Community Fibre Broadband

Community Fibre is a London based full fibre broadband provider, offering speeds of up to 3Gb exclusively to homes and businesses in the capital.

They offer gigabit-capable broadband to customers across 32 London boroughs, with customers also having the option to add home phone with unlimited calls or a 4K Netgem TV service for an extra £10 fee each.

Community Fibre offer a range of broadband speeds to choose from, including 50Mb, 75Mb, 150Mb, 500Mb, and 920Mb.

Broadband contracts with Community Fibre are either 12 or 24 months in length. Set-up fees can cost £9.95, but are often waived under special offers.

Community Fibre broadband operates on its own broadband network, so it's different to the Openreach or Virgin Media services we may be used to. This means we can only access Community Fibre broadband if our area has been added to their rollout and it is why coverage is limited across Greater London.

Full fibre broadband works by installing fibre optic cable directly into the home. This allows for faster speeds than the method of installing fibre to a cabinet and then taking copper the rest of the way into the home. Community Fibre are not the only provider rolling out full fibre broadband services to Londoners, but they are one of the best known and one of the cheapest options in the capital.

For people living in a Community Fibre enabled area, the provider offers installation within just 48 hours, so there's no waiting around to get connected.

Community Fibre is available to over 932,000 homes across 32 London boroughs, and has plans to reach 2.2 million homes and businesses by the end of 2024.

While Community Fibre won't be available to every property within these areas, Community Fibre has presence in:

They also have plans to expand into Havering.

For people living in London Community Fibre offers a great full-fibre broadband option for ultrafast and gigabit speeds for some of the cheapest prices available in the UK market.

Community Fibre is a relatively young broadband company yet they have already gained a reputation as one of the best broadband providers in London.

Their gigabit-capable broadband offers the fastest available speeds to Londoners and their focus on the capital means they can continue their expansion across different boroughs rather than diluting their attention across the country.

In addition, they are one of the cheapest broadband providers and they also have a good customer service record to back it all up.

Read our full review of Community Fibre.

Full details on the latest Community Fibre broadband prices, special offers and the packages available can be found in the table above.

When looking at Community Fibre deals, it's important to remember a home phone line is not usually included and customers will need to add this on separately if they wish to take a phone line too.

The home phone option does include unlimited calls to UK landlines and mobiles and costs £10 extra per month.

For customers who want to add the Netgem 4K TV service, that also costs an extra £10 per month.

Community Fibre reserve the right to increase prices by CPI + 2.9% each year in April, which is in line with many other broadband providers.

It's worth being aware this annual price rise applies to customers who are in-contract and unable to switch away, as well as out of contract customers. However, customers who sign up between January and April won't see a price rise in their first year.

Community Fibre offer a range of broadband speeds, including a few choices for those who want fast broadband without a big monthly price tag.

The current broadband speeds available do vary from time to time, but currently include: 50Mb, 75Mb, 150Mb, 500Mb and 920Mb.

Because of the full fibre technology used, the upload speeds offered by Community Fibre are symmetrical. This means they match the download speeds on offer, so a customer taking a 150Mb broadband package from Community Fibre can expect upload speeds averaging 150Mb too.

Here are the average speeds for each package:

All of Community Fibre's broadband packages use fibre to the premises (FTTP) technology. This means the real-world speed - or the speed customers will actually experience - will be much closer to the advertised speed than with fibre that only goes as far as the street cabinet.

It should be noted that the speeds listed above are average speeds and the very fastest connections are only achievable if a customer is using a wired device rather than a wireless one. For example, despite being technically advanced, the Linksys mesh router provided by Community Fibre only supports up to 650Mb over WiFi, but up to 3Gb over a wired connection.

For people living in larger homes, Community Fibre offer a WiFi in Every Room service for an extra £10 a month. This offers extra mesh routers to ensure the wireless network seamlessly works in all rooms in the home.

WiFi in Every Room guarantees a minimum coverage of at least 10Mb in up to five bedrooms and 12 rooms in total across a maximum of 3 floors, or 3 months free broadband.

Because Community Fibre uses fibre to the home (FTTH) technology, it is generally more reliable than fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) most broadband customers are used to. For example, full fibre technology reduces the latency on a broadband connection and results in fewer disconnections.

We do not have independent data showing how reliable Community Fibre broadband is, yet we know from looking at Ofcom package tests between FTTH and FTTC broadband connections that FTTH packages are more reliable.

Learn more about what makes broadband more reliable.

Community Fibre broadband deals are often much cheaper than similar deals from Virgin Media and their fastest speed package of 3Gb outstrips anything Virgin currently have on offer.

