Cabinet upgrade as I only get 8mb FTTC

[#1]

I have put up with buffering for sometime.

My sync speed (at the router) of 8mb is not good for FTTC.

I understