Cityfibre Defer Billing on Gigabit Ethernet Installs for 90 Days

Full fibre and broadband network builder Cityfibre has informed their wholesale partners (UK ISPs etc.) that, in response to the uncertainty being caused by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, they will allow the deferring of billing on new Gigabit Ethernet installations for up to 90 calendar days.

The 90-day grace period will apply from the installation date of new orders of Cityfibre’s 1Gbps Ethernet Flex and bearer-based Ethernet circuits, unless the business customer requests the connection be activated sooner because they have returned to working from their office premises.

The new initiative currently covers orders placed until the end of May 2020, and also includes existing orders that customers have put on hold due to the lockdown.

Cityfibre’s Head of Wholesale, Andy Wilson, said:

“We understand the pressure our channel partners and their customers are facing in the current COVID-19 situation and are finding ways to help them and their customers wherever possible. We’ve listened carefully to partners’ experiences and concerns in recent weeks and developed this initiative to help them overcome customers’ fears about progressing with Ethernet installations when they don’t know how soon they’ll be able to return to their normal premises.

The UK Government has requested that telecommunications operators continue to build as well as maintain networks as COVID-19 impacts our daily lives, recognising that infrastructure is critical to allowing both society and the economy to function and to enable rapid economic recovery when the crisis is over. CityFibre is continuing to build while other infrastructure builders have needed to announce postponements to some elements of their business service provisioning – in the dates from which their site visits will resume, for example.

Our aim is to ensure customers’ installations can continue without disruption, so that their full fibre gigabit connections will be ready and waiting and they’ll be in a better place to support their operations when they return.”

Cityfibre has also developed other options to help their partners weather the storm, such as a new promotion that provides one month free on all 12 month unlimited ADSL and self-install FTTC broadband services ordered or migrated in April 2020.