CityFibre vs Openreach: what it means for your business broadband

It may have been a luxury once, but fast, reliable broadband is now a necessity for any business. And things are changing fast.

From video calls to cloud applications, large file backups, and even rich voice calls, the connection you choose makes all the difference, and increasingly that means full fibre.

But here’s the catch. Not all addresses can get a full fibre connection yet. And while that’s not a catastrophe – there are good alternative options – it’s less than ideal. Things are improving all the time though, as Openreach gets more and more areas connected and, importantly, alternative network providers help build an even wider full fibre footprint.

CityFibre and Openreach explained

Most businesses have heard of Openreach. It’s the UK’s biggest network provider, and is responsible for most of the full fibre cables that connect homes and business across the country.

But Openreach isn’t the only player anymore. In fact, there are a good number of alternative network providers (or alt-nets for short), helping to get a growing number of postcodes connected to fast, reliable full fibre broadband.

We’ll be discussing Zen’s partnership with some of these alt-nets very soon, but in the meantime, we want to introduce you to the UK’s largest alternative network, CityFibre.

CityFibre is building rapidly across towns and cities to bring businesses another option for full fibre broadband. And we’ve partnered with them to bring Zen full fibre to even more business.

Why choose Zen full fibre?

Right now, there’s a lot of talk about full fibre for one key reason: it’s future proof. With the old copper telephone network on the brink of being shut down, it’s vital for businesses to have a connection that’ll last. One that will keep them connected for years to come, long after older services have gone away. But you know that by now. The real benefits of full fibre are speed and reliability.

But what can you expect as a Zen full fibre customer?

1. Predictable pricing: This is true for any Zen business broadband customer, but our promise of no mid-contract price rises is something most providers can’t match. You may find a ‘better’ deal elsewhere, but what about 6, 12, 18 months down the line when you’ve been subject to multiple price hikes? You don’t have that problem with Zen. The price you sign up to on day one is the price you’ll pay for your entire contract.

2. UK-based support: Sure, full fibre is the most reliable form of broadband. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never need any support. With Zen, you get award-winning service from a team that understands business needs.

3. Performance you can trust: Regular business broadband might be ok for browsing, checking emails, even running a single till. But what about cloud applications, video calls, data-heavy tasks, or keeping a whole team of people connected? The more users you have; the more uses you have; the more full fibre comes into its own.

4. A solid platform: Speaking of which. The emergence of full fibre – or more accurately, the decline of copper – means an end to old telephone services. That could be a disaster for many businesses, but thankfully there’s a solution, and it’s a vast improvement. We’re talking about CloudComms, a cloud-based voice service which runs seamlessly on your full fibre connection. It gives you improved call quality, and a great deal more flexibility, not to mention a host of additional management features. And you can keep your existing number. If you’re serious about communicating with customers, you should check it out.

The CityFibre advantage

We’ve discussed some of the benefits of full fibre (there are lots more by the way). But what about CityFibre?

Well, the truth is, whether you’re connecting to Zen via the Openreach or CityFibre network, you’re going to enjoy a broadly similar experience.

That’s not to say there isn’t one key benefit available to CityFibre users though: symmetrical bandwidth. That means your upload speeds will be the same as your download speeds, and is particularly useful for businesses that regularly backup large files, or have lots of video calls going on.

More coverage, more opportunity

But the truth is, the best thing about CityFibre from Zen is that we can now connect more businesses than ever to full fibre broadband. It’s not available everywhere just yet, but with Openreach, CityFibre, and a host of other alt-nets coming on board, coverage is expanding fast.

If you’re not already enjoying the full fibre experience with Zen, enter your postcode here to see what’s currently available in your area. And if you can’t currently get full fibre business broadband where you are, keep checking back – coverage is expanding all the time.