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CityFibre is live! Who to choose!

TalkTalk is a DHCP connection isn't it (not PPPoE). But I read somewhere they can't offer a Static IP. This may be more important to me than low latency - as long as latency is sub 10 it's fine - no gaming here.
Ah yeah unfortunately no Static IP (only offered on Business, afaik not available on CF), I just use DDNS, IP doesn't really change unless I restart my internet manually anyways.

DDNS should suffice unless you have very specific reasons why you can't have your IP change at all, dynamic IP has it's advantages too for a residential connection.
 
My area in Leicester (Oadby) has gone live with CityFibre a couple of days ago and orders are now possible. (been waiting years for this! nothing available here other than FTTC). And when they come, they come fast. 5 years of nothing, and now suddenly CityFibre are done, Openreach FTTP will be complete within 3 months, and nexfibre have also done their work but no idea on order date. Safe to say our telegraph poles are going to be packed to the rafters (if not already) with CBTs and equipment.

I'm struggling to choose an ISP. I'd have liked to just go with Zen (my current FTTC provider) but they're not actually set up for CityFibre at my exchange (Oadby). And hence they don't come up in the CityFibre ISP list for me. 15 ISPs and they're not one.

However if I postcode check my previous address in Leicester (Belgrave exchange), we get 16 ISPs come up on the CityFibre checker with Zen being that 16th one. I rang Zen and they said they're just not equipped in the Oadby exchange.

So it's gotten a little tricky to choose. Also Giganet aren't in the list, however I can place an order directly on their website as their checkers reflect that I can get CityFibre. I've read online about Noone (recent takeover though makes it look less of a good choice and possibly employing CGNAT soon even with static IPs). We have Yayzi, IDNet, AAISP (quite costly though!), then the usual suspects - TT, Voda, bunch of others.

Yayzi didn't have the greatest of reviews but reading the latest responses by them to reviews, they've got some new equipment on the go now. Not sure if they're a viable option now.

My requirement is basically the 900/900 connection, one IPv4 Static IP, no CGNAT (goes without saying!), and a decent latency bearing my location in mind (Oadby is South Leicester).

Can anyone provide any input on their CityFibre choice and where to go? Some do a 1 month rolling at higher upfront cost (IDNet, AAISP, Yayzi) so an option to test someone out - otherwise just a 12-month rolling so at least I'm not tied in for too long before moving. AAISP looks like a holy grail going on what people say online but the price increase is quite substantial.

Please drop your twopence here, any up to date info or direction will help! Anxious to get an order in with somebody asap!

Thanks.
I have been very happy with Fusion Fibre since I went with them over here in Coventry. They use City Fibre's local and national network, which is all future proofed. I always get at least 920 Mb in both directions and latency is never higher than 7ms.
 
Hello

I’m with Yayzi with in Leicester, originally talktalk but left due to price hikes and poor customer service. Then giganet which was a good experience.

I am on the 900 Plus (900/900) service, in a GPON area. Been with Yayzi since last May. Few issues with the move from Giganet to Yayzi down to Cityfibre.

Yayzi service has been rock solid. Had 2 small issues, which they sorted quickly, one down to Cityfibre not releasing the line from Giganet and one down to WAN IP address, which was geo IP related.

They are a small company, I am giving them a chance and so far no complaints.

Yayzi have added new transit networks and new peering, a few weeks ago which did cause disruption. Was resolved in 4-5 hours.

They have removed CGNAT which was had a positive effect, ping on the OLD network to :
apple.com >200ms + now <20ms.

latency < 10ms on most speed tests using a wired connection. get 870-900Mbps wired.

Plus points:
DHCP IPoE connection.
NO CGNAT
Static IP I think is £3 per month
Monthly contract option, which is what I did to test out the service and have stuck with them.

I use my own router. Simple set on :
VLAN 911 and DHCP for WAN IP.

The 900 Plus is £35 + £2 for static. £37 per month. With a new install, I would take the 1.2GB Pro package, this gets you 1.2/1.2Gb line, a multi-gig ONT, router (2.5gb wan /1lan port) and a static IP at £39 per month.
 
Last edited:
Hello

I’m with Yayzi with in Leicester, originally talktalk but left due to price hikes and poor customer service. Then giganet which was a good experience.

I am on the 900 Plus (900/900) service, in a GPON area. Been with Yayzi since last May. Few issues with the move from Giganet to Yayzi down to Cityfibre.

Yayzi service has been rock solid. Had 2 small issues, which they sorted quickly, one down to Cityfibre not releasing the line from Giganet and one down to WAN IP address, which was geo IP related.

They are a small company, I am giving them a chance and so far no complaints.

Yayzi have added new transit networks and new peering, a few weeks ago which did cause disruption. Was resolved in 4-5 hours.

They have removed CGNAT which was had a positive effect, ping on the OLD network to :
apple.com >200ms + now <20ms.

latency < 10ms on most speed tests using a wired connection. get 870-900Mbps wired.

