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The Community Fibre network: Speeds, availability and infrastructure

Community Fibre is one of the UK’s fastest growing full fibre broadband networks, with a strong focus on urban connectivity and 100% full fibre infrastructure. Its network supports broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps, significantly higher than the fastest widely available services on the Openreach network.

This guide explains who Community Fibre is, how its network operates, and the role it plays in the wider UK broadband market.

Who is Community Fibre?

Community Fibre is a UK full fibre broadband company founded in London, specialising in the delivery of 100% fibre to the premises broadband. Its network is concentrated mainly in London, where it has built one of the largest alternative full fibre networks in the capital.

Community Fibre operates in two roles. Firstly, it is a network operator, building, owning and maintaining its own full fibre infrastructure rather than relying on Openreach.

Secondly, it is a retail broadband provider, selling Community Fibre broadband services directly to residential and business customers over the network it owns.

Community Fibre’s role in the wider broadband market

Community Fibre plays a growing role in the UK broadband market by increasing full fibre competition, particularly in dense urban areas. Its London-focused rollout has helped accelerate access to full fibre in locations that were historically underserved by older broadband technologies.

Unlike networks that are shared between multiple providers, Community Fibre’s infrastructure is not used by other broadband companies. Services on the network are delivered directly by Community Fibre itself.

Its impact on the wider market, therefore, comes through competition and network investment, rather than providing a network that can be used by multiple other providers.

Who owns Community Fibre?

Community Fibre is a privately owned UK broadband company, backed by long term infrastructure investment by private equity investors rather than a traditional telecoms group.

According to Companies House filings, a majority stake of over 75% is held by Warburg Pincus, a global private equity group with investments across infrastructure, technology and telecommunications. Warburg Pincus has led significant funding rounds to support Community Fibre’s full fibre rollout.

Additional backing has come from DTCP, an infrastructure focused investment firm with experience supporting large scale digital connectivity networks.

This investor backing has funded large scale fibre construction, network expansion into new areas, and long term upgrades designed to support future broadband demand.

Unlike the historic broadband networks operated by BT and Openreach, Community Fibre has built its network from scratch. This gives the company greater control over where and how it deploys full fibre infrastructure.

What does Community Fibre do?

Community Fibre builds and operates a full fibre only broadband network and uses that infrastructure to deliver broadband services to residential and business customers. Unlike providers that resell access to third party networks, Community Fibre owns and operates its network end to end.

As well as being a business broadband provider, Community Fibre is also a network operator, responsible for designing, building and maintaining the full fibre infrastructure that its services run on. This dual role is central to how its broadband services are delivered.

Residential broadband services

For households, Community Fibre delivers full fibre broadband direct to the premises, with no copper used at any stage of the connection. Residential services are positioned around high speeds, symmetrical performance and simple pricing.

Residential services include:

• Full fibre broadband only, with no copper involved
• Symmetrical upload and download speeds
• Packages offering speeds up to 5 Gigafast
• Home VoIP phone services delivered over the fibre connection
• Discounted social tariff broadband plans for eligible households

Business broadband services

For businesses, Community Fibre provides full fibre to the premises business broadband over the network it owns and operates. While it does not offer traditional leased line broadband, its business broadband can deliver symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second, offering performance comparable to leased lines in terms of raw capacity.

Business services typically include:

• High capacity full fibre business broadband
• Symmetrical speeds suited to cloud applications and data heavy use
• A single fibre connection running directly into the premises
• Support for static IP addresses and multiple IP ranges
• Service level commitments covering uptime and fault repair

Community Fibre does not currently market a dedicated business VoIP phone system. Instead, businesses typically use a third party business VoIP provider over the Community Fibre broadband connection.

What is different about Community Fibre’s network?

At a technical level, Community Fibre uses standard full fibre technology, which is broadly the same as other modern full fibre networks. The key differences are not the fibre technology itself, but the capability and design choices behind the network.

What sets Community Fibre apart is that it is:

• Full fibre only, with no copper or part fibre infrastructure
• Designed primarily for dense urban environments, particularly London
• Built to support symmetrical speeds, rather than download heavy services
• Engineered for high capacity, including multi gigabit broadband over a single fibre connection

Because the network has been built from scratch for full fibre, without legacy systems, it is optimised for reliability, low latency and future upgrades.

For businesses, this means access to the same core full fibre capability found elsewhere, but delivered over a network designed specifically for high-demand urban locations rather than incremental upgrades to older infrastructure.

Community Fibre coverage and availability

Community Fibre operates a geographically focused full fibre network, with availability determined by where its infrastructure has been built. This section explains where Community Fibre operates, how to check coverage, and how availability can differ between residential and business connections.

Where is Community Fibre available?

Community Fibre’s network is concentrated in London, where it has built one of the largest dedicated full fibre networks in the capital. The company states that it is London’s largest 100% full fibre provider, with its network available to around 1.3 million premises.

In addition to London, Community Fibre has selected full fibre coverage in parts of the South East, including areas of Surrey and Sussex. Outside these regions, availability is limited, as Community Fibre does not operate a nationwide broadband network.

Its rollout has focused on:

• Dense urban areas
• Blocks of flats and multi-dwelling buildings
• Locations where full fibre can be deployed at scale

How to check Community Fibre availability

Community Fibre coverage is postcode and building specific, not area wide. This means that even neighbouring streets or properties can have different availability.

The most reliable way to check coverage is by using Community Fibre’s official:

• Postcode checker
• Or the ‘check availability’ button in the right corner of any page

These tools confirm whether the network has been built to a specific address and whether services are available to order.

Residential vs business broadband availability

Community Fibre uses the same underlying full fibre network for both residential and business services, but availability can differ in practice.

