Giganet Home Full Fibre Broadband Installation and Activation Lead Times

Full Fibre needs new cable to your home

• In most cases, full fibre broadband requires new fibre cables to be run to your home.
• Installing these new fibre cables can be complex and, in some cases, may take longer than expected or desired.

More detail

• Unlike activating or installing hybrid fibre connections like the (confusingly labelled) "fibre broadband" FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), or cable broadband, that typically re-use existing copper telephone lines, installing a new full fibre connection requires new fibre cabling.
• Unless it is already in place (and this is currently quite unusual), new fibre optic cable has to be run from the nearest fibre connection point to your home.  The connection point could be on the street outside your home, on a telegraph pole, at the base of your block of flats, or in rural areas many 100s of metres away.
• This fibre cable could be connected overhead or underground and require civil engineering works, permissions, roadworks/traffic management or other permits to achieve.
• Flats (often called an MDU), are likely to require permission and additional in-building cabling to be completed before your home can be connected.

Lead times

The table below includes minimum and expected lead times.  In some cases, things can take much longer.

Fibre providers in more detail

CityFibre Full Fibre:

• Full fibre services are provided either underground or overhead.  This is based on the nearest fibre connection point type and is not something that you can choose.
• Most standard installations will be completed within a single visit.
• Non-standard installations including flats (MDUs) may require internal cabling that can take time to arrange and complete before you can be connected.
• More complex installations, or those requiring a wayleave, may have a longer lead time and require multiple visits to complete.

Please note that where we use CityFibre fibre infrastructure, the same installation process would apply regardless of the service provider you choose. This means that no other service provider will be able to get your CityFibre full fibre connected faster than Giganet.

Openreach Full Fibre:

• Lead times have been impacted by COVID precautions and special measures designed to keep customers and engineers safe.  These are reducing, but new installations are still taking up to 8 weeks in some areas of the country.
• Our order portal will advise you whether your order is 1 Stage or 2 Stage before you place your order, and you can therefore make the decision on whether you wish to proceed.
• Brand new installations where the category is 2 Stage are the most complex and likely to have the longest lead time. It is difficult to estimate how long things could take.

Please note that where we use (BT) Openreach fibre infrastructure, the same installation process and stage would apply regardless of the service provider you choose.  This means that no other service provider should be able to provide get your Openreach full fibre connected faster than Giganet.