Plus points:
DHCP IPoE connection.
NO CGNAT
Static IP I think is £3 per month
Monthly contract option, which is what I did to test out the service and have stuck with them.

I use my own router. Simple set on :
VLAN 911 and DHCP for WAN IP.

The 900 Plus is £35 + £3 for static. £38 per month. With a new install, I would take the 1.2GB Pro package, this gets you 1.2/1.2Gb line, a multi-gig ONT, router (2.5gb wan /1lan port) and a static IP at £39 per month.
who does yazyi peer with now? they use to use IP RIVER. can you do a traceroute to 8888 or 1111?
 
Wait, CGNAT even if you have a static IP? How does that work?
Can tell you that I have experience with a CGNAT solution that gives you private IP addressing, but a permanent 1:1 mapping to a public IP on the outside. You can then do port forwarding as normal because the CGNAT is just 1:1'ing everything.

If it was me I'd probably just go straight back to AAISP full time and be done with it.
 
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who does yazyi peer with now? they use to use IP RIVER. can you do a traceroute to 8888 or 1111?

Also curious on this, as they don't exist in peeringdb. I'm wondering if the changes are they've added more capacity via IPRiver / another wholesale partner, rather than peering themselves.

Though if yayzi see this and they are doing things themselves, please update peeringdb! :)
 
who does yazyi peer with now? they use to use IP RIVER. can you do a traceroute to 8888 or 1111?

@YuGi

They have moved to some new IP ranges: https://ipinfo.io/AS210893


Code:
traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  router                                          17.034 ms  4.720 ms  4.140 ms
 2  185.210.170.1  (185.210.170.1)  10.914 ms  11.552 ms  10.667 ms
 3  te0-1-0-3-4.ccr22.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com (149.14.145.41)  11.140 ms  10.175 ms  9.897 ms
 4  cloudflare.demarc.cogentco.com (149.6.184.10)  14.046 ms  12.382 ms  12.115 ms
 5  172.70.94.4 (172.70.94.4)  21.922 ms  22.749 ms
    172.70.87.4 (172.70.87.4)  11.308 ms
 6  one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1)  10.130 ms  9.924 ms  10.233 ms
 
Can tell you that I have experience with a CGNAT solution that gives you private IP addressing, but a permanent 1:1 mapping to a public IP on the outside. You can then do port forwarding as normal because the CGNAT is just 1:1'ing everything.

If it was me I'd probably just go straight back to AAISP full time and be done with it.
That is bonkers.
 
@YuGi

They have moved to some new IP ranges: https://ipinfo.io/AS210893


Code:
traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  router                                          17.034 ms  4.720 ms  4.140 ms
 2  185.210.170.1  (185.210.170.1)  10.914 ms  11.552 ms  10.667 ms
 3  te0-1-0-3-4.ccr22.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com (149.14.145.41)  11.140 ms  10.175 ms  9.897 ms
 4  cloudflare.demarc.cogentco.com (149.6.184.10)  14.046 ms  12.382 ms  12.115 ms
 5  172.70.94.4 (172.70.94.4)  21.922 ms  22.749 ms
    172.70.87.4 (172.70.87.4)  11.308 ms
 6  one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1)  10.130 ms  9.924 ms  10.233 ms
would of been better on wired but yea thank you, i can see they using cogent now, which is probably better then ip river.
 
That is bonkers.
Well it depends on the architecture of the underlying network that dictates that when you think about it.
 
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I've gone with IDNet for now (at least for a 12-month term). I was wondering whether to give Yayzi a chance as apparently things seem better with them recently (upgrades etc.) but not sure, wanted to stick with a tried and tested choice for the time being. I might sign my dad's home (also in Leicester) up to Yayzi though as he's coming to the end of a 2 year stretch with Vodafone and a great introductory offer they had. And he's an average user, nothing mission critical, reliability issues won't be a big issue there. Can monitor and see how that pans out.

Thanks for all of your input everyone!
 
Hello

I’m with Yayzi with in Leicester, originally talktalk but left due to price hikes and poor customer service. Then giganet which was a good experience.

I am on the 900 Plus (900/900) service, in a GPON area. Been with Yayzi since last May. Few issues with the move from Giganet to Yayzi down to Cityfibre.

Yayzi service has been rock solid. Had 2 small issues, which they sorted quickly, one down to Cityfibre not releasing the line from Giganet and one down to WAN IP address, which was geo IP related.

They are a small company, I am giving them a chance and so far no complaints.

Yayzi have added new transit networks and new peering, a few weeks ago which did cause disruption. Was resolved in 4-5 hours.

They have removed CGNAT which was had a positive effect, ping on the OLD network to :
apple.com >200ms + now <20ms.

latency < 10ms on most speed tests using a wired connection. get 870-900Mbps wired.

