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Community Fibre build in North London

2+ years a counting over here in Woodside park north Finchley and I'm in direct contact with them for work of which my sites will be done before I get my home connection. N2 and N3 had a leaflet drop the other day but even then I know there still a long way off some areas within those postcodes.
Thinkbroadband's map is great to see progress although it does lag for 1-2 months.

https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/broadband-map#13/51.6143/-0.1596/community/

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What does that mean?
Wow I really do write gibberish sometimes :D

bidb has similar maps to that linked. It’s built up by premises that are spotted to be serviceable.
By seeding, I mean I have taken the list of addresses that community fibre have told me are serviceable and passed it through the mapping infrastructure.

The result being the bidb overlay for coverage is fairly complete now.
 
Thanks for all the replies folks, and apologies for my tardiness in replying (I couldn't remember the website name!!)
With Virgin, you actually do need to give notice to get the best retention prices. Just ....

Is there some local social media group you can target to drum up some more support for the Open Infra solution?

Thanks @plunet, I have a feeling the Retentions department will feature high on my list.

Even if there was some local media coverage there are a lot of rented properties in my road/neighbourhood and I'm guessing they either don't want or are not allowed to make modifications to the property without Landlord's consent and so don't want the hassle or are already in an 18-month/2-year contract and wouldn't consider another long-ish tie-in in a property where they may not live in 1-2 years..... or sadly, most average punters don't understand/want Gigabit broadband.... what they've got works ok (for now). I had to cajole my neighbour!

....
Their preferences seem to be buildings fed by overhead phone lines or blocks of flats with cooperative freeholders/management companies.
.....

Thanks @Barnet, my road, Fotheringham, is actually fed by overhead phone lines/telegraph poles..... so just the tiniest ray of hope....?

I do note that there is a Community Fibre cabinet at the western end of Lincoln Road at the Junction with London Road (A105), next to a reasonable size, low-rise block of flats.... but sadly for me that is firmly on the wrong side of the tracks!!

Think what situation will be worst for you:
1) Being on a contract with VM and unable to switch to CF or OI
2) Paying for VM monthly prices for 18 months waiting for CF or OI to be available

Thanks @GreenLantern22 , the least worst option could well be staying with VM at a negotiated, reduced cost for a slightly better service..... sort of a win-win...?!
See who's available afterwards (just wish OI had got back to me to say that they weren't proceeding earlier in the year!!)

I'm also in Bush Hill Park with the same predicament as you. Open Infra sent me a email recently saying that my road had reached the required sign ups and they would start construction in Q3 of this year. .....

Thanks @enfield, glad to hear that OI get the required signup in your road.... fingers crossed......

Looks like I'll have to get on with the waiting game.....

Thanks all.

neil
 
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2+ years and counting over here in Woodside park north Finchley and I'm in direct contact with them for work of which my sites will be done before I get my home connection. N2 and N3 had a leaflet drop the other day but even then I know there still a long way off some areas within those postcodes.
Hi there

I'm having a bit of a struggle with understanding where CF are in their build in Hackney (N16, so not a million miles from you). They have installed on other roads locally but not mine. Openreach finally installed ultrafast a month ago but CF is much more preferable (from a speed and price point of view)

Are you able to share who you're speaking to directly at CF (perhaps via DM)? I've spoken to 3 diff people in their customer service team who have all given me different answers, ranging from "the work is half done, we're waiting for final council signoff" to "we cant start the work - its 2 years away)

Thanks!
 
Bit off-topic but some members mentioned living around Mount Pleasant in East Barnet. I've just noticed that Open Infra are doing some work there which might be a bit redundant if they've got community Fibre
 
Hi there

I'm having a bit of a struggle with understanding where CF are in their build in Hackney (N16, so not a million miles from you). They have installed on other roads locally but not mine. Openreach finally installed ultrafast a month ago but CF is much more preferable (from a speed and price point of view)

Are you able to share who you're speaking to directly at CF (perhaps via DM)? I've spoken to 3 diff people in their customer service team who have all given me different answers, ranging from "the work is half done, we're waiting for final council signoff" to "we cant start the work - its 2 years away)

Thanks!
Don't waste your time talking to Customer Services, they don't know and they are just making it up. Keep checking in the CF site and look for black boxes on top of telegraph pole. If your property is served via underground ducts or metal poles then CF might skip it.
 
Don't waste your time talking to Customer Services, they don't know and they are just making it up. Keep checking in the CF site and look for black boxes on top of telegraph pole. If your property is served via underground ducts or metal poles then CF might skip it.
Thank you - good tipoff.

openreach were doing some installs along the street yesterday and boy, do those ducts look full.
 
I spotted some Openreach activity recently around my area and the poles now have the pluggable Openreach fibre connection boxes in addition to Community Fibre's boxes.
 
Not Community Fibre but I did spot some work going on yesterday on Cat Hill. Today I was passing the (former) East Barnet Library and spotted a barrier that suggested they were laying fibre there. It was damaged so it was hard to make out the name but looked like "Nimmo.Nrr". Does that mean anything to anyone? BIDB doesn't have any work in the area.
 
Hello All, new member here, just found this forum/thread and have read the last 5 or 6 pages.

I'm in a very frustrating position where I'm being price gouged by Virgin Media but have no other high speed options available, at the moment.....

I live in Bush Hill Park EN1 and am paying VM £45.25 for 130M coax cable, price was raised from £38.25 back in May.

