Openreach new fibre connection

[Kelvin]

On 08/08/2025 at 08:17, Roger440 said:

 

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.

 

 

That’s not true. Their support is ticket based via the app. It’s not the quickest process but it works. I had a problem when we moved the Starlink dish from the rental to the house (it was randomly disconnecting) they sent me a new cable FOC (which I knew wasn’t the problem but they have a process) and then sent a completely knew system (router, dish, mount, and cables) This ended up being also FOC. While waiting on that to arrive it started working reliably again but they still sent the replacement and told me to keep it just in case. It really is very straightforward to set up and use and quite used friendly. 
 

We’ve had it for almost three years and that is the only problem we’ve had with it. The issue it can have is it can lose connection in very heavy rain (like torrential) and I expect it will struggle in heavy snowfall. Neither happens often though. 
 

Regards OR. Interestingly out of nowhere their subcontractor has been all over our area laying ducting and pulling fibre cable. We now have it relatively nearby and the OR status has changed from no plans to we are building in your area a will update you soon. Not expecting anything to happen anytime soon but it’s gone from never to possibly. I extended a duct to the roadside of the house just in case and can take that out to the boundary do they care what type of duct it is though? It’s smooth wall flexible electric cable ducting. I could also possibly get it to the garage via a pole. 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:55 by Kelvin

[Kelvin]

If the external junction box for the ONT has to go on an outside wall that rules it out going on the house as I’m not having them drill through my wall. Therefore bringing it into the garage will be my best option. However OR are an awful company to deal with so I shan’t be holding my breath that any of this will happen anytime soon. 

Edited Sunday at 08:04 by Kelvin

[Roger440]

6 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

That’s not true. Their support is ticket based via the app. It’s not the quickest process but it works. I had a problem when we moved the Starlink dish from the rental to the house (it was randomly disconnecting) they sent me a new cable FOC (which I knew wasn’t the problem but they have a process) and then sent a completely knew system (router, dish, mount, and cables) This ended up being also FOC. While waiting on that to arrive it started working reliably again but they still sent the replacement and told me to keep it just in case. It really is very straightforward to set up and use and quite used friendly. 
 

We’ve had it for almost three years and that is the only problem we’ve had with it. The issue it can have is it can lose connection in very heavy rain (like torrential) and I expect it will struggle in heavy snowfall. Neither happens often though. 
 

Regards OR. Interestingly out of nowhere their subcontractor has been all over our area laying ducting and pulling fibre cable. We now have it relatively nearby and the OR status has changed from no plans to we are building in your area a will update you soon. Not expecting anything to happen anytime soon but it’s gone from never to possibly. I extended a duct to the roadside of the house just in case and can take that out to the boundary do they care what type of duct it is though? It’s smooth wall flexible electric cable ducting. I could also possibly get it to the garage via a pole. 

 

 

I maybe should have clarified, theres no real person you can contact in the event of an issue.

 

If support is via an app, im not interested. That not support.

 

Given me and technology, having support is important for when the inevitable problems happen. Other peoples idea of straight forward and easy to use often isnt mine.

 

Interestingly, OR have just been installing fibre here after saying they wouldnt!. However, id rather poke a sharp stick in my eyes that have to deal with them. Unless my 4G falls over permanently for some reason, ill stick with that. Its significantly cheaper too.

[Kelvin]

Loads of people round us have Starlink. None of them have any technical knowledge and a few asked me if I could install it for them. I explained that it’s so easy that they’d be more than capable of doing it themselves and all bar one managed it. The one that didn’t had a slightly more complex network setup and requirement so I did all that for him. It is very easy to install, the support is pretty good just a little slow and it’s also surprisingly reliable. It’s also fast and has gotten faster for us over the last three years particularly latency. 

[Bornagain]

6 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

If the external junction box for the ONT has to go on an outside wall that rules it out going on the house as I’m not having them drill through my wall. Therefore bringing it into the garage will be my best option. However OR are an awful company to deal with so I shan’t be holding my breath that any of this will happen anytime soon. 

Without wishing to bore anybody, there were a number of issues with our fibre install that meant that OR staff were not allowed to preform a lot of the work due to their company H&S procedures, they were more than happy for me to do everything under their direct supervision, the only thing that they did was make up the fibre joint and fix the internal box of tricks to the wall.

 

I found the OR staff to be friendly and flexible and keen to get on with the task.

 

They were extremely cautious when they turned up to do our install so I rather suspect that they were expecting some kind of audit - anybody who has worked for a big business has been in their position.

 

[Kelvin]

The technicians that do the work are generally always fine. It’s the bureaucracy within the organisation that is painful to deal with.