Full fibre in London: Infrastructure unique to each provider or shared? Switching = new install?

SouthLondonUser

When it comes to so-called "full fibre", i.e. FTTP (fibre to the premise), how many providers are there in London?

Does each provider have its own infrastructure?

Is there an equivalent to OpenReach, whereby the infrastructure remains the same even if you switch provider?

In other words, if I get the engineers to install fibre into my home, and then I want to switch at the end of the contract, will I need to call another engineer to install the cable of the new provider all the way into my home?

I am considering Community Fibre at the moment; did I get it right that they have their own infrastructure? Are there other providers which share the same infrastructure / cables among them?

Accountant_Kerry

In London there are multiple providers with their own infrastructure. Community fibre has its own as do most of the other so yes you would need a new engineer etc.

iniltous

Community Fibre are the network and ISP ,  unlike Openreach ( for example ) that is only a network provider and allows any ISP access ( if they want it )
CF only offer CF as the ISP , basically they are the only ISP available on that network , if you wanted to use another ISP then they would have to install their own network termination in your property, or use another network provider that would install their network into your address , unless they were going to use the OR existing copper pair network that already exists to your address.

SouthLondonUser

Does OpenReach offer FTTP, too?

How can i find out which FTTP providers share the same network - so that switching from one to the other wouldn't require a new installation and engineer visit?

matelodave

You need to find out who provides the fibre infrastructure in your street as its pretty unlikely that there will be multiple fibre providers. When you know who provides the infrastructure then you can find out which ISP use that provider.

AFAIK there's no obligation at the moment for any infrastructure provider apart from OpenReach  to let anyone else use their network, so they'll have their own agreements with ISP's.

OpenReach are the major provider of FTTP in the UK at the moment and most ISPs can offer services on the OR network , but that may not be the same for some of the smaller infrastructure suppliers who may have limited agreements to protect their investments.

Try putting your phone number or address into the BT Broadband Checker to see whether OR serve your street. https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

DullGreyGuy

matelodave said:

You need to find out who provides the fibre infrastructure in your street as its pretty unlikely that there will be multiple fibre providers. When you know who provides the infrastructure then you can find out which ISP use that provider.

There potentially will be as our street has both OpenReach and Hyperoptic but the later is different because they mainly do flats and the building gets prewired with either an ethernet cable or port in each unit to connect up