FAQs

When you sign up with Fibre.Net, we'll give you an estimate of the speed you should be getting, in Megabits per second (Mbps). For example, we might say you could get 70 - 76Mbps. Under normal circumstances the speed you get should fall within this range.

The speed you get on your line is largely dependent on the distance from your home or business to the exchange or cabinet, the number of other users (both in the home and your neighbours) that are competing for bandwidth.  Indeed, you may even find that temporary factors like severe weather can reduce the quality of the line.

You can check what your speed estimates are by referring to the Welcome email we sent you when you signed up with us.

If you're looking at purchasing a Leased line, these connections offer quicker upload and download speeds compared to alternative connection methods – and these speeds are symmetric and guaranteed.   This means that the speed that you have paid for are the exact speeds that you’ll receive, regardless of how busy the public internet becomes.

Typically, home or normal business broadband is a shared bandwidth service, subject to contention - this means you share bandwidth with other broadband users in your area in order to make it possible for a faster service to be provided at an affordable price.

As most broadband connections are shared with others, your peak time usage is likely to coincide with their use too.

This is known as the ‘contention ratio’. A typical consumer contention ratio is 50:1, which means you share the circuit with up to 49 other users. If all your neighbours are using the internet at the same peak time, the speed for all will be slower.

Other factors include:

Faults on the line

If there's a fault on the phone line, you may have trouble connecting to the Internet. Usually, when the phone line is fixed, your connection will go back to normal. But because that's happened, the speed will drop for the next few days while your connection is being sorted out.

Using WiFi

If you're online using Wi-Fi, several things can slow down your connection. These include things like how far away you are from your router, whether you have thick brick walls, or any interference from household appliances.

Household appliances

Household appliances like cordless phones, baby monitors and microwaves can cause interference, especially to Wi-Fi, and slow your speed down.

Not using microfilters

A micro-filter is a device that has a plug and two sockets. If you don't have two sockets on your master socket, you'll need a filter on every phone socket that you're using in your home. You plug it into your phone socket in the wall and then plug your broadband and phone cables into it. It stops the two signals interfering with each other.

Bad weather

Heavy rain and thunderstorms can play havoc with your broadband if you still have an FTTC or traditional copper-line connection.  Light weather shouldn’t disrupt your internet performance and it’s much more likely that having too many users logged on and sharing your connection is what would be causing a connection to be slow.

Your computer

If you've got an old computer (more than three years old), it might be slower because it's having trouble running the latest software and programs; so when you go online, it seems as if it's your broadband that's slow. Older laptops may also have slower WiFi because of the network cards in them.

Viruses also slow everything down, so ensure that your devices are adequately protected.

For an accurate result the test should be done with nothing else connected to the service.

No – Fibre.Net operate a No-Price Rise Guarantee for the duration of your contract.  What that means is that the monthly charge you pay will not increase at all during your contract term unless you upgrade or add additional services to your package.

When you sign up to Fibre.Net broadband services, there are two different ways you can get started:

a)      If you already have an active line - an engineer won't be needed and you can connect your Fibre.Net router yourself on the install date.  This usually can be sent to your within 10 days or sooner once initial payment has been confirmed.

b)     If you don't have an active line - an Openreach engineer will need to install your broadband service. This includes replacing a master socket if the existing one is faulty or installing a new one if needed.  In these cases, it may take 2-3 weeks before you can be scheduled in but we will give you a date within a couple of days of your application submission.

Yes, in most cases you can keep your current phone number, so long as you’ve let us know that you want your number transferred when you submitted you forms.  So, yes you are able to keep your phone number if you switch to Fibre.Net so long as you're staying in the same house / flat / telephone exchange area.  If you're moving to another telephone exchange area, than you will need to have a new number.     

The service you order with us is for the connection to the property for the term of that contract. If we are able to provide the same service to the new property, you can start a new contract and we may be able to waive some of the ‘early exit’ costs. Please contact us if you are going to be in this situation and want to know how you might be affected.

For customer service questions, Fibre.Net support is available to you between the hours of 8.30 – 5.30pm Monday – Friday.  If you have a fault with your connection, the best way to let us know is to submit a fault report via our Service Desk form.   A trouble ticket will automatically be raised and assigned to one of our support engineers who will jump on your problem and allow us to keep track of your inquiry until resolution.

Fibre.Net has a monthly-based bill cycle that is processed a month in advance. For the first month that you receive service, you will have an invoice that reflects the prorated amount back to your installation date, PLUS any activation fees, PLUS any one-off item, Plus the amount for the next month. For more information on this and all other invoice questions, please send an email to [email protected]

We're sorry to hear you're thinking of disconnecting your Fibre.Net services and if we’ve done something wrong, we’d love the chance to put it right.

You can terminate a broadband contract whenever you want… but you'll need to comply with the cancellation terms laid out in the contract. If you're still within the minimum contract length, that may mean a significant outstanding fee, usually equal to the cost of the remaining bills on the contract.

If you're on a 30 day rolling contract or you decide to leave us after your minimum fixed term contract period, you'll just need to give us 30 days' notice.

Please don’t simply cancel your Direct Debit or any other ongoing payment with us, as further payments might still be due.

You can give us the requisite notice to cancel your service by emailing [email protected] and providing your name and address. Please use CANCEL MY SERVICE in the Subject line.

A leased line is a point-to-point symmetric dedicated data connection that connects two locations together.   Being symmetric means that you are able to send and receive data at the same high speeds.   Dedicated means that the connection is for your use and there is no sharing of the bandwidth with any other business.  The same bandwidth that you have paid for is available at all times, even at peak times when lots of other customers of your ISP are using their connections to the full. 

Dedicated leased lines can be used for many things, including linking two or more offices together, connecting an office to an existing corporate WAN, carrying phone calls from your office via a VoIP telephony service and linking data centres together.

Although both broadband and leased lines provide Internet access at a fixed subscription cost, there are key differences between them:

A leased line is a dedicated connection between your premises and the local exchange. It has fixed bandwidth and offers identical upload and download speeds and is not subject to contention with other users.

Broadband is not a dedicated connection between your premises and the local exchange.  It has variable bandwidth, asymmetric, meaning faster speeds for downloads than for uploads, and is subject to contention with other users, meaning that during peak usage times, your asymmetrical speeds can be significantly lower. 

Moreover, with leased lines, you can expect much better reliability and stronger business-grade SLAs.  Where it might take three days to fix a broadband issue, with leased line, you should get a resolution to any problem within 6 hours!