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Hi there - and apologies for posting this in the wrong part of the forum first time round. We started our build back in November in a rural part of Stirling. I'm looking at the best way to get broadband for the property one it is built (estimated May 2021). As we haven't got a phone line yet, I have contacted openreach and shared the relevant plans so they can arrange a survey and provide an estimate. I'm waiting to hear back from them at the moment. I'm still not 100% clear if this process needs to be done through openreach or if one of the providers like BT or Virgin can do this. Openreach do seem quite difficult to communicate with. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this and could offer advice on the process. Someone has also recommended Briskona as a potential alternative to getting a traditional openreach connection set up. It would be really helpful to understand how their broadband speeds/reliability compare if anyone has experience of using them. Thanks for your help! Ben

Hi all, not sure this is in the correct topic.... Im trying to get a telephone line into our new build but rather than a simple job it seems to be quite a challenge. We want an underground cable. I've got duct laid down to the front of the plot but external to our property it would need to pass through a track which has services running at 90deg to the duct. Where it crossed the track its actually council verge (that the track runs over). I've spent an hour on the phone and aren't any the wiser as to how I go about this. Does anyone know? I thought that openreach would give me a price for running the duct into the property along with the line and then I find a phone provider...... obviously not. Any help gratefully received CC

We are about to book a phone line connection We are having to go with an overhead cable It seems that whichever company we decide to use Openreach carry out all the physical work We have always been with BT for internet Does anyone know of any offers

Electricity: Well, we applied for electricity to be connected in March of this year (It is late August as I write this). Made a couple of calls to see how things were progressing, but never got any call backs. It would have been great to have an electricity supply for the a lot of the work, but in the end I had to buy a generator, which has been a godsend. So come August and we are now living on site in a caravan. I've been in for the last couple of weeks and last night my wife moved in too (we are doing the final move from the old house this week). So a couple of weeks ago we tried to ring Northern Networks new connections office - only to be told repeatedly that they were too busy and were not taking calls! So had to tell a receptionist who was fielding their calls the whole story - but still not allowed to speak to the new connections department. So over 2 days, my wife and I tried several times a day to get through since surely they must put the phone down at least once in 48 hours? Well, according to the receptionist, not. I asked if I could 1speak to some manager who may be able to help - no, we were not allowed! a flat refusal! I got an email from our original contact engineer to the effect that they had not received our acceptance of the quote in March! (in reality, things getting "lost in the post" is vanishingly rare, in my experience, certainly here in the North East, though I know it can be an issue in parts of the South). So I resent a copy - a week or two later we get it back with scrawled "OOT" - and a letter saying We were Out Of Time to reply! - and must start again from the beginning, getting an engineer to check the site etc. etc. By means I'll not disclose, I obtained a managers name in the new connections department and managed to bluff my way past the guard and was actually able to speak to him! He at least seemed to sympathise that 5 months is too long and I got him to promise he would watch to see this latest application didn't get "lost in the post" for 5 months yet again. Either way, I had to reapply - I pointed out to him how silly it was for the engineers to have to look at it from scratchy and could they not just resurrect using the map and details they already have? He agreed, and so after a week and a half another quote came - exactly the same as last time. So I've posted 2 copies of our acceptance in separate post boxes AND emailed both the department, and the person named on the letter, and got read receipts and delivery confirmation emails. Meantime, if we want a shower in the caravan we have to nip out and turn the generator on - which is noisy for our nearest neighbours, and whilst they have not complained, I am very aware of the noise. As at present I got to work around 0430, I really cannot in fairness run the generator, so it makes things pretty difficult. I'm sitting in the new house shell writing this with the generator running so I can use the computer and internet with ear defenders on! We run the genny in the house to try and cut some of the external noise down (with doors/windows open of course). Its not conducive to thought though to be honest. Unfortunately mobile data is so bad here that web sites time out, so this is the only way we can get on the internet from the site. I really wish they'd hurry up with the connection! Water: Curiously, we have had the same lack of response from Northumbrian water. They like to see the service pipe running into the house, but no way could I keep the trench open for 6 months safely so eventually, I filled it back in when they'd done nothing for 3 months (its a mere 1 metre from our boundary to the water main) . Chasing them up again, they were very good and apologised profusely and promised a guy out that week, they also said they quite understood that it was dangerous for me to leave a trench open 6 months on a building site. when the guy came I was at work, so when he turned up and said he needed to inspect the pipe (I've actually even pressure tested it myself) was deep enough and bedded properly she handed him a spade and told him to help himself . Strangely enough it then did not need inspecting - funny that! When they come to connect to it (the end is sticking out of the ground of course) and dig down, they will see the depth and the sand bedding it is in anyway. Openreach have been OK. PlusNet cut our business internet connection off 2 weeks before we moved (and that's a business connection!) and said it would be 3 weeks before they'd switch it on, despite Openreach having connected us up! In the event, they did it a couple of days early, but knocking business accounts off for 3 weeks is simply not good enough - that could destroy some businesses completely. We have ADSL rather than fibre, but actually, since the rest of the village is now on fibre we have it all to ourselves and so far it's pretty reasonable speed-wise (when the generator is no to power the modem of course). As for the house itself, the builder tells me that he should be starting the stonework in 3 weeks now the roof is 90% finished.

Looking for some advice about arranging my new connection. Have read everything I can online and so far just getting confused. I originally contacted BT who said yes they could organise the connection but not until I signed up for a phone package. Decided to go straight to OpenReach and filled in the registration form. I now have an email saying they want to charge me a non-refundable £299 to send someone out to survey the job and that they have a 25 day lead time. Is this the standard response or have I done something wrong? Can't find any info regarding this fee for surveying the job anywhere. I thought it was free up to £3400? Any advice welcome.

So following on from the discussion about eye watering BT connection costs, does anyone have the definitive answer on where a master box has to be installed..?? Query is this - plot is on a corner, with a road running along the boundary to the right and a track to the front. House is near in line with a telegraph pole on the opposite side of the road, but the line would be overhead as per next door. Opposite the drive is a BT connection box in the ground and its across a track that we have rights over. Downside to that is the 35m up the drive from the connection which I expect BT will want to do so is going to be silly expensive. I could terminate at the gates as with the power but not sure where BT insist on installing master sockets..?