While Community Fibre has a partnership with Netgem and offers a basic TV service, Virgin Media's TV offer is much more comprehensive and offers access to Sky Sports and Sky Cinema content, so TV lovers may prefer Virgin broadband for this reason.

However, many customers may only have a choice of either Community Fibre or Virgin Media depending on which network is active in their area.

Overall, Community Fibre offer ultrafast broadband for Londoners at the most competitive prices.

All of Community Fibre's packages come with a Linksys mesh router that can support speeds of up to 3Gb, and up to 650Mb over WiFi.

The Linksys routers offer 6 internal antennas and high-powered amplifiers to boost wireless signal around the home. They support the WiFi 5 protocol and are either dual or tri-band depending on the package a customer chooses.

The main difference is that the dual-band router uses two channels to deliver broadband around the home while the Tri-Band version uses three to provide maximum coverage at high speed.

Lastly, customers taking the 1Gb package will get the latest Linksys WiFi 6 router, which supports the newest WiFi 6 protocol for faster speeds with compatible devices.

Community Fibre also offer an add-on called WiFi in Every Room, which offers additional mesh routers to seamlessly extend the wireless network throughout larger homes. The service offers a guaranteed connection in up to five bedrooms, 12 rooms in total and over 3 floors, or 3 months free broadband. WiFi in Every Room costs an extra £10 per month.

Broadband plans from Community Fibre start out as broadband only, with customers able to add home phone calls if they need them. This gives customers the option to choose between broadband only or broadband with home phone and only pay for what they need.

The home phone service on a Community Fibre plan operates via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This means calls are placed and taken via a customer's router rather than through traditional copper telephone lines. Customers taking a VoIP line are effectively future proofing their home phone service since standard copper telephone lines will be retired over the next few years.

Adding home phone services to Community Fibre costs £10 per month and includes unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines and mobiles.

Yes, Community Fibre offers a TV service in partnership with Netgem TV.

The price of this TV and streaming service starts from £10 per month for Community Fibre customers and includes Freeview and premium channels alongside sports coverage and on-demand content.

Customers will also receive a 4K set-top box with their TV service, allowing them to view content in HD and Ultra HD where it is available. They can also access a variety of apps and other subscription services through the set-top box.

While Netgem TV is a useful addition for Community Fibre customers, the TV service is not in the same league as Sky TV or Virgin TV. If customers are looking for more channel choice and more flexible packages, they may want to look at bundles from those providers instead.

Although Community Fibre are not analysed by regulator Ofcom due to their small size, we do have anecdotal evidence that customers are happy with the service received.

Community Fibre have a rating of 4.9 on Trustpilot, rating them as an Excellent broadband provider from more than 29,180 independent reviews. 96% of Community Fibre reviewers rate them 5 out of 5.

Looking at the reviews in more detail, many praise the helpfulness of customer service staff and engineers while others express satisfaction with the way their installation has proceeded.

Overall, while there are a handful of customers with criticism, many Community Fibre customers seem happy with the service provided.

Community Fibre offer two contract lengths to customers: 12 months or 24 months. Different contract lengths can be compared in the table above.

It costs more each month to take shorter contracts from Community Fibre, but this is in line with other providers such as BT. Customers who want to take Community Fibre on a shorter 12-month contract will need to pay a set-up fee to have the service installed.

It's also worth noting that the fastest Gigafast 3 package is only available on a 24-month contract, so customers looking to sign up to that speed package will need to commit for longer.

At the end of the minimum term prices will increase, however Community Fibre out of contract prices are always just £2 more per month. That said, the provider should also send out of contract notifications so customers can choose to re-contract onto a cheaper deal or switch away to another provider as a new customer.

Signing up to Community Fibre can be slightly more complicated than switching between Openreach-based broadband providers. This is because Community Fibre is an entirely different network and so the process is slightly different.

Customers can search Community Fibre deals using the comparison table above and click through to the Community Fibre website to complete their order.

Once an installation is agreed with Community Fibre, customers will need to contact their existing broadband supplier directly to cancel their service. This is because there is no automatic switching service available for non-Openreach networks yet. Bear in mind that cancelling a broadband contract before the minimum term is up may incur extra fees.

For new customers Community Fibre say they'll get their service up and running within just 48 hours after ordering.

Community Fibre offer an Essential package for both new and existing customers who may be struggling with their household bills during the cost of living crisis.

The Essential package has recently been boosted to offer 20Mb symmetrical download and upload speeds and costs just £12.50 per month, making it one of the cheapest broadband packages available.

What makes Community Fibre's social tariff different from other providers however, is they don't require any proof of income support to access the low-cost package. This means anyone who is struggling can stay connected at a cheap price.

The only downside of course is Community Fibre's availability is limited to just London. For people living outside the capital there are other social broadband tariff options available.