New FTTP Connection

[IanR]

Lay some ducting in the trench now, leave a pull chord in there, and later when you order the Service OR will pull the fibre through.

 

OR should free supply the ducting, or use your own.

Edited September 4, 2023 by IanR

[Dunc]

@DerbyLad I spoke with OR about this yesterday. The surveyor who looked at your site should be able to tell you where they wish to bring a connection to at the boundary of your site. Its up to you how you then duct within the site. As @IanR says, so as long as you use approved ducting you can intall it (with a draw string inside!) before you request a connection. OR offered to drop off the ducting for free.

[PNAmble]

Had the same conversation with OR last week, dropping off ducting in two weeks, also gave me a big roll of Detectable Buried Service Warning Tape to lay in the trench above the actual duct.   

[joth]

15 hours ago, DerbyLad said:

Hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread.  Openreach have been and looked at my site and informed there will be no fee for the connection.  I was given a number to ring 5 weeks before I wanted connecting.  I've called the number and been told that I can't order a connection and that I have to chose a provider, such as Vodafone, place an order with them and then they can order the connection from Openreach.  This is a pain as I will be paying for a service that I'm not ready to use.  I don't want to wait till I'm ready to move in as I'm having a footway laid in the front of the plot and I dont want this digging up!  So, I have proceeded to follow their instructions but I've hit an issue, I can't order broadband, as although my property is listed it comes up as not having a service, which of course it doesn't.  So I'm in a chicken and egg situation!! Can anyone offer any advice?

 

I'd sign up for a one month rolling contract, e.g. https://www.nowtv.com/broadband will do one month contract

 

You'll have to pay like £60 installation, but that's a bargain compared to the £8000 I've been quoted to get FTTPOnDemand to my house (in the middle of a town) and I think it's worth paying for it now if you can so you can see the entire lot working end to end. 

 

Else like others say lay ducting now and hope. Use over sized ducting that way OR can always pull the approved stuff through it at a later date if they so insist. (IME they're very flexible in reusing any existing infrastructure but YMMV) 

Edited September 5, 2023 by joth

[LSB]

I've heard back from OR, they won't do a site survey until I pay the £567 even though I don't want the service for at least a year

 

[Susie]

It appears OR don’t have one set of rules for all installations.

they gave me for free the ducting a large junction box with manhole cover a huge pull cord and the cable. 
It’s all on my land except the last metre which goes to the pole at the boundary with my neighbour. 
we haven’t even started the foundations yet. 
 

[LSB]

2 hours ago, Susie said:

It appears OR don’t have one set of rules for all installations.

they gave me for free the ducting a large junction box with manhole cover a huge pull cord and the cable. 
It’s all on my land except the last metre which goes to the pole at the boundary with my neighbour. 
we haven’t even started the foundations yet. 
 

ours is not quite that simple.  pole the other side of the road blocked by our current house, next pole 200+m up the road, so I think they will need a new pole, or go under the road.

But how do they know, they haven't done a survey, our current house has fibre from about 2 months ago

[SuperJohnG]

On 02/02/2023 at 21:06, Mr Blobby said:

  Too early to go to a supplier I guess, so do I contact openreach now?

Never too early! 12 months after I raised an order I only got poles put in last month, and then I pulled the cable to my property but still not got a master socket.

On 02/02/2023 at 21:06, Mr Blobby said:

 

In terms of installation, I would rather the openreach fibre enters through the slab than the wall if possible, is that the right way to go? 

Through the slab yep. Tale a duct righrmt back to where the base of the pole will be. 

[SuperJohnG]

On 02/02/2023 at 21:06, Mr Blobby said:

It would be nice to have the cable coming into the rear of the house, about 45 meters from the front boundary.  Are openreach ok with that sort of distance or do they have distance limits like electricity DNOs?

I've 100m back from the pole to the plant room, no limit on the line length like the electricity. Fibre I'm not sure but I don't envisage that distance being an issue. 

 

Your entitled an exemption up to 3500 quid after that you need to pay. But OR have a responsibility to give you a line. 

[Susie]

8 hours ago, SuperJohnG said:

I've 100m back from the pole to the plant room, no limit on the line length like the electricity. Fibre I'm not sure but I don't envisage that distance being an issue. 

 

Your entitled an exemption up to 3500 quid after that you need to pay. But OR have a responsibility to give you a line. 

Ours is about 100m no problems there.  
so I guess all the stuff they gave us for free wouldn’t add up to 3k that’s why they never seemed bothered. 

[LSB]

9 hours ago, Susie said:

Ours is about 100m no problems there.  
so I guess all the stuff they gave us for free wouldn’t add up to 3k that’s why they never seemed bothered. 

we've been charged, I'll talk to them.

 

[Susie]

2 hours ago, LSB said:

we've been charged, I'll talk to them.

 

I didn’t need any road closures it’s all on private land 99m on mine and 1m on neighbour. 

[LSB]

15 minutes ago, Susie said:

I didn’t need any road closures it’s all on private land 99m on mine and 1m on neighbour. 

we wouldn't need a road closure if they used poles, would do it they went underneath.

when they put in our fibre in June they didn't have to close the road, I wasn't watching, but I guess he must have just thrown it over the road, it is very quiet though.