Plus points:
DHCP IPoE connection.
NO CGNAT
Static IP I think is £3 per month
Monthly contract option, which is what I did to test out the service and have stuck with them.

I use my own router. Simple set on :
VLAN 911 and DHCP for WAN IP.

The 900 Plus is £35 + £2 for static. £37 per month. With a new install, I would take the 1.2GB Pro package, this gets you 1.2/1.2Gb line, a multi-gig ONT, router (2.5gb wan /1lan port) and a static IP at £39 per month.
Still all good? Pending live with them.
 
Still all good? Pending live with them.
Hi.

Yes all remains calm and speedy on Yayzi for me. Since they moved yo new transit providers last month and removed CGNAT. No complaints from me.

Just be prepared…Cityfibre install/activation is a bit hit and miss.

If you are subscribing to a the multi-gig package 1.2,2.3 or 2.5. make sure they DO NOT fit a Calix 801G, only capable 1G Ethernet LAN.


If your in a GPON service area something like a
Calix ONT (GP1000G),

if its XGS-PON: one of these

Calix GP1007x
Calix GP1100X
Nokia XS-010X-Q

All the best with your install!
 
Hi.

Yes all remains calm and speedy on Yayzi for me. Since they moved yo new transit providers last month and removed CGNAT. No complaints from me.

Just be prepared…Cityfibre install/activation is a bit hit and miss.

If you are subscribing to a the multi-gig package 1.2,2.3 or 2.5. make sure they DO NOT fit a Calix 801G, only capable 1G Ethernet LAN.


If your in a GPON service area something like a
Calix ONT (GP1000G),

if its XGS-PON: one of these

Calix GP1007x
Calix GP1100X
Nokia XS-010X-Q

All the best with your install!
I've got an 801Gv2, I doubt I'd need more than 1Gig tbh that's already overkill for me.
 
Since today, I can also finally have more choice than just Vodafone at my address (funny - because even last week no ISP nor Cityfibre could tell me when they will be available here)...

Anyways... I'm based in Leeds...
What's most important for me:
Low latency, decent service & reliability (speeds are pretty much identical anyways on full fibre)

Vodafone was a horror show regarding this - so I cancelled during the cooling off period. Currently getting a solid 8ms with BT to my local speedtest servers or 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8

Talktalk seems expensive and would charge the same price on CF as they do on OR

NoOne sounds good - but they got bought by Home Telecom - red flag?

Cuckoo is not yet available although they look good and are shows as available on the CF search tool

Zen (so far my favourite) - might also suffer from some routing issues if you're not living in London

Brillband - probably routed via Scotland BNGs?

Yayzi - heard some good and some bad things... As it's a similar price as Zen - better to stick to Zen?

Link Broadband - haven't heard much about their routing/peering?

Thanks so much :))
 
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Zen (so far my favourite) - might also suffer from some routing issues if you're not living in London
I'm just outside Leeds and have Zen via CF. Most of the time, it keeps me on their POP in Manchester which is ~4ms away. Occasionally after overnight maintenance I find myself on a London POP, but a quick connection cycle on the FritzBox fixes it.

If I'm connecting to a server in northern England it will often avoid the London detour altogether, for instance to a server I use in Sheffield it goes from here to Manchester and then Sheffield, but it depends on what routing/peering agreements the destination server has in place, sometimes it does a London run even to Manchester servers.

This is my ping to 1.1.1.1 on Zen near Leeds:
Code:
$ ping -c 5 1.1.1.1
PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=5.16 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=3.67 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=3.63 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=4.41 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=59 time=4.26 ms

--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.634/4.225/5.160/0.560 ms

And a speed test on 300/300 (they don't seem to provision it with a cap on upload for some reason):
 
I'm just outside Leeds and have Zen via CF. Most of the time, it keeps me on their POP in Manchester which is ~4ms away. Occasionally after overnight maintenance I find myself on a London POP, but a quick connection cycle on the FritzBox fixes it.

If I'm connecting to a server in northern England it will often avoid the London detour altogether, for instance to a server I use in Sheffield it goes from here to Manchester and then Sheffield, but it depends on what routing/peering agreements the destination server has in place, sometimes it does a London run even to Manchester servers.

This is my ping to 1.1.1.1 on Zen near Leeds:
Code:
$ ping -c 5 1.1.1.1
PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=5.16 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=3.67 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=3.63 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=4.41 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=59 time=4.26 ms

--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.634/4.225/5.160/0.560 ms

And a speed test on 300/300 (they don't seem to provision it with a cap on upload for some reason):
Wow that's amazing! Now I hope the same will happen on No One for me in Leeds :)
 
No One only has peering in London.
I think that's what BT does currently I think... And I'm getting around 7/8 ms with BT... So I assume that'll be more or less that I can expect... As most connections end in London or go via London that hopefully shouldn't be an issue...
 
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