTL?).

Could this mean some sort of upgrades are going on, or are things just getting fixed?

I was going to ask, seen them outside of Whites paints on Brockley Rise. Hoping this means FTTP is coming to this stretch.

I’ve seen them everywhere, but even in places where there is existing FTTP

Had a look on the Openreach website but nothing listed there:

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Community Fibre suggested to me last week that they might be working to provide services in the area - providing an alternative for many to Virgin’s fibre monopoly.

I have fibre (Devonshire). We were told by Openreach that only Sky and BT are advertising this is as available at the moment. Don’t know why.

I hope it’s a fix.

I have had to endure 2 months no internet between march and may.

This time, three weeks no internet since September 1st.

The fibre around here is old. Maybe they are finally getting round to upgrading it all so it stops breaking.

Maybe, and / or maybe they are adding extra capacity (I managed not to say bandwidth!) As I believe the local network is overly congested, or so an Openreach engineer told me once. I can only get a 3rd to a quarter of advertised speeds, and I think it’s just contention on the network.

Hope your issues are resolved soon, that sounds horrendous. Hope you got / get the automatic compensation.

I got a flyer through my door yesterday from Community Fibre, saying that they are about to deploy their full fibre network in the area - maybe it’s related to this?

That’s very exciting news! Is there any more concrete info on it than ‘we’re coming’? I haven’t had a flyer, but the aforementioned white paint is on the street practically by my front door, so assuming the two are indeed related then fingers crossed.

I will say for my part (only lived in the FH area for a couple of years) that my FTTC connection has been pretty quick and reliable, but at least some of the credit for that probably goes to the wonderful Zen.

At the moment (for my postcode at least) it’s just a chance to register your interest in their service - so just how near to - or far from - actually offering service they are is an open question.

You can check your postcode at their website - communityfibre.co.uk

Did you get “register interest” or “sign up for your early bird offer” after putting in your address? I got the latter which sounds encouraging, but as you say, still an open question.

Neither at the moment - want to do a bit more research on the company before I start interacting with them.

I called Community Fibre today to ask, and the lady I spoke to said that not only were they indeed installing in the area, but that availability would likely be within a month or so max. So nothing in writing but sounds very promising!

Some potentially helpful info follows for anyone less technically inclined — hopefully this is useful rather than patronising! First useful tidbit: Community Fibre run their own fibre network all the way, so their network isn’t in any way related to BT, Virgin Media or etc. Their connections are what’s known as fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), so they’re shiny and ultra modern all the way into your home. If you have fibre connectivity now (typically marketed as ‘up to’ 40Mb/s or 80Mb/s) from BT or another Openreach provider, this is what’s known as fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC). The difference is that a fibre connection goes to street level, then the last stage is copper wiring into your home, hence the need for a traditional phone line, line rental and the potential for various elements to go wrong, plus the low speeds available (at least when compared to FTTP connections!).

FTTP connections are also symmetric, meaning the upload and download speeds are identical (rather than the 80/20 download/upload speeds typical with ‘regular’ fibre). So if you spend a lot of your time sending files to others, especially large ones, this alone can be a game changer.

I got the latter as well, I am hugely hopeful as neither Open Reach or Virgin appear to have any plans for FTTP to us, and Hyperoptic depressingly but honestly says ‘we won’t be seeing you anytime soon’ or something along those lines.

That said I don’t know much about Community Fibre so better start reading. My Vodafone / Open reach line has in fairness been very stable, just half the speed advertised, same with BT, and uploads are horrificly slow.

Openreach at least state that Forest Hill will go FTTP ‘between April 2022 and April 2025’, which is vague enough to not be mega useful.

Virgin Media have actually recently decided to switch their entire network to full fibre to future proof their network. If Community Fibre are indeed imminent, and Openreach are on the vague horizon, whether they would bother anytime soon with such a saturated market is probably an open question.