Residential broadband is typically available once a building has been fully connected to the network.

For business broadband availability, additional checks typically apply, including:

• Whether the premises has a suitable fibre entry point
• Building access permissions, particularly in shared or managed properties
• Installation requirements for business-grade connectivity

While Community Fibre does not provide traditional leased lines, business broadband availability is still assessed on a premises-by-premises basis, particularly in business parks or mixed use developments.

How reliable is Community Fibre?

Community Fibre operates a modern, full fibre only network, which is generally more reliable than older broadband services that still rely on copper. Because Community Fibre owns and operates its own infrastructure, it has direct control over network monitoring, maintenance and fault resolution.

Full fibre networks are less prone to issues such as electrical interference and signal degradation, which helps deliver more consistent performance, particularly during peak usage.

Service status and outages

Like any broadband network, Community Fibre can experience service interruptions from time to time. These are usually localised issues, such as:

• Physical fibre damage
• Power outages affecting network equipment
• Planned maintenance or upgrades

Customers can check Community Fibre’s official service status updates or use independent outage reporting tools such as downdetector, to see whether issues are affecting a wider area or a specific location.

How often do major outages occur?

There is no indication that Community Fibre experiences frequent large-scale outages. Most reported issues tend to affect:

• Individual buildings
• Small local areas
• Specific installation environments, such as multi-dwelling properties

Because the network is geographically focused and fibre only, widespread outages affecting all customers are uncommon.

How Community Fibre manages reliability and downtime

One of the key advantages of Community Fibre’s model is that it acts as both the network operator and the service provider. This means faults do not need to be passed between different organisations.

This allows Community Fibre to:

• Monitor the network end-to-end
• Identify faults more quickly
• Carry out repairs directly on its own infrastructure

Removing the handoff between a wholesaler and a retail provider can reduce delays when resolving faults.

Reliability for business users

For businesses, reliability is supported by:

• Full fibre connections that are more stable than copper-based services
• Service level commitments covering uptime and fault repair
• Network performance suited to cloud applications and VoIP

To help businesses make full use of higher speed packages, Community Fibre also provides a Wi-Fi 7 ready business broadband router with its business broadband services. This ensures internal wireless performance is capable of handling multi-gigabit speeds, multiple connected devices and modern workplace demands.

Key takeaway on reliability

Community Fibre’s reliability is underpinned by:

• A full fibre only network
• Direct ownership of infrastructure
• End-to-end responsibility for service delivery

Occasional outages can still occur, but Community Fibre’s control over its own network helps limit both the scale and duration of disruption.

Community Fibre speeds

Community Fibre offers a range of full fibre broadband speed packages for both residential and business customers. All services are delivered over fibre to the premises, meaning speeds are symmetrical by default, with uploads matching downloads.

Actual speeds can vary depending on installation, on site equipment and local network capability, but full fibre delivers far more consistent performance than copper based broadband services like SoGEA and cable broadband.

Residential broadband speed packages

Community Fibre’s residential broadband packages are designed to support modern household internet use, from everyday browsing to high demand streaming and home working.

Business broadband speed packages

Community Fibre’s commercial broadband packages use the same full fibre network, with a wider range of business broadband speeds designed to match different business sizes and usage levels.

Community Fibre – FAQs

Below, our experts answer your most common frequently asked questions.

Community Fibres contact details

You can contact Community Fibre in several ways, depending on how quickly you need help and what your query relates to.

Phone: If you need to speak to someone, you can call 0800 082 0770.

• Sales: Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm. Weekends and Bank Holidays 9am to 5pm
• Customer service and technical support: Monday to Sunday 9am to 7pm, including Bank Holidays
• Installation support: Available Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.

Live chat: You can also use the live chat feature, available via the bottom right corner of the Community Fibre website.

Online contact form: For non urgent enquiries, Community Fibre provides a contact form on its website.

Is Community Fibre only in London?

No. Community Fibre’s full fibre network is strongest in London, where it has built one of the largest dedicated full fibre footprints in the capital, covering many residential and business locations.

However, its coverage extends beyond London into selected parts of the South East, including areas of Surrey and Sussex, where full fibre has also been deployed.

Is Community Fibre good for business broadband?

Yes. Community Fibre offers full fibre to the premises business broadband, which delivers high, symmetrical speeds and lower latency compared with copper based connections. Higher speed tiers, including options up to 10 Gbps, are well suited to cloud applications, video conferencing, large file transfers and remote working.

Because Community Fibre owns and operates its own infrastructure, it can deliver consistent performance and direct support, making it a strong option for many small and medium sized businesses.

Can I switch from BT or Virgin to Community Fibre?

Yes, you can switch business broadband to Community Fibre from BT business broadband, Virgin Media business broadband or any other provider where Community Fibre is available at your address.

Before switching, it is worth:

• Checking Community Fibre availability using your postcode or address
• Confirming your current contract end date to avoid early exit fee

Switching will typically involve a new business broadband installation, so installation timescales should be confirmed in advance.

Does Community Fibre offer static IPs and business SLAs?

Yes. Community Fibre offers support for static IP addresses and additional business networking features on its business broadband plans. These are useful for hosting services, secure remote access and more advanced network setups.

Business packages also include business broadband service level agreements, covering uptime and fault response times, providing greater assurance than residential broadband services.

Does Community Fibre use its own infrastructure?

Yes. Community Fibre builds and operates its own full fibre network rather than relying on third party networks. This means the fibre cables and equipment that deliver broadband are owned and managed by Community Fibre itself.

Owning the infrastructure allows Community Fibre to control performance, maintenance and upgrades directly, providing a more consistent experience for customers where its network is available. For business users this also means faults can be diagnosed and resolved without involving a separate network owner.

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