Community Fibre Reviews

2024 update

I've still got Community Fibre having signed up for a second 2 year contract a few months back.

I've gathered a bit more information from my and others use of Community Fibre.

For their basic connectivity package the full marks still stand.

After a friend had considerable difficulty with a number port, personally I would avoid their phone service.

It isn't sufficiently "integrated" to make it worth taking over a freestanding UK based VoIP supplier and over time you would be financially better off to do so as you pay for a phone "adaptor" through the rental over the 2 years.

You do get an IPv6 block of addresses. How well that works for you depends on the router you have and how you set it up. I don't know how the Community Fibre supplied router does.

2022 review

The Community Fibre offering is primarily Internet. There are phone and TV add ons but the main attraction is a fast symmetric Internet connection.

This works well and from my experience the installers will position the fixed part of the system (the incoming fibre and ONT) as you ask.

As expected from a fibre service the speed tests as expected.

The pricing and offers seem to change very frequently so if you are in an area where service is available and "sitting out" an existing contract you might be wise to keep an eye on comparison sites to see what a "good" price is.

I helped a disabled mum and daughter for home broadband. About 4 months later into a 24 month contract @£26 they were relocated by Sutton Housing Partnership with a month's notice (they were categorised as top priority) to a more suitable flat with a lift; the previous flat had 4 flights of steep stairs.

Community Fibre was soon informed, and proof of relocation was requested.

I sent in 3 attachments - laptop; similarly Fiona (disabled mum) -iphone. But, Community Fibre repeatedly said they could not open attachments because they were sent from an iphone; attachments from me from a laptop could not be read either. This is after several email exchanges and phone calls.

I was charged over £526 (full) for the remaining 20 months. Now Fiona will have to reimburse me; she's on benefit and social housing.

How could Community Fibre be so uncompassionate, and showing a distinct lack of understanding? This relocation was forced upon by medical reasons.

Yours sincerely,
Len

I say don't use them because you will be making the Internet just a bit worse. Why? They utilise IPv6 but they don't let you have a single (1) (uno) IPv6 public IP address. Please google how many IPv6 addresses are available (yes they they are here because we are running out of IPv4). Yes, they are behind CGNAT so you cannot use IPv4, I thought that's fine I can just use port forwarding on IPv6, but no. I called them and messaged them to confirm. All they say is that port forwarding happens on their end, so if you want port open .. yes you guessed it, you have to pay for premium broadband deals and then let them know what you want open. They can give you a public ip if you pick the most expensive broadband deal though, so it isn't that bad right ? ;). Well if you go this route, other ISPs will join the chase, so don't support this. Go for ISP that gives you a public IPv6 and not make you pay for it. You will be unlikely to get public IPv4 for free, but if you do, that's a bonus! I'm also disappointed with the service, unfortunately these are not really technical people so its really hard to speak with anyone and have answers to your questions, i.e. one person says that IPv6 public IP is available, but another says its not.

Being of a certain age, I have land-line phones in several rooms. They were originally all BT 'bell' phones, but over the years changed piecemeal to DECT. So 4 DECT base stations. I wanted to retain this when going VOIP from fibre. CF said not possible - only one DECT base station possible. (Some DECT phones can be re-paired to a single base station but not all) So after the CF install, I had one base station only connected. After my BT number was ported over and working OK, I disconnected the BT line from the house wiring. Added a BT socket at the start of the house phone wiring. Used a BT to RJ11 lead (as used on all the DECT base stations) to connect to the CF VOIP adaptor. All the house phones now work as before.

I had two failed installation appointments by Community Fibre, but when the engineer finally came he was very good and very helpful. The TV and Broadband have been working perfectly, but the main problem I am now having, is Community Fibre have still not ported my landline number. I placed my order online on the 6th July, the installation was finally completed on the 22nd July. Now a month later my landline has still not been ported. This is despite phone calls and emails. The last email was to Graeme Oxby the CEO, I have not even had a reply from him. This landline number is literally life and death for my wife because of her health, it is a contact number for many NHS departments. The porting process should only take 12 working days, hence the reason I have only given a 1 star. Why am I being completely ignored?

I've had Community Fibre 3Gbps for around 5 months.

