
Broadband provider Olilo has informed us that they’re hoping to launch a new package offering symmetric speeds of 5Gbps (5,000Mbps) via full fibre (FTTP) network supplier CityFibre in the near future. Tentative pricing for the new package is previewed below, but an exact launch date and plan is still to be decided.
Regular readers might recall that CityFibre first launched their 5.5Gbps tier at wholesale for ISP partners in June 2025 (here) – often advertised as c.5Gbps, which was then promptly followed by Sky Broadband becoming the first major ISP to adopt it in July 2025 (here). A year has now passed and so far no other internet providers have introduced similar packages over the same network.
CityFibre previously informed ISPreview that their “multi-gig broadband is not an exclusive product” to Sky, although while some ISPs have been able to launch 2.5Gbps tiers, they’ve often struggled to do the same with 5.5Gbps, until now. Lest we forget that such a package tier does impose some significant network capacity requirements, so it’s not an easy product to introduce without plenty of network preparation.
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At present it’s not clear precisely when Olilo’s 5Gbps package will be ready to go live, but they’re planning to price it at £70 a month for the first 6 months, then £75 a month after on a 30-day rolling contract. Customers can already register their interest today at olilo.co.uk/cityfibre/v5.0 and will be emailed once ordering opens for their address.
Olilo Statement
The new tier runs over the same CityFibre XGS-PON network as Olilo’s existing 900Mbps, 1.2Gbps, and 2.3Gbps plans, pushing the ceiling to a full 5Gbps symmetric – enough to saturate a 10GbE port in both directions. Every plan detail carries over: a static IPv4, a /48 IPv6 prefix, no CGNAT, and no traffic shaping.
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We already run a 2.3Gbps symmetric tier on CityFibre, and a chunk of our home-lab and self-hosting customers were maxing it out. 5Gbps is the next real step up – not a marketing number, an actual doubling of usable throughput in both directions.
We’re publishing the price now, ahead of general availability, so nobody’s guessing what it’ll cost when it does go live.
This is naturally a product for more advanced users with much bigger needs, as realistically this is significantly more speed than regular consumers would presently require or even be able to harness (most online services can’t yet send data to end users this fast). But if you want it, then hopefully soon you’ll be able to have it. Mind you Sky Broadband did just start doing 5Gbps for £45 per month on a 24-month term (here), although not every part of the network currently has enough spare capacity to be able to offer it.
At this point it’s worth highlighting how CityFibre only recently made symmetrical speeds of 8.5Gbps available to their UK ISP partners (here), although thus far we haven’t seen a single ISP move to launch a related package and that’s probably due to the capacity and demand challenges. At present only a very few ISPs can offer packages this fast, such as YouFibre (Netomnia) and B4RN, albeit via different networks.
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Can Olilo confirm the links in their network and all the way to Cityfibre are larger than 10GE to support these products?
They said in their Discord, they upgraded to 100Gig not to long ago
“…pushing the ceiling to a full 5Gbps symmetric – enough to saturate a 10GbE port in both directions”
A 10GbE is full-duplex – 10Gb in both directions. So it wouldn’t saturate it by any stretch.
Good catch! We were aiming to convey that it’s a service intended for customers with 10GbE networking rather than suggesting it would literally saturate a 10GbE interface. We’ll tweak the wording to make that clearer. Thanks for pointing it out!
This is not even available via their provider Veloxserv, and there is no confirmed date, nor can anyone place orders. Bit of a misleading marketing reach when it’s not even been being provided. In fact, i’ve heard comms are being asked to be pulled on this matter in regards.
I wonder if CityFibre got realistic on port prices or if Olilo are paying them as a cost of offering a premium product.