London-focused UK ISP CommunityFibre (CF), which has already covered 435,000 premises with their 3Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network and aims to reach 2.2 million homes in London by the end of 2024, has today refreshed their packages and added some new discounts.

The new deals will be available to order from now until 5th May 2022 on their 24-month contract term packages, although you can also find various discounts on their 12-month term packages too. The headline deals are summarised below, although they also have a cheaper 35Mbps package that’s often hidden from view.

New CommunityFibre customers can expect to receive a free installation (or £9.95 setup on 12-month plans), a Dual-band MESH WiFi router, symmetric speeds and unlimited usage. The 1Gbps and 3Gbps package also gives you a higher-end WiFi 6 router.

75Mbps Fibre Broadband PRICE: £20 per month for 24 months (£27.50 thereafter)

200Mbps Fibre Broadband PRICE: £22.50 per month for 24 months (£32.50 thereafter)

1 Gig Fibre Broadband PRICE: £30 per month for 24 months (£54 thereafter)

3 Gig Fibre Broadband PRICE: £89 per month for 24 months (£109 thereafter)

3 Gig internet just seems an odd number considering most new equipment is 2.5Gb capable. There isn’t much 5Gb out there so would need to go 10Gb. Also not sure what exact router model they are using but the AX7501 only shows it having 10Gb/1Gb/100Mb and not 2.5Gb or 5Gb capable.

Latest motherboards have 10Gbe and you can get PCIE cards for under £100.

3gbps is likely what they decided their PON and backhaul can handle without risk of it being saturated. 3gbps is easier to market than 2.5gbps.

I don’t think Community Fibre is PON Alex… I might be wrong, but they do fully symmetric so I doubt it.

CF is XGS-PON. You’re right though 2.5G will be a bit cheaper for them if they can get the new Adtran ONT (and use it as standard!) and a cheaper CPE.

@Vince Always has been, currently they are XGS PON (using Adtran gear) and have been previously been GPON using huawei equipment.

Symmetrical is possible on PON, Cityfibre do symmetrical on GPON and XGS PON is symmetrical (its what the S stands for).

@ – CommunityFibre already use Adtran for XGS PON. On this product the cost is less of a concern with supplying a good enough router being more a problem.

If Openreach ISPs did 1Gbps for £30 there would be uproar from the AltNets about them being uncompetitive…

Well, 1G from /Openreach/ is actually £22 plus vat :).

Retailers are offering 500mb for £32. I’m just saying.

I know what you mean and yes, their would. Openreach are regulated for good reason. We may disagree on whether the level of regulation is necessary but it’s clearly not beneficial to the consumer to have the incumbent charge loss leading rates in order to bankrupt the competition then, inevitably, take advantage of their monopoly by raising them to recoup the earlier losses.

The market as it is right now is fine. People are building, customers have choice, Openreach are largely content with pricing controls as they are.

I’d give my left bollock for any of those speeds at double the price 🙁

3Gbit even for £109 seems cheap as hell to me :/

They beat Openreach FTTP in my neck of the woods. I live about 2 minutes walk away from an area that’s got full Openreach FTTP while we were stuck with 48/17ish FTTC or, from 2015, Virgin Media. Seeing the black CF CSPs mounted on houses gives me some satisfaction OR shot themselves in the economic foot when deciding to leave our local exchange FTTC while giving the neighboring one FTTP even though the areas were ducted at the same time and were one exchange back in the 80s.

Wouldn’t be able to live without symmetric gigabit FTTP now, honestly. Only downside is the lack of static IP but it’s sticky enough that mine hasn’t changed since I had service installed last July. Ability to access my NAS/homelab from anywhere at full tilt is great.

£89 inc for 3000 Mbps, I think pretty well sets the retail benchmark rate for symmetric broadband at 2.97p per Mbps

One thing to be aware of, however, is that CF’s Terms contain the infamous CPI+2.9% price increase every year.

This may not matter to some but after working out the steadily increasing cost over a few years it might give others pause to think. The CPI for this year is predicted to rise to 8%. It’s not easy to change suppliers if the fibre entering your premises belongs exclusively to one supplier.

Less of a worry when you’re getting 150mb for £20 though. It is though to get a 60mb fttc for that.

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