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The Openreach engineer was quite mild and seemed believable.
Spent the whole day virtually calling providers all had the same story. The area where I live is totally full fibre, no provider will sell me anything that has copper from cabinet to house. I'm knackered.
The orginal cable was indeed laid over the then BT feed. The trunking is not visible within about 9 inches of the house. That means a chasing out job for who knows how far.
BT and a few others sell Fibre 2 which allows copper from the cabinet to the house and speeds around 67 mbs. But they won't sell it me, BT told me it's not them it's Openreach / government.
I'm fed up of arguing with providers, most of them don't have any technical background. It's like banging your head against a wall.
Calling Openreach is a last resort but finding a current number isn't easy
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Not my subject, I'll readily admit, but I've found cable installations to be worse than amateur so can't see what their problem is. Among some of the installations I've seen on premises we maintain are; a cable ran through the border hedge from below ground at the road end and draped through branches to the house. A cable run unclipped, loose and uncovered, along the foot of a fence so as not to disturb block paving. A cable running through the lawn at the depth of around 10mm. (I put the machine through that one 1st visit!). Surely it could be sorted by a small bit of digging to locate the cable at the road end and then run it even along the surface in heavy duty trunking? It sounds more like they can't be bothered than any real issue. Keep on at 'em and good luck!
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07-27-2023, 06:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-27-2023, 06:20 PM by spudgun.)
Sounds like you are on a fibre first exchange/area where fttp is the only option that can be sold to new customers. Existing customers can continue with fttc but can't switch provider as no one is allowed to sell fttc any more.
In the 1980s quite a few properties were built where no ducting was used and the copper wires used to provide the connection were buried in armoured cables under drives, so to install fttp either additional routes need to be found or micro trenches dug.
If you order fttp in these areas everything is subject to survey and openreach will come out and assess the options for getting the fibre to your property.
Oh and if you think this is a right royal pain in the butt, wait until the analogue phone system is turned off in 2025, that will cause chaos for anyone who isn't technically minded and I'm not looking forward to explaining that to my elderly relatives.
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Spudgun / Tom and everyone who's contributed thank you. Spudgun you are correct about the area I live. The house was built in 1995, not that that matters much.
I decided to try Three's 5G home broadband. There's 30 days to test it and return if its no good. Reviews seem OK, let's see. The price is good too, if it works.
Bytheway all the Openreach engineer had with him to get through my drive was a hammer and chisel. I think at 3.30 on a Friday afternoon he didn't want the job anyway.
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If you can get 5G it’s worth it, otherwise don’t bother.
In the form of his life.
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I know TV people who ditched fibre broadband for 5G dongles to deliver Terabytes of video from site to site, that was central London though where there’s tons of 5G. May be less effective in more rural areas. If you can try it on a month by month contract or something go for it, I wouldn’t commit to any longer without testing.
In the form of his life.