Over the Christmas and January period we had the Open Infra people calling at the door getting interest in there new rollout of 1Gig fibre(900mb) at very reasonable price - it ended up being £30/month for three years contract.... if and when it finally arrived.

This was to me a great deal as it is not only cheaper and faster but symmetrical upload, and I sometimes have to transfer very large amounts of data (~50-100GB of video files) which is a non starter with my current 20M upload! (alternative methods used).

I signed up straight away!

Open Infra needed 40% uptake in the area and, other than an improved offer with a longer term, there hasn't been any more info/contact from them.

Having read this thread and seen that there is fibre construction going on in the general Enfield area I thought I'd contact Open Infra and see what time scale there was, if any.

Reply came this morning...

"Unfortunately we have not yet received the required percentage of interest (40%) in your area. A building decision is sent out to all signed up customers once enough interest is reached. The ambition timeline of network completion is 6 - 9 Months after the building decision is received."

So nothing happening in the near future there!

As this thread discusses, Community Fibre is coming to the area (as their website says), but when.....!

VM are offering the same speed as I currently have for effectively £28.50/month, but for 24 months contract, and even cheaper on Money Saving Expert website - effectively £21.78/m with a bill credit, 18m contract! (All this is for New Customers)

I'm sure a bit of haggling with retentions could get me near or better than these deals, but for how long a contract......

It's looking like Fibre isn't going to available where I live for at least 6-12 months, at a guess, ...... but trying to save money with Virgin will possibly cost me in the long run if I'm stuck for an extra year (albeit with a functioning, reasonably fast broadband service).

Apologies for the long rant as a first post!!

Hopefully some better news in the next 6 months....????

Cheers, neil

I live very close to you, EN1 just of Lincoln Road.
I've spoken to both OpenInfra and Community Fibre today. OpenInfra I've given up with to be honest, they're still 20/40% away and don't seem to be getting any closer, they seem like they've given up themselves with our area.

Community Fibre was more positive, I mentioned the cabinet at the top of Lincoln road and some of the "community Fibre" drains popping up and they said they're 6-12 months away from "switching on" the network in the Bush Hill Park area. (He said realistically its going to be a year)

I mentioned my house is also ducting rather than overhead and they said its not a problem, they've also covered houses with ducting.
I do note that there is a Community Fibre cabinet at the western end of Lincoln Road at the Junction with London Road (A105), next to a reasonable size, low-rise block of flats.... but sadly for me that is firmly on the wrong side of the tracks!!

There's some Community Fibre drain covers on this side of the tracks (near the park by Lincoln Road shops) so I don't think that's an issue.

Annoyingly my talktalk contract has finished and I've had to renew for another 2 years
 
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I live very close to you, EN1 just of Lincoln Road.
I've spoken to both OpenInfra and Community Fibre today. OpenInfra I've given up with to be honest, they're still 20/40% away and don't seem to be getting any closer, they seem like they've given up themselves with our area.

Community Fibre was more positive, I mentioned the cabinet at the top of Lincoln road and some of the "community Fibre" drains popping up and they said they're 6-12 months away from "switching on" the network in the Bush Hill Park area. (He said realistically its going to be a year)

I mentioned my house is also ducting rather than overhead and they said its not a problem, they've also covered houses with ducting.


There's some Community Fibre drain covers on this side of the tracks (near the park by Lincoln Road shops) so I don't think that's an issue.

Annoyingly my talktalk contract has finished and I've had to renew for another 2 years
Thanks for the update @jasew
 
Found this thread Googling about VM upgrades and the possibility of FTTP in North London.

I’ve tried the webpages of the various altfibre providers, and none say they have any plans.

Does anyone have any idea about the area between Finchley Central and West Finchley please?
 
Found this thread Googling about VM upgrades and the possibility of FTTP in North London.

I’ve tried the webpages of the various altfibre providers, and none say they have any plans.

Does anyone have any idea about the area between Finchley Central and West Finchley please?
best to use https://bidb.uk/ to find out

i know that Fibre & Wireless Networks is building in those areas.
 
best to use https://bidb.uk/ to find out

i know that Fibre & Wireless Networks is building in those areas.
Thanks. Sadly my area looks deserted other than VM. Only thing I can see is one property nearby has work for “Fibre and Wireless Networks” granted with description “Excavation for the installation of fibre optic cabling”.

But their signup page says there’s no plans for my area.
 
Thanks. Sadly my area looks deserted other than VM. Only thing I can see is one property nearby has work for “Fibre and Wireless Networks” granted with description “Excavation for the installation of fibre optic cabling”.

But their signup page says there’s no plans for my area.
F&W going through a bit of carnage with rollout pulled on some locations. Bit up in the air in my bits of Herts, though work does still seem to be chugging (VM also magically started fibre bits right around the same time).
Should become clear what's going on in the next couple of months. We've got some new boxes on VM lampposts (some black, some silver, bith about the size of a chunky hardback) and some loops of fibre dangling about halfway down.
 
I see now that there's several Community Fibre installs within a few hundred meters of me, in all directions, but frustratingly their website still not available.

Any ideas why that might be?
 

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they do this for a lot of people, if its not cheap to get to you then cfl wont install in your area, simple but sad
 
they do this for a lot of people, if its not cheap to get to you then cfl wont install in your area, simple but sad
I just went for a walk in the area with the map from https://bidb.uk/

The three places Community Fibre are available are all council/ex-council blocks. Frustrating it being only 200/300 metres away for sweet symmetric gigabit, and I can't get it!
 
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