I would say, though, that although competition is always good, a properly modern fibre network is indistinguishable from another (in a good way!). It’s not like a traditional copper connection where you sometimes have to read the tea leaves to determine whether or not your distance from the exchange and planetary alignments might slow you down. If you pay for 300Mbps, you’ll probably get that full speed pretty much all that time.

Hope I’m not spamming the thread too much! I’m just overcome with joy at the prospect of having a super fast connection at home, having been keeping half an eye on various providers for most of the time I’ve lived here

I hope you have better luck than me. I have FTTP and started in February 2021. In total, I am now approaching three months without service. The infrastructure here around Honor Oak park is antique as it was a trial area when they introduced the service to the country 10 years ago. They fix one thing, another breaks. They fix the second thing, there is too much pressure on the third so that breaks. Each time openreach needs to dig up a road.

Better to get your internet over mobile. I get 30mbs from ee and use another old mobile as a hotspot.

I am very frustrated with bt but I wish you all luck!

This is one of my vague worries - if Community Fibre are going to pull their own fibre through the existing conduits and telecoms pits, or even if they dig their own parallel trenches, there’s potential it could damage or disrupt the existing infrastructure which seems fragile.

On the other hand if they were just another provider using OpenReach infrastructure, we couldn’t expect them to be much different in terms of offering.

BT FTTP packages are still sold as being asymmetric. I think this is to differentiate between business and residential packages \ pricing.

That’s definitely a concern I suppose. Community Fibre do indeed run their own fibre and are not using existing Openreach infrastructure.

Presumably in these situations they have to collaborate with existing providers where necessary to avoid such issues, so hopefully they won’t disrupt existing services. This however is a complete guess as I’ve no real idea how that part of an install works!

Ah yes, you’re right. I was thinking of Community Fibre as their connections are symmetric, as per their site. They even offer a 3Gbps connection (area dependent), which is mad, but bodes well overall in the sense of getting advertised speeds.

Defo Community Fibre, I spotted this earlier, where some white lines and arrows had been:

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Does anyone have a map of where this installation will cover?

I messaged Community Fibre on Twitter to ask about my road specifically and they confirmed it, though they didn’t get into specific dates. May be worth doing the same (or emailing) to check.

I’m not sure where a lot of you are getting the Openreach information. Devonshire Road, forest hill end has been FTTP for ten years.

As in wired up directly to the house for 300+mb

Openreach info from here:

Aren’t City fibre and community fibre two different things though?

Ahh, sorry — that’s what I meant! Edited accordingly.

Checked my postcode (just off Stanstead Road) on the Community Fibre site and it said “… we’re bring full fibre cable to you within the next few months.” VirginMedia hasn’t been bad here in terms of service availability, but speeds have been mediocre. I’ll be happy to sign up for something better.

There is also good news if you’re up Kirkdale and up near the top of Dartmouth Road.

I’ve seen workmen working on the cable boxes and laying cable underground towards the end of this week and this weekend.

Today I spotted the Community Fibre logo on one of the vests of the workmen which means we finally have an alternative to Virgin Fibre in this area.

I’m glad this is happening as I’ve been searching for an alternative to Virgin as their service has been awful the last 6 months and sadly BT don’t want to extend their Fibre - welcome to the area Community Fibre, lets hope the prices are competitive!

Has anyone heard anymore about this in terms of timescales or been able to place an order?

I registered an interest on their site, but haven’t heard anything yet.

Yep – I registered interest a while back and got a couple of sales calls but haven’t heard anything since.

Community Fibre have already installed their kit on the Southwark side where they have up to 3GB download speed.

Has anyone heard anymore? I tried to register my interest but the website keeps falling over.

I’d walk barefeet over broken glass to finally get any sort of Fibre to my part of Devonshire Road. Every time my wife does a Teams call my connection just falls apart - not great since I work in IT!

