Wanting to get fibre connected but our area is FTTP

[#1]

It is possible that there is a shortage of ports in the fibre chambers.  Note FTTP does not go via the cabinets.  See https://www.thinkbroadband.com/guides/fibre-fttc-ftth-broadband-guide

[#2]

To answer @RealAleMadrid's questions.

You say yourself their response doesn't explain why the address checker shows it available, did you ask them for an explanation?

Yeah I did and I'm waiting for a further reply at the moment. I'll post back when I know more.

How about this for an idea - You don't need a telephone line for FTTP so can an order be placed using just the address of the property?

We can try but having received a response from the fibre team which advises FTTP isn't available at the moment, this tends to tell me that it's possibly a records issue.

I'm happy to give it a go though.

If you sign up at http://trials.plus.net let me know when you've done that, so I can pick it up.

[#3]

@Townman

A FTTP network install doesn't have "ports" as such. A Distribution Point is installed near customers premises and fibre optic run to an Aggregation Point and then on to the Internet Point of Presence.

http://blog.thinkbroadband.com/2016/06/a-peek-at-the-future-world-of-openreach-fttp/

The DP in the chamber outside my neighbours house has 8 connection nodes for 7 properties. If my eyesight is reasonable a DP in the street behind my house has 2 nodes for 2 properties.

For there to be a shortage every available node on the DP near the OP's address would already have a FTTP connection running to a house. I guess it's possible OR have not installed enough "nodes" for the area.

@whyarewewaiting

Not that this helps but this appears an identical situation to another thread. At a location called the "Farmyard" 13 (possibly 14) out of 16 properties can get FTTP. OR engineer has confirmed that the OP should be able to get FTTP but the records say otherwise.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Everyone-in-our-farmyard-can-get-fibre-except-us-Why/t...

Brian

[#4]

Ports - Nodes ... for the purpose here they can be considered to be the same - potentially not enough connection points whatever they are called to allow all premises access to the services.

[#5]

Possibly, but it would be very, very localised. For example, an 8 port / node DP installed to serve 9 houses.

Even then, it shouldn't affect the availability of the product. All 9 houses in this example should be offered the chance to get FTTP - it would just be the poor sucker last in the queue that misses out.

Brian

[#6]

@Gandalf,

I've completed the FTTP trial sign-up, for whatever use it maybe 😕

Thanks for the updates - good to know that you're still waiting for feedback from OR.

Do I cross fingers and toes now?

Can't cross my eyes as I need to read the comments...

[#7]

@bmc,

Thanks for your input - very welcome!

We live in a rural area, only 11 properties within the local "neighbourhood." No idea how far the FTTP will stretch from our cabinet...

Most neighbours not even online, so don't THINK port / node availability is the problem.

Also, thanks for the link to the other thread. I will check it out and see if anything can help from there

[#8]

Not that it would help with your current situation but you could take a walk around your location looking at OpenReach equipment.

Does the area have only one incoming set of phone lines to a central point and does this have an "extra" cable that looks recent (the fibre cable).

What is "hanging" from the poles. Is there one or two black pods (called "bullets" I believe). If you have two then you might have two 8 node or one 8 node and one 4 node Distribution Points. Potentially you might even have three 4 node DP's to cover the 11 addresses.

I have pictures of DP's in underground chambers but not of those that hang from poles.

Brian

[#9]

@bmc,

Thanks again for your suggestions

 We have 1 pole across the road from us, that serves 3 houses overhead including ours, and carries a thicker cable further up the road overhead. It has one black pod / bullet, along with a newer, thicker cable connecting to it from a large rectangular green box near the bottom of the pole. 

This is connected underground via ducts in the road.

I'm guessing the other addresses have additional bullets on their poles, which are quite numerous, or are connected underground.

[#10]

It looks like our FTTP team have picked up the ticket, apologies for the disappointment.

Our suppliers have got back to me and advised that checking for availability using the telephone number returns more accurate searches.

As the Openreach fibre team have confirmed that FTTP is not available at the moment, we won't be able to place the order.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused. Fingers crossed the required work is done soon.

[#11]

@Gandalf  Oh no, another hopeless response from Openreach "....checking for availability using the telephone number returns more accurate searches"  So what is the point of the address checker if it can't be relied on? Are we just supposed to ignore it?

@whyarewewaiting I would certainly try Mr Saffron at Thinkbroadband and if he can't get any sense from Openreach a politely worded e-mail complaint to the CEO has been known to get results (google for the e-mail address). It really shouldn't be this difficult. 

[#12]

@Gandalf, thanks for updating me. It doesn't get me any closer to actually getting fibre installed, but at least I now know that OR don't seem interested really...

@RealAleMadrid, 

Thanks once again for your thoughts and opinions - I see from the thanks you've received that others think the same too!

Really is annoying that something so simple and straightforward is taking so long to sort!

I will now get on to Mr Saffron, and see where that leads me...

I need to get a response before the 8th of December though as my line rental saver runs out then, and I don't want to pay upfront for another year with it being non-refundable. 

@Gandalf, Why is it non-refundable exactly?

If I do get nowhere, then I'll just have to hope that I can get a good renewal deal from Plusnet next Feb when my contract runs out. At the moment, fibre offers are cheaper than standard broadband, so i don't hold out much hope...