Community Fibre build in North London

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

This appeared around the corner to me a few days ago. I assume this means they're getting even closer to connecting up customers!

 

[MWLONDON]

Very long story short I have been in direct communication with CF they have 100% started a roll out in Barnet but focusing on council owned properties and predominantly multi property dwellings so depending on where you live even if you are seeing the infrastructure you may not end up being connected!

I have FTTC with a 15mb connection and we have just signed up to a new full fibre infrastructure builder using Barnet as their entry to the UK. OR have not identified Barnet as an area to upgrade to FTTP until after 2027.

 

[Lucian]

Very long story short I have been in direct communication with CF they have 100% started a roll out in Barnet but focusing on council owned properties and predominantly multi property dwellings so depending on where you live even if you are seeing the infrastructure you may not end up being connected!

I have FTTC with a 15mb connection and we have just signed up to a new full fibre infrastructure builder using Barnet as their entry to the UK. OR have not identified Barnet as an area to upgrade to FTTP until after 2027.

Which provider did you sign up to?

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

Very long story short I have been in direct communication with CF they have 100% started a roll out in Barnet but focusing on council owned properties and predominantly multi property dwellings so depending on where you live even if you are seeing the infrastructure you may not end up being connected!

I have FTTC with a 15mb connection and we have just signed up to a new full fibre infrastructure builder using Barnet as their entry to the UK. OR have not identified Barnet as an area to upgrade to FTTP until after 2027.

Interesting, although worth noting the areas I have seen them actively building and installing pole mounted infrastructure are not in council owned property areas. In fact, in roads without telegraph poles, I have seen them already install pavement mounted toby boxes. These are at expensive, terraced houses.

I do remember seeing Community Fibre in Barnet focusing on council and MDP properties at the start of 2020 but this deployment seems very broad and targeting areas where they can take advantage of Openreach's PIA offering. Not saying the above it wrong but the evidence would suggest they've branched well beyond council owned properties. I guess this ties in with the recent news published by Mark on their rapid expansion and large London coverage.

 

[MWLONDON]

Which provider did you sign up to?

The builder is called Open Infra https://uk.openinfra.com/ and the intial ISP you have to contract with is Optyx Broadband https://optyxbroadband.com/

If you check out Barnet's website you will see they are one of the "preferred partners"

The benefits of the Gigabit Broadband Programme for you

www.barnet.gov.uk

They are starting with a small area in NW7 (around 1k homes), all single dwelling and then I understand they are moving broadly north heading towards High Barnet.

 

[Pheasant]

This appeared around the corner to me a few days ago. I assume this means they're getting even closer to connecting up customers!

Curb your enthusiasm slightly . I’ve seen double chambers for CF like those not get from me in N1/N5. As far as I can tell it’s purely for spine cabling.

As noted, if you see distribution infrastructure in your street, then that’s when you can raise your expectation level slightly.

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

Curb your enthusiasm slightly . I’ve seen double chambers for CF like those not get from me in N1/N5. As far as I can tell it’s purely for spine cabling.

As noted, if you see distribution infrastructure in your street, then that’s when you can raise your expectation level slightly.

This appeared today!

 

[Lucian]

The builder is called Open Infra https://uk.openinfra.com/ and the intial ISP you have to contract with is Optyx Broadband https://optyxbroadband.com/

If you check out Barnet's website you will see they are one of the "preferred partners"

The benefits of the Gigabit Broadband Programme for you

www.barnet.gov.uk

They are starting with a small area in NW7 (around 1k homes), all single dwelling and then I understand they are moving broadly north heading towards High Barnet.

I'm in neighbouring Enfield, but try not to hold my breath. Don't think I'll see any FTTP in my area in the next 2 years ... That said I did complete their form with my "interest".
Cheers for sharing.

 

[Deanilson]

Very long story short I have been in direct communication with CF they have 100% started a roll out in Barnet but focusing on council owned properties and predominantly multi property dwellings so depending on where you live even if you are seeing the infrastructure you may not end up being connected!

I have FTTC with a 15mb connection and we have just signed up to a new full fibre infrastructure builder using Barnet as their entry to the UK. OR have not identified Barnet as an area to upgrade to FTTP until after 2027.

when they first sign the deal with Barnet and did Grahame park this was the case but has since change and are currently in areas with low or no MDUs. like yourself I have been in direct contact with them before them came into Barnet. yes there not G network and working road by road but if pits and cabs are being laid and installed near where you live its worth taking an interest. I have been told my area is a few months away so fingers crossed and I cant wait cause Openreach's ADSL+ is not cut out for every day life.

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

Another day, another update. Looks like they’re fitting 12 port Corning distribution points in some parts of East Barnet.

 

[Pheasant]

Another day, another update. Looks like they’re fitting 12 port Corning distribution points in some parts of East Barnet.

