Community Fibre has cut its prices and brought back the £3 April rise
Community Fibre, the altnet whose full fibre network has reached around 1.4 million homes, mostly in London and the South East, has cut what it charges new customers and brought back a mid-contract price rise at the same time. As reported by ISPreview, the provider is taking 10% off its 12-month and 24-month deals until 23:59 on 16 September.
On the figures in that report, the discount puts the entry 35Mbps package at £11.25 a month on a 24-month term, a 1Gbps symmetric package at £22.50, and the top 5Gbps tier at £56.70. The router and the installation are included. Twelve-month contracts are sold as well, at a higher monthly price, which is the usual trade for the shorter commitment.
The catch sits in the second half of the same announcement. Back in July, when the provider ran its previous round of offers, it dropped its mid-contract price rises, the £3 added to the monthly bill each April. ISPreview reports that the removal was only ever temporary, and understands the new discounts reintroduce that policy for new customers. That wording is worth taking at face value: it is the outlet’s reading rather than a line the provider has published, so ask for the rise in writing before you sign anything.
If it is back, the sums on a two-year deal change. A contract signed this month runs through two Aprils before it ends, so the price you agree to is not the price you pay for most of the term. There is a second gap in what has been published: the report does not say whether the £3 is added to the discounted price or the standard one, and that detail decides what your second year costs. Several of the altnets we track hold the price flat for the whole contract instead. That is the comparison worth making, rather than the first month’s figure. Our guide to broadband price rises covers what a provider has to tell you before it puts your bill up, and finding a cheap deal that lasts works through the same maths over a full term.
Availability is the other question. A network that has reached 1.4 million homes is not the same as one that has reached yours, because full fibre goes in street by street. The Community Fibre page has the package details we track, and our availability checker is the place to start on the address itself. The offer runs to the middle of September, so there is time to do the maths properly.