I’m in the same boat! Just moved in on the south end of Devonshire. No current fibre connection due to BT/Openreach decision not to connect multi-dwelling units (or so I gathered from other forum posts). Can currently only get the “up to 17Mbps” download speeds from any provider (we’ve looked into them all) and the abysmal 1Mbps upload, which just won’t work for video calls while working from home. So we’re currently hotspotting our mobile plans, but they can be spotty for us, so certainly not feeling like a long-term solution. Really hoping that something comes of all this!

I’m sure I read a post from someone living in a multi-dwelling unit on Devonshire Road, some time back, indicating there is a team you can speak to that can get homes like that hooked up to fibre.

Openreach have been adamant with me that they’re not planning on doing MDUs on Devonshire Road anytime soon. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is that they won’t upgrade our cabinet to FTTC because we’re now an FTTP area, but they won’t install FTTP because we’re an MDU. It leaves people like us in an utter state of limbo.

I can completely understand your frustration. I did manage to find the post where someone in an MDU had managed to get fibre installed to themselves and their neighbours, so it might be worth pursuing this approach, if you haven’t tried it already:

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[hmm forgive the autorotation. it’s straight when I upload it.]

…oooh I wonder if that’s what this is on Waldenshaw too. I would love some FTTP

I’ve called Community Fibre a couple of times previously to clarify their plans, and both times I got a fairly vague answer that left me uncertain whether they were even coming to the area. Thankfully today I got a very helpful lady who said that not only were they definitely coming, but they’ve secured wayleave (which is apparently the longest part of the process) and so although she couldn’t give me an exact timeframe, I got an impression that it’d be sooner rather than later.

I have no idea whether wayleave is granted on a street-by-street basis or if they can get blanket permission for X number of streets from the council or etc — maybe someone else here may be more clued up process wise. In any case, if anyone is curious about their street’s status, I’d recommend giving Community Fibre a call to clarify. Progress!

Not heard from them but I’ve noticed some new fibre boxes on various telegraph poles around me. They are alot lower than the BT ones.
Here’s one near me on Como Road. If you look closely it says community fibre on the label

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Some guys laying cable along existing channels in Devonshire this week, they said it’s for BT.

Checking my postcode on Community Fibre’s homepage now gets me ‘Great news, we’re bringing full fibre broadband to you within the next few months.’, compared to the prior generic ‘we’re building our network’ message. I’ve been checking regularly for a while so this is definitely a recent development!

Community Fibre has been working on the corner of Lowther Hill and Brockley Rise for the last few days:

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Edit - and siimilar work on the corner of Agnew Road and Brockley Rise.

We had ours installed today - Vancouver Rd. Called Wednesday, installed today and 1st 6 months free for Black Friday special. Gone from EE upload of 2 mbs to 530 mbs. Plus coverage in entire flat. Happy days

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Anyone else had this through their door?

I have! Hoping ‘soon’ is, well, soon and not many months.

Where are you roughly? More HOP or FH end? I am praying but nothing here so far.

FH, fairly close to the station (Signal/Sainsbury’s side).

I was on the waiting list and just got my phone call to say they are ready on Como Road and I signed up
Installer coming Thursday
49£ 1gb up. 1gb down
6 months free.

We’re just on David’s Road, near the Signal.

I’m hoping soon is soon as well!

How long were you on the waiting list out of interest?

I’m not sure to be honest. It’s not really a waiting list. More an interest list.

They posted a leaflet through my door a couple of months ago saying coming soon to the area and register interest one their website

Not sure if there’s a connection to turning on high interest areas first or more likely just rolling out across the area street by street

Did you notice any road works on your street being completed before it became available?

Just had an email saying that Community Fibre is now available in Kemble Road.

I’ve heard that Taymount Grange, on Taymount Rise, has now secured Community Fibre. I too live on Taymount Rise, and the same firm that laid the cables for TG will be laying them in the new year for our block. Will report back on how it goes.

I’d be interested to hear how people are getting on with Community Fibre if they’ve had it installed.