Shame they couldn’t be bothered to cable tie it the right way up…Hope someone figures out which end is right way up before a cap is left off and it fills up with rainwater

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

It appears things are still going strong in East Barnet/Whetstone area. I've just had the local team rodding the ducts in my road and assessing the distances between poles. Fingers crossed CBTs start appearing on these poles soon!

 

[heinzbean]

Im in Croydon They fitted Community Fibre about 6 months ago i was waiting for my EE contract to finish and was going to Sign up for CF. I questioned a couple of their guys. If i installed a conduit with a draw wire would they be happy to pull the cable to the back of the house where the Pc was. They where happy to do that. A bloke a few doors away signed up, they installed it , Couldnt get any information out of the bloke. All he knew about it he had a VOIP phone service supplied for an extra £10 a month. They wired a cable so crooked down the front of his house it looked so amateur , This put me off, Also the clowns that i had come to my house previously trying to repair my rubbish telephone line. I thought no more Apes in big boots at my house and i decided to go the 5g route. Just open a box connect it up and put it on the window sill. I Set up VOIP on that. If i move i take my 5g and my landline phone service with me.
I think they were offering 3 Gbs service for £99. The offer i was looking at was the £25 a month with the VOIP phone service for an extra £10.
I also was put off by the price doubling at the end of the contract.
My mate has a virgin fibre package that always runs slightly above the speed he pays for.

 

[Dynamic2050]

I saw a company called NPS (Network Planning Solutions) installing cable on a road next to mine. I never heard of the company before so decided to go over to the two engineer who were there to ask if it was indeed broadband that they were installing, and to my delight he said yes it is, Community Fibre.

I asked him if the broadband is just being installed for the new apartments which are being built across the road, he said no, everyone will now be able to receive Community Fibre once the work has finished regardless if you live in an apartment or a house.

The installation from what he said is all to do with the new government initiative to get folks able to receive high speed FTTP by 2025.

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

Community Fibre have finally completed the roll out of the fibre across all telegraph poles in my road, ready for CBTs to be fitted. It is worth noting that due to the sheer number of blockages within OR's ducts, Community Fibre have been forced to switch from underground to pole-to-pole in many areas, unfortunately my road being one of them.

I spoke to one of their contractor's senior roll out engineers and he explained that it is becoming prohibitively expensive to continue underground, as they're typically experiencing major blockages every 10m or so. It does beg the question as to what Openreach will do when BT start fibre roll out in the area. Presumably they will suck up the cost of having to clear ducts or follow the overhead method employed by Community Fibre. I think if we end up down that route, the overhead cables are going to look atrocious.

Another interesting point is that the engineer said Community Fibre have pushed for the Osidge/East Barnet area to go live by Friday 25th. He felt it was ambitious and that were unlikely to meet it (lots of CBTs needing to be fitted) but it goes to show how the services are set to hopefully go online very soon.

Oh and finally, he said that the roll out around here is complete overkill, with 48 fibres being run to each pole. I guess that's good from a future proof and redundancy perspective!

 

[father_ted]

Have I missed something here - all the talk of CBTs here implies that Community Fibre have started to use them in place of the HellermanTyton Aerial Fibre Nodes? Or is that a parallel Openreach build?

 

[Pheasant]

Have I missed something here - all the talk of CBTs here implies that Community Fibre have started to use them in place of the HellermanTyton Aerial Fibre Nodes? Or is that a parallel Openreach build?

Perhaps folks are using the term 'CBT' more generically rather than using AFN...

 

[father_ted]

Perhaps folks are using the term 'CBT' more generically rather than using AFN...

That was my first thought, but post #30 looks like a CBT to me. Probably just Openreach building at the same time if it's in the North Finchley exchange area.

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

That was my first thought, but post #30 looks like a CBT to me. Probably just Openreach building at the same time if it's in the North Finchley exchange area.

You have a keen eye. On further inspection, those were not Community Fibre CBTs. All local deployments from Community Fibre are still using HT boxes. It looks like Openreach are also rolling out but their deployment is incredibly patchy across East Barnet. Some poles have them mounted at the top, whilst others are still left cable tied to the base. That picture I shared of the Corning CBT is still in that state. I’m really not sure what’s going on!

 

[Matt.Rowley.1990]

You have a keen eye. On further inspection, those were not Community Fibre AFNs. All local deployments from Community Fibre are still using HT boxes. It looks like Openreach are also rolling out but their deployment is incredibly patchy across East Barnet. Some poles have them mounted at the top, whilst others are still left cable tied to the base. That picture I shared of the Corning CBT is still in that state. I’m really not sure what’s going on!

Do Openreach ever just roll out a road or two and take months to complete? Could it be some sort FTTPoD deployment?

In the local area, since January, they’ve only “deployed” CBTs here: