Over just a few short years’ CityFibre has grown itself into being one of the top largest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks in the United Kingdom. But it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of where they’re actively building, as well as where you can order a live service from an ISP. Hopefully this list will help.
Since work began in 2018, the operator’s £4bn investment programme has rapidly enabled their “full fibre” network to cover 1 million UK premises, and they currently aim to have 8 million premises “substantially completed” – across around 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025 (here).
At present they’re already actively building across 63 of their 285 planned locations, although most of those are still a long way away from reaching completion and the list of in-build locations is growing all the time. Once live, consumers tend to be able to pick from a selection UK ISPs, but they aren’t all live or available in every location yet.
In each location, the new network tends to go live gradually (phased approach) – as work is completed in each neighbourhood, although it can sometimes take around a year before the very first neighbourhood gets switched-on. One caveat here is that CityFibre may declare some areas as ‘Ready for Service‘ (RFS) before any ISPs are actually available to order a live connection from (we’ve reflected this in the list below).
The list below thus displays which of CF’s locations are in-build (Stirling and the odd other are technically complete, but CF are extending them), as well as which of those in-build areas have premises that are RFS and which of those in-build locations have RFS premises where it’s possible to order live services from a supporting ISP.
Just to be clear on the aforementioned points. CF’s network will currently only be live in SOME parts of the locations listed below, and we don’t have an exact list of which ISPs provide service to each listed location – it varies, and the list is much longer than the sample of ISPs we’ve mentioned above (e.g. in Bradford you’d probably be looking at Legend Fibre). But over time, the ISPs listed earlier should serve most or all of CF’s network (Vodafone are set to achieve this by around April 2022).
Separately, the following are CF build locations where ISPs will very soon be going live for local homes and businesses to order: Barnsley, Brighton & Hove, Eastbourne, Norwich, Plymouth, Poole, Sheffield, Weston-Super-Mare, Chatham & Gillingham, Chester, Crawley, Middlesbrough and North Tyneside.
Active Network Build Locations (63) |
Locations with RFS Homes (56) |
Locations with Live ISP Services (43) |
Aberdeen | Aberdeen | Aberdeen |
Adur & Worthing | Adur & Worthing | Adur & Worthing |
Barnsley | Barnsley | Bolton |
Bath | Bolton | Bournemouth |
Blackpool | Bournemouth | Bracknell |
Bolton | Bracknell | Bradford |
Bournemouth | Bradford | Bury St Edmunds |
Bracknell | Brighton & Hove | Cambridge |
Bradford | Bury St Edmunds | Cheltenham & Charlton Kings |
Brighton & Hove | Cambridge | Coventry |
Bury St Edmunds | Chatham & Gillingham | Derby |
Cambridge | Cheltenham & Charlton Kings | Dewsbury & Batley |
Chatham & Gillingham | Chester | Doncaster |
Cheltenham & Charlton Kings | Coventry | Dundee |
Chester | Crawley | Edinburgh |
Chichester & Arun | Derby | Glasgow |
Christchurch | Dewsbury & Batley | Gloucester |
Coventry | Doncaster | Harrogate |
Crawley | Dundee | Huddersfield |
Derby | Eastbourne | Inverness |
Dewsbury | Edinburgh | Ipswich |
Doncaster | Glasgow | Leeds |
Dundee | Gloucester | Leicester |
Eastbourne | Harrogate | Lowestoft |
Edinburgh | Huddersfield | Maidenhead |
Glasgow | Inverness | Milton Keynes |
Gloucester | Ipswich | Newcastle Upon Tyne |
Harrogate | Leeds | Northampton |
Horsham | Leicester | Nottingham |
Huddersfield | Lowestoft | Peterborough |
Inverness | Maidenhead | Portsmouth |
Ipswich | Middlesbrough | Preston |
Leeds | Milton Keynes | Reading |
Leicester | Newcastle Upon Tyne | Renfrewshire |
Lowestoft | North Tyneside | Rotherham |
Maidenhead | Northampton | Slough |
March | Norwich | Solihull |
Middlesbrough | Nottingham | Southend-on-Sea |
Milton Keynes | Peterborough | Stirling |
Newcastle Upon Tyne | Plymouth | Swindon |
North Tyneside | Poole | Wolverhampton |
Northampton | Portsmouth | Worcester |
Norwich | Preston | York |
Nottingham | Reading | |
Peterborough | Renfrewshire | |
Plymouth | Rotherham | |
Poole | Sheffield | |
Portsmouth | Slough | |
Preston | Solihull | |
Reading | Southend-on-Sea | |
Renfrewshire | Stirling | |
Rotherham | Swindon | |
Sheffield | Weston-Super-Mare | |
Slough | Wolverhampton | |
Solihull | Worcester | |
Southend-on-Sea | York | |
Stirling | ||
Sunderland | ||
Swindon | ||
Weston-Super-Mare | ||
Wolverhampton | ||
Worcester | ||
York |
Wait Wolves is live? Just checked some postcodes on their availability checker, checked my Dad’s address which has the lines underground for a long while and my address which is currently having the lines installed. Both are coming back saying they’re “planning” to build.
In Wolves here and for my postcode the CF website says “Our network is now live outside your home. Register below and be the first to know when you can get connected with one of our broadband partners.”
I did have a conversation with a small ISP a while back and they said that usually things go live on a postcode basis, so it isn’t a whole town/city at once.
Yes, this is why I wrote this paragraph:
“In each location, the new network tends to go live gradually (phased approach) – as work is completed in each neighbourhood, although it can sometimes take around a year before the very first neighbourhood gets switched-on. One caveat here is that CityFibre may declare some areas as ‘Ready for Service‘ (RFS) before any ISPs are actually available to order a live connection from (we’ve reflected this in the list below).”
But I’ve now added another paragraph into the article to help clarify the impact of this.
Gosh darn it , why won’t they come to my little town of 110,000 people. I honestly wish they would, not being facetious. Here it’s openreach VDSL, 4G or nothing.
110,000 and nobody has plans to build? Surely not?
What’s the town?
Join the club. Winchester, population 118K, zero builds in progress. No plans for the foreseeable (Openreach or any of the alt-nets).
Virgin Media in certain places but coverage is patchy. No 5G, and no plans either. VDSL or dreadful 4G are the only two options for most. Depressing.
They are building around their existing networks alongside building new ones if local authorities become anchor tenants.
If neither of the above apply you’re down the list somewhat. CF are targeting 1 in 4 households in the UK and can certainly do that expanding the existing networks and striking deals with local authorities.
CityFibre has been live in my street in Leeds for about 1.5 years now yet we’re still stuck with Vodafone only thanks to their stupid exclusivity agreement. A smaller ISP advised CityFibre won’t tell them when the network will be opened up to other ISP’s.
As I won’t touch Vodafone with a 100 foot pole CF didn’t gain my business when my previous FTTC contract ran out. Instead I’m now on FTTP via Openreach for another 2 years.
TalkTalk can only offer me their service via Openreach, just checked. Not available on CityFibre in my area.
Believe the exclusivity is 2 years, David, then the ISP have to pay to connect to your local FEX / Fibre EXchange which they may well not do if they don’t have infrastructure locally.
At some point CF should be able to make a national product available requiring far fewer NNIs and picking up traffic on much bigger areas but for right now the ISPs have to connect locally.
Just tried a random address in Hunslet Carr, Leeds – I got the choice of five ISPs back including one that I understand is using CityFibre’s national network. So the Vodafone exclusivity has been removed in some areas of Leeds already.
Checking back to the CityFibre press release at the end of last year it mentioned their national network was live in 23 cities and planned for 90 more by the end of 2023, Leeds was mentioned as live.
@anonymous – they’ve already launched a national NNI product. It appears there’s no longer a requirement to connect locally for all locations.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/11/cityfibre-launch-first-800gbps-backbone-ring-to-serve-uk-cities.html
I came to the same conclusion about RFS lacking providers in some cities with my own data collection. One thing that was not clear to me though, is will this category of RFS but not serviceable properties disappear in April(ish) when Cityfibre get network-wide providers?
Should do once everything is in place and ISPs pay up.
Likely a few larger operators will purchase and some will wholesale down the chain. Zen come to mind as likely contestants for this model.
Why April? The news item from last year said the first cities were already live on their national network option:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/11/cityfibre-launch-first-800gbps-backbone-ring-to-serve-uk-cities.html
@Anon – I suspect this comes from the reference in the article about Vodafone “achieving this around April” no idea what this is though as Vodafone went live on 11 November with National and have been adding cities since then on CityFibre. National rollout would be down to CityFibre not an ISP anyway?
Comment on Bradford and smaller ISP as the option is also strange given that was announced as live for Vodafone in their press release back in November.
Still no news on Halifax (Calderdale) work was suppose to start January 2022 with £23 million town wide roll out until subcontractors North Midland Construction called in administrators and no update what’s going on
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/12/uncertainty-looms-over-cityfibres-build-in-halifax-and-barnsley.html
I switched to city fibre and got billed £118.40.by talktalk. And internet isn’t any better after switching from phone line. Totally disgusted.
Did you check your WiFi? Sounds to me like you’ve got thick walls
I’m not getting any fiber as only get up to 36 my I live at 2dorge Lane. One forge Lane get over 72 my how that am asking please do not lie to me. I will catch you out of lie to me not be happy. I’m not happy with BT at all they rud3 as will call3d me gayboy.
Just pointing out Talktalk have exclusivity in York for the time being. Hoping for a bit more competition by the next time my contract renewal is due.
Interesting. My postcode (close to centre of Harrogate) returns “ Thanks for your interest, we haven’t planned your area at the moment.” despite very active ongoing work in many nearby streets over the past 2 or 3 weeks.
This is all very weird… I think their database is aweful… Signed up multiple times for updates but never received a single email
They just completing build in my area of Plymouth now. Slightly after Openreach FTTP which went live last month. I just upgraded to BT full fibre and it is brilliant.
Adur and Worthing, yeah right. Cityfibre mounting plates on the top of poles for two years now in East Worthing but zero action to actually run fibre in. In the mean time BT have overbuilt the whole area. So they are up against two other gigabit suppliers now, BT and Virgin. Hardly seems worth the effort any more.
Zero progress in Shoreham by Sea either, the other big Adur township. But at least BT haven’t overbuilt them there yet.
Keep an eye on the CF checker website. Register intrest also
CF laid Fibre on my street almost 2 years ago. Every time I ask about connectivity there are “difficulties connecting to my property”. Theres a junction box for their system right outside my house, if they can’t manage a connection the few feet from that junction box to my property, then I don’t think much to their service. They even make Virgin Media look efficient. A colleague at work had the street dug up a year after me and is already live.