What is CityFibre?
CityFibre is an independent telecommunications company dedicated to building and operating a full fibre network across the UK. It makes and maintains the infrastructure which is then available for broadband providers to use.
Unlike traditional broadband that relies on copper wires for the final leg of the connection, CityFibre's network uses fibre optic cables all the way to your home or business. This technology, known as Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and offers much faster and more reliable speeds.
It can deliver lightening speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps.
Who uses CityFibre?
CityFibre doesn't directly provide broadband services to consumers. Instead, they operate as a wholesale provider, allowing various internet service providers (ISPs) to use their network to deliver services to customers.
There are currently 30 providers who deliver their service using the CityFibre network but under their own name. These include: 4th Utility, Vodafone and Sky.
Which is why the millions of customers who do use CityFibre daily, might not actually know its name, as by the time its broadband has reached your homes its been packaged as a different brand.
Will I have access to CityFibre?
Maybe!
CityFibre has projects in over 50 towns and cities across the UK. Currently over 3.7 million premises have access to this full fibre network.
It is on a mission to bring fibre to the rural spots left behind by other network rollouts after a £112 million award by Project Gigabit. This government-funded programme is enabling hard-to-reach communities access fast, reliable gigabit-capable broadband, reaching parts of the UK that might otherwise miss out on upgrades to next-generation speeds.
These rollouts are part of the company’s commitment to reach at least 8 million premises nationwide.
Find out whether your postcode is being serviced by CityFibre.
What’s the difference between Openreach and CityFibre?
Openreach maybe bigger – reaching over 16 million premises – but CityFibre’s broadband is better. Well, not exactly better, but it certainly can be faster (at this moment in time).
Openreach still uses a mix of fibre and copper networks. Whilst CityFibre is a new network that is all full fibre. It can deliver more than twice the speeds as Openreach’s top download speed offering of 1Gb.
What’s best for you? That really depends on where you live and what providers are using their services. Have a look at our top deals today.
Will I ever need to contact CityFibre?
No. Customers or businesses needing help with fibre broadband should always contact their broadband provider instead. If there’s ever a problem with the CityFibre network in your area, it’s up to whoever you have your broadband with to get sorted on your behalf. And likewise, if you ever need a CityFibre engineer, it will be your broadband provider who arranges this to happen.
Find out how to contact your broadband provider.
