Vodafone going to provide a full-fibre line to the house. But will I then be tied to them?

daveyjp

ThisIsWeird said:

daveyjp said:

The Cityfibre comment by Vodaphone rep is causing confusion,

If you are on copper at the moment it will be Openreach cables (old BT infrastructure).

Vodaphone aren't upgrading any cabling.  Openreach will be replacing their copper with fibre, you will continue with Vodaphone as an existing customer, but you will be able to choose another Openreach provider as you did when moving from Talktalk.

Cityfibre are a completely different provider of fibre and have never used copper.  Vodaphone are often Cityfibre preferred supplier for a few months following installation of their fibre network to an area before it is then opened up to other providers.

Thanks.

If the 'Vodafone Rep' comment is from my post above (from the Voda community), then I'm not sure it was an official Rep, or just another user.

Yes, my current copper line is Openreach. Do you know if this will stay in place when the new fibre is put in? I know that ultimately that copper will go, but will it remain until the national fibre network change-over date (whenever that will be)?

What does Openreach do meanwhile regarding delivering fibre?! I presume they also have a national program to upgrade everything, so what happens when they come to 'my' telegraph post and see there's already a fibre there?! Is it "Oops - beaten literally to the post", or "We'll add ours..."?

Or, if I were change to an Openreach-serviced ISP, what would they do? Add another fibre?

It always amuses me when such companies provide a FAQ page - and none of the answers you really need are on there..

You still appear to think Vodaphone provide the actual fibre cables, they don't.

Imagine it like a railway.

Openreach provide the track, you then choose an ISP which is in effect the train.  You have chosen a Vodaphone train which uses the Openreach track.

Openreach will change your track from copper to cable (as part of the national upgrade) and Vodaphone will continue to operate your train.

If you change ISP you will use a new train on the Openreach fibre tracks.

JohnB47

We didn't go through with it but we recently agreed to have fibre to the house using a local broadband company. They said they would leave the copper connection in place, as they weren't allowed to touch it (it being Openreaches responsibility). Seemed add to leave customers with two lines to the house, one of which was defunct.

ThisIsWeird

daveyjp said:

You still appear to think Vodaphone provide the actual fibre cables, they don't.

Imagine it like a railway.

Openreach provide the track, you then choose an ISP which is in effect the train.  You have chosen a Vodaphone train which uses the Openreach track.

Openreach will change your track from copper to cable (as part of the national upgrade) and Vodaphone will continue to operate your train.

If you change ISP you will use a new train on the Openreach fibre tracks.

Thanks Davey.

Whilst I didn't think that Vodafone themselves were laying the cable, my question - concern - was that the fibre 'track' provider Vodafone are using - which I thought from my Q on the Voda forum was CityFibre - would restrict the subsequent ISPs to whoever uses CityFibre. Ergo, that the ISPs who use Openreach 'tracks' would not be included, so O-R would have to run their own cable if I went with one of these other O-R ISPs.

But, you are suggesting that in my case - with my current provider Vodafone 'organising' this new cable - it will actually be an Openreach fibre, and not CityFibre as suggested on the Vodafone forum?

Or, is the fibre going to effectively be the same, whether installed by Openreach or CityFibre?! There will only ever be one?

Chickereeeee

ThisIsWeird said:

daveyjp said:

You still appear to think Vodaphone provide the actual fibre cables, they don't.

Imagine it like a railway.

Openreach provide the track, you then choose an ISP which is in effect the train.  You have chosen a Vodaphone train which uses the Openreach track.

Openreach will change your track from copper to cable (as part of the national upgrade) and Vodaphone will continue to operate your train.

If you change ISP you will use a new train on the Openreach fibre tracks.

Thanks Davey.

Whilst I didn't think that Vodafone themselves were laying the cable, my question - concern - was that the fibre 'track' provider Vodafone are using - which I thought from my Q on the Voda forum was CityFibre - would restrict the subsequent ISPs to whoever uses CityFibre. Ergo, that the ISPs who use Openreach 'tracks' would not be included, so O-R would have to run their own cable if I went with one of these other O-R ISPs.

But, you are suggesting that in my case - with my current provider Vodafone 'organising' this new cable - it will actually be an Openreach fibre, and not CityFibre as suggested on the Vodafone forum?

Or, is the fibre going to effectively be the same, whether installed by Openreach or CityFibre?! There will only ever be one?

It shouldn't matter to you. The ISP could use whatever method the want to deliver service to your home. In reality, Vodafone have a national agreement in place with Cityfibre, so it is very likely your service will be delivered by Cityfibre, if available, not Openreach. Openreach will (probably)  also pass your house, so you will eventually have two ways (in addition to 5g)  to have the service delivered to your premises. The method actually used will be up to the ISP.

(That's the theory. Locally, we have had Cityfibre equipping the telephone poles for fibre, and Openreach claiming to offer their fibre service here 'before 2025'. I do wonder if Openreach will dig up all the pavements again and climb all the poles again, or if some deal will be made...)

RumRat

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

ThisIsWeird

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here.

All using a single shared cable?

Anyway, thanks - I get what you say. If I change ISPs, then they have the task of getting the signal to me!

My only concern was that I'd be limited in my choice of providers should I go with Voda/CityFibre. Seemingly not.

Cool - thanks all

Chickereeeee

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

Do you have multiple fibres to each house? 

400ixl

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

It shouldn't be irrelevant. Everytime you swap ISP and they use a different infrastructure partner you run the risk of having to pay disconnection and re-connection fees. Ideally you want to stick with one infrastructure supplier if you can.

400ixl

Chickereeeee said:

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

Do you have multiple fibres to each house? 

City Fibre, OpenReach and virgin are all infrastructure providers (and ISP's in the case of Virgin). They all run their own cables to your house and can then allow other ISP (except Virgin) to operate across them.

If you are with Vodafone and have been for a while I would assume this is with OpenReach (as it sounds like it is copper at the moment). If they are offering an upgrade, then it is likely that Openreach have upgraded your exchange and can now provide full fibre offerings. Vodafone will then ask OpenReach to replace your copper line with a fibre one to your property and install new equipment in your house. Vodafone will supply you with a new router to connect to that new connection.

Where has the City Fibre come into the equation? Was that just off of the Vodafone forum? If so likely to be ignorable.

What exchange are you connected to? Go to https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search and put in your postcode and let us know what exchange it is.

RumRat

ThisIsWeird said:

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here.

All using a single shared cable?

Anyway, thanks - I get what you say. If I change ISPs, then they have the task of getting the signal to me!

My only concern was that I'd be limited in my choice of providers should I go with Voda/CityFibre. Seemingly not.

Cool - thanks all

Obviously they have their own cables.

Chickereeeee said:

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

Do you have multiple fibres to each house? 

Yes, if you've had each one.

400ixl said:

RumRat said:

I have Openreach fibre, City Fibre and Virgin here. It's irrelevant to me who provides the cable, I would just find the ISP you want with the deal that you want, it is then their option of how they deliver to you.

It shouldn't be irrelevant. Everytime you swap ISP and they use a different infrastructure partner you run the risk of having to pay disconnection and re-connection fees. Ideally you want to stick with one infrastructure supplier if you can.

No disconnection or reconnection fees. My neighbour has changed twice between providers on both Openreach and City Fibre, they were on Virgin before CF was installed. Personally I'm happy with my Virgin connection, but, since having City Fibre in the street negotiating my yearly Gigabit contract has been easier and cheaper.