 

[DerbyLad]

Hi,

Thank you for the replies. OR supplied the ducting months ago and my builder has laid it with a cord to pull through. I have managed to blag an internal fibre extension cable from a local developer and that is now installed. My problem still exists, OR won’t connect me saying that I need to place an order with a provider such as Sky and then Sky will raise an order with OR to make the connection. Problem is, providers see my address but say they can’t quote me because I don’t have an active connection. Real chicken and egg situation. Any advice would be most welcome

[Susie]

33 minutes ago, DerbyLad said:

Hi,

Thank you for the replies. OR supplied the ducting months ago and my builder has laid it with a cord to pull through. I have managed to blag an internal fibre extension cable from a local developer and that is now installed. My problem still exists, OR won’t connect me saying that I need to place an order with a provider such as Sky and then Sky will raise an order with OR to make the connection. Problem is, providers see my address but say they can’t quote me because I don’t have an active connection. Real chicken and egg situation. Any advice would be most welcome

Have you tried just a phone line no broadband and from BT on whatever the shortest contract is. Let them know it is new connection on a new build. 

[SuperJohnG]

On 06/09/2023 at 22:24, DerbyLad said:

Real chicken and egg situation. Any advice would be most welcome

Someone doesn't know what they are telling you. You have to raise an order with a supplier to get OR to put in a line. 

 

As above, phone back and raise an order for a service with BT or whomever. 

[DerbyLad]

Hi All,

So, to update. My site, although visited by an Openreach surveyor, is only showing as copper being available. The whole street that the site is on has fttp. Spoke to an Openreach advisor who said they could sort this as the site was showing as red when it should show as green. I was to give it a few days and it would be fine. Of course it wasn’t, so another call to Openreach. Advisor told me I needed a ‘gold key’ (wtf) to give it 3 to 4 days and it would be sorted. You guessed it, still only showing copper. I’m now told I’ve got to start all over again and re register my site!! Has anyone got any contact numbers at Openreach for someone who knows what they’re doing as I’m losing the will to live. National contacts fine but an area contact would be great, I’m in Derbyshire. Thanks in advance 

[Jenki]

Dragging up an old post..  So after a battle, I've finally managed to convince Open reach, and thus all the available FTTP providers, that I'm here, and that they do actually have a duct to my house.

 

What service should I sign up for?  20Mb via 4G was fantastic but not any more see backstory below if you want 🤣

 

£29 / m for 100MB FTTP via Vodafone

or £33 /m for 500mb both on 24M contracts

what would you go for?

 

**Backstory - to while away 10 minutes on a Sunday,  all the Ducting on the road was installed before we started to build 2yrs ago , and when we moved up into the caravan 18months ago the cable and infrastructure was installed so I ordered Broadband, only to find out that they were connecting me to the copper network FTTC, this was 2 miles from the cabinet and the internet was less than 1MB so cancelled and used 4G, when we moved into the house I put two 4G aerials on the gable and the 4G speeds jumps to 20MB downloads, on a Smarty £20 monthly contract. 

about 2 weeks later 23rd Dec, the internet dropped and ever since the signal has been poor 4MB at best, worst at peak times, they know they have a problem but are not fixing it, or throttling the service and don't care.  

I looked back to getting broadband and finally my postcode was allowing for 40MB connections - so I assumed this would be FTTP, as BT's FTTC  was only offering 3Mb. 

I ordered a 36MB service, only to find that when the guys came to install it was going to be FTTC service. FFS.

 

after a bit of research it seemed that my house missed the check box, and the vacant / derelict croft next door could get  1000Mb but not me.   Phoning / chatting / messaging BT was useless, every response was computer says no, were not installing FTTP in your area blah blah blah.

 

I had the CBT reference for the duct box, so eventually found an open reach contact that investigated and finally after about 5 days agreed and checked the box... Now all FTTP providers are happy to supply..

[Susie]

The difference in cost is not a lot at the moment but when each has a percentage annual increase the difference will get larger, have Vodafone already increased the price this year or is your quote on the old price?

 

we stream on two devices tv and laptop simultaneously with no problems one is wired one on Wi-Fi and daughter never complains.  We can stream tv and she can be on zoom etc no problems. Our average speed is 55 -70 Mbps. 

 

if you went with the higher cost now although it’s only for two years would you really downgrade after 2 years or just think again it’s only a little more and can I be bothered changing. Why not try the lower one now. 
 

Rounding up the current cost difference is about £100

 

if somebody offered you a free meal, good food, great drink, whatever you wanted up to £100 or you can increase your broadband speed (but probably won’t notice the increase) what would you choose?
 

🍷🍽️🍺

 

 

[Jenki]

On 03/03/2024 at 18:33, Susie said:

The difference in cost is not a lot at the moment but when each has a percentage annual increase the difference will get larger, have Vodafone already increased the price this year or is your quote on the old price?

 

we stream on two devices tv and laptop simultaneously with no problems one is wired one on Wi-Fi and daughter never complains.  We can stream tv and she can be on zoom etc no problems. Our average speed is 55 -70 Mbps. 

 

if you went with the higher cost now although it’s only for two years would you really downgrade after 2 years or just think again it’s only a little more and can I be bothered changing. Why not try the lower one now. 
 

Rounding up the current cost difference is about £100

 

if somebody offered you a free meal, good food, great drink, whatever you wanted up to £100 or you can increase your broadband speed (but probably won’t notice the increase) what would you choose?
 

🍷🍽️🍺

 

 

The price is fixed until April 25, I've opted for the 500as they offered a £90 gift towards the bill on month 3, so it works out at £28/ month. After 2 years I'll shop around as they say this tariff is discounted by £30/m😲

 

[Susie]

Well done on the gift card. 
just incase you didn’t know some fixes do go up with the CPI plus another percentage they put it in the terms which is a bit naughty.