Openreach new fibre connection

[flanagaj]

Does anyone have any experience with Openreach, eg, getting a new connection to your property.   I registered with the developer portal, uploaded a site plan .... I then received a call from an Indian call centre telling me that they have been unable to locate my site (no idea how) or the planning grant.  I then simply received an email telling me that my application had been cancelled.

Should I be going through a third party for getting my connection, or did others do exactly what I have been trying to do?
 

When I login to the developer portal, the registration has vanished and there is absolutely no evidence that I ever submitted one.

Edited July 29 by flanagaj

[nod]

Been there TWICE We where told that no fibre was available in our area Even though the poll that supplied both neighbors is in front of our build Got there in the end 11 months 

The problem is that you speak to someone different each time and have to start all over again 

[torre]

It seems to depend very much on who you speak to. We also had to re-register. The quotes seem a bit arbitrary too - first quote we had for an urban infill plot was over £4500. This was between two properties that each already had fibre to the home from a pole just across the road! (If your quotes are above £2k building control can't require you to install)

[Russell griffiths]

Starlink dish, your build will be 50% up before bt get to you. 

[flanagaj]

19 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Starlink dish, your build will be 50% up before bt get to you. 

You have maybe just become a life saver with that reply!  I didn't even consider that option and will potentially mean we can move into our static onsite.  I work remotely, so need data connectivity and 4G /5G is not existent on site.

[Alan Ambrose]

Yeah, although it should have been the simplest install with a pole in the verge outside boasting fibre - OR are the slowest of all our utilities. They don't even seem to have any kind of scheduling system: I've heard 'I should have some news next week' about a dozen times now.

 

UKPN are the most cumbersome - the scale of the resources they waste is impressive.

[BotusBuild]

Summary if you dont want to read it all - contact EE to request new broadband, let them deal with Openreach.

 

I applied to the broadband supplier, Plusnet first but then switched to EE.

Both were told it is a new build. I provided postal and What3Words addresses. In both instances, an Openreach dork(s) came out to survey which in both cases involved me telling them where the relevant pole was already, where they needed to install a new pole, where they would be putting the box on the outside, and the inside, which conduit they would use, and I would trench from the base of the new pole to the house.

Plusnet wanted to pass on over £1100 of Openreach install fees, so I took some advise from the site and applied to EE instead who are covering the Openreach fees. I will be paying the £20-something per month for 2 years for broadband.

See this thread for more details

https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/44113-openreach-taking-the-proverbial-for-tree-lopping/

 

Edited July 29 by BotusBuild
Added thread link

[flanagaj]

So Openreach have come back and the contribution fee is only £567 + VAT, but along with the offer is a contract that is 35 pages long.  Now, I am not sure whether I am jumping ahead of myself here and we will need to wait until the house is actually constructed before I can get fibre installed.  I assume that unlike electricity or water, there is no concept of a temporary connection for fibre and as a result it is too early to get Openreach involved?

[Russell griffiths]

Run the duct for the fibre into the plot, run enough cable to reach the new house, but run it to the site hut or caravan, then  just redirect it to the house when finished. 

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> UKPN are the most cumbersome - the scale of the resources they waste is impressive.

 

For anyone who’s interested - UKPN had 5 people at the plot & 3 vans for most of the day to connect and run one 5m cable into the duct we had already installed. Impressive, bravo.

 

Interestingly, it was labeled TT earth only or somesuch and they said they would move it to PME at a later date. I was expecting to use a TT earth and then simply switch from their already installed PME earth at the right time. Fantastic, the promise of more paperwork, expense and delay to look forward to.

Edited August 5 by Alan Ambrose

[flanagaj]

On 04/08/2025 at 20:02, Russell griffiths said:

Run the duct for the fibre into the plot, run enough cable to reach the new house, but run it to the site hut or caravan, then  just redirect it to the house when finished. 

Ok.  Does the cable have to be run in a duct or is it simply buried like an armoured electrical cable?

[Russell griffiths]

14 hours ago, flanagaj said:

Ok.  Does the cable have to be run in a duct or is it simply buried like an armoured electrical cable?

Mines all ducted. 

[saveasteading]

A fibre cable is very thin and not strong. So don't put it anywhere likely to be damaged. From the box intp the house the cable is even skinnier.

Mine is overhead from a roadside pole to the house, then pinned along the wall.

[Alan Ambrose]

OR supplied BT standard grey ducts for ‘free’. Loads of it, more than twice what we needed. Standard sizes are 50 & 90mm from memory.

[BotusBuild]

OR just put our fibre cable in from one pole to the new pole, down into a trench we dug to the house and the external box. From the bottom of the pole they installed a small ducting (~15mm extension diameter, black with a yellow trace) in the trench through which the fibre is fed. We were told we can fill the trench now.

[Roger440]

On 29/07/2025 at 13:37, flanagaj said:

You have maybe just become a life saver with that reply!  I didn't even consider that option and will potentially mean we can move into our static onsite.  I work remotely, so need data connectivity and 4G /5G is not existent on site.

 

I ruled out starlink as its not supported. If you have any issues (which i would as im dumb with this kind of stuff) theres no one you can contact.

 

But i could get 4G so didnt have to overcome that hurdle.

 

 

[Alexphd1]

Im round the twist with open reach.  This build has taken years and originally accepted a free connection from open reach 6 years ago. They dug up road and the local open reach guy said he would drop of ducting. Everything happy. This connection would have been dial up so was just to get a line in for future, I had no intention of actually using it. I tired phoning/emailing him to chase him up over the years but no luck. Cellular poor here so we have had starlink  but this has slowed down considerably over last year (they probably want me to upgrade to new hardware). Surprisingly out the blue openreach installed fiberoptic a few months ago and now I tried to pursue old application..... I'm getting nowhere. There's no physical number to contact and it's just send a email and I get a phone call 2 weeks down the line with the same outcome. I will ask my supervisor and get back to you. I am going to try contacting EE for broadband and see how they get on. Will report back.

[Temp]

I can sympathise. I think we applied for a line through BT who arranged for OR to do the work. BT called weekly to say their engineers were "working on it" but I could still see the wire we left at the bottom of the pole and knew it hadn't been touched.

 

Eventually they stopped calling so I called them, only to be told it was all finished and working. The girl wouldn't accept my assertion that I could see the wire was still unconnected. 

 

So next step was to ask them to test the line, which they did and decided it was faulty. I tried to explain that it hadn't been connected but they wernt having any of it. The computer said it was all done so that was it. In the end I agreed to them sending a fault engineer which they said would cost £75 if the "fault" was in my house. I gladly agreed to that. 

 

The old boy that turned up insisted on testing the line at my master socket and wouldn't listen to me telling him I knew exactly where the "fault" was.

 

In the end he made a few call and told someone to send a team out and we were up and running a week later. What a shower.

[FuerteStu]

My copper line contract ran out 3 months ago. 

Been waiting 2 months for fiber to be fitted. They keep sending an engineer to connect the internal without installing the fiber to the house...

 

I'm not holding my breath, neighbours have also been waiting since may 1st for their fiber install. 

 

It's a joke.