We currently have FTTP via BT which is brilliant but are hoping to move in a couple of weeks within SE23 (and it has Community Fibre according to my search ready for install) and I’m wondering if this is a better option

BT FTTP is good, my husband and I can both WFH and do video calls at the same time but I like the fact you don’t need a landline or to pay for one, making this package much more attractive.

Highly recommend. We changed beginning of December and had no issues since then. Previously both struggling to WFH due to download / upload speeds on EE. Now super fast. We don’t have landline either

Another recommendation here for Community Fibre, we struggled for over a decade with BT ADSL with no chance of fibre shared between five of us, spent about 3 years arguing with Virgin to connect us as they said the tree outside had damaged the cable and recently got Community Fibre which was the most painless and easy to install with a fibre line between the BT telegraph pole across the road and our house.

I have screenshotted the results as I now have three Internet providers coming into the house and may now consider going back down to one.

Community Fibre has the best speed, downloads 25% faster than Virgin but 6 times the upload speed and a third of the latency/delay/ping which is good for gamers and some specialist applications.

BT looks weak in comparison but although slow has proved very reliable and gives a good discount on BT Sport if you need it.

If you are interested in signing up for Community Fibre and want a £100 Amazon Voucher, I’ll get one as well, feel free to use this link Full Fibre Broadband up to 3 Gbps | Unlimited Fibre Broadband | Community Fibre or PM me

Community Fibre

Virgin

BT

All speed tests done on the same laptop using a wifi connection with Google’s Internet speed test.

Out of interest what package do you have with Community Fibre? Is the 250.7 Mbps download a wired or wifi connection?

I have got the 1Gb package. I think you can get higher speeds using wired and initially when the routers only were tested they were nearer that speed but I only use wifi so the figures shown are for wifi.

I use my own router, so I’ll need to configure it to connect to Community Fibre network with their ISP log on details. Has anyone done similar with Community Fibre and was it a seamless process? Doing so with Vodafone a few years ago was not easy…

I believe that they run a fibre cable into a small box (about the size of a pack of playing cards) that kicks out to a regular ethernet port and cable. You should be able to just plug that straight in to your preferred router without any special settings — lots of UK ISPs use PPPoE which requires usernames and passwords, but not this sort of connection. If you have that set on your router currently you’d just change it to auto DHCP or equivalent (I’m sure their engineers can help should you get stuck, failing that myself or someone here).

There’s a video here showing the full install process and it looks basically identical to when I had fibre installed at my office by a different firm so I’m pretty confident the above is accurate.

Having expressed interest I am being offered Community Fibre broadband to replace my Virgin Media one.

Online current Community Fibre packages show £20pm for 75Mbps, or £25pm for 300Mbps. Both are better performance than Virgin and significantly cheaper.
I’m told if I respond to the phone approach made by them I can get a discount on these figures.

Has anyone local taken up Community Fibre recently? Sounds like they are very keen to increase customer base locally and I’d be interested to know what it may be possible to negotiate.

They were offering 1Gbps for £25pm (or 100Mbps for £20pm ) for most of January. Too late for them to be live on my street, and they said on the phone that that’s about as low as their offers normally go, but hopefully those numbers give you something concrete to aim at.

I spoke to a chap on the phone after ‘expressing interest’. The offer online at the time was £25 / month for 1gb and that was his offer too. He wasn’t fussed whether I purchased online or through an him, so I suspect he couldn’t beat it, but perhaps since that offer is now over a phone person might beat it. Otherwise either use the referral link above or PM me for one to get £100 of Amazon vouchers for signing up.

Switched from Virgin Media to Community fibre last week – really easy free installation and straight onto superfast broadband. And half the price of Virgin Media’s slower offering.

Hi we’ve very recently taken up community fiber and had it installed this week and only had working service for 3 days total. Unfortunately the internet has been down for the last 2 days and had zero response from them despite trying to get in touch. Not sure if this has anything to do with the storm, but feel like there is no customer service when things go wrong. For now, I’d stick to who you’re with for a bit longer till they build up their company to accommodate issues like this!