The installation process was not without hiccups. While the engineer turned up on time and got things going, they gave me the wrong ONT (2.5Gbps port) despite me having signed up to a 3Gbps plan.

While the last mile connection (XGS-PON) was rock solid, they've had some wobbles in their core network portions:
1. Weird routing issues which preventing some CloudFlare endpoints from being accessed (not confirmed but resolved)
2. IPv6 prefix delegation resizing - it gave me a good 2 weeks of on-and-off IPv6 connectivity (confirmed)

These issues were unlikely to be noticed by the average user (prob swept under the carpet of bad wifi issues), but as I am an experienced engineer working with internet technologies, I found it extremely difficult to escalate these technical issues through their support ever since they outsourced to a South African company.

Every time I tried to raise a fault with CF support I was told to download the Linksys app and do a bunch of IT Crowd esque troubleshooting steps. Needless to say it was frustrating at the very least.

Otherwise, their internet had been solid ever since those wobbles, for the price that I am paying (currently £49/month, 3Gbps, no wifi package) I am happy with the service. Just pray I won't have to contact their support any time again soon!

I wanted to change my internet contract because Virgin is expensive with old customers. So, I did some research on who is in my area, I contacted the one that seemed most convenient Community Fibre. I called them, they gave me a new contract, made an appointment with the engineer. Two engineers came and told me the same is not possible to install anything, they sends the report in front of me.
I call to cancel the contract, they tell me it's cancelled, they send me an email saying it's cancelled.
A few days later they send me an email asking how the service is going.
All the emails they send are no replay, I call again, they pass me left and right. until a guy assures me that the contract is cancelled for sure. I cannot tell you how many time this repeated, I call, I write emails, they assures me that the contract is cancelled and is not, they lie unashamedly. I warn them not to dare to take money, they did it anyway. Moral of the story, never use them ever, don't give them your bank details, and spread the voice they are the worse scammer on the market. If I could give them less that 1 star I would, gladly.

I signed up to Community Fibre for their 3Gbps speed in July 2023. The installation process was delayed due to them not having enough Technicolor routers in stock that can handle 3Gbps, it took 3 weeks to solve the issue (Community fibre engineers carried out my install and they were fantastic).

I also recommended CF to my parents and a friend of mine, who had extremely poor installation experiences due to Community Fibre relying on Kelly Communications for installations. Missed appointments and aborted visits numerous times, it was a disaster. Community Fibre customer service is also lacking as they clearly can not keep up with their massive growth.

Still, I do recommend them as their speeds are actually incredible and in about 9 months of being a customer I have had ZERO downtime! This is brilliant and I love their service, I have never had an ISP be this reliable. If you sign up, be aware of them using a third party like Kelly Communications for your install, but once its all up and running you should be fine. Hopefully as time goes on they will increase their customer service staff numbers too.

I also filmed a YouTube video regarding my experience which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpxf873ypc8

Thanks for reading my review.

Community Fibre is great,
I get 4gb for £49 a Month
I also have their Call Package
for £10 a Month and their TV Package
also for £10 a Month

The Internet is great,
I get 4gb download speeds all the time
and uploads as well
It has not cut out once, it is very reliable
I also upgraded my Router
to the Linksys Wifi 6E one
and I use the 6Gz Channel,
it has no congestion at all

The Call Package is Okay
but I cannot make Calls to some Businesses
as you cannot Dial out to 0870
and 0990 Numbers or make International Calls

Their TV service relies on Freeview Play
and the Netgem 4K Box
You cannot watch
the Together TV Streaming channels
on Channel Numbers 83 and 285,
which is a shame
They should have given us the Humax Aura Box
They are giving me six months
free service because of this

Community Fibre sucks!
I would strongly recommend to stay as far away as possible from Community Fibre,
They the cake when it comes to terrible and unacceptable Customer Service. This company is a prime example of what NOT TO DO with your Customers.

Was moving houses and wanted to get connected in my new place with Community Fibre (had them on the previous address).
Since new account registration: 14 days, 20-30 calls, hours-long telephone conversations with various departments including escalation managers, 7 failed installation appointments later , I still do not have an internet connection. I tried explaining multiple times that I work from my home and my IT job requires that I have a stable fast internet connection as my livelyhood depends on it, but to no avail.

My latest conversation was yesterday with an escalation manager who committed that it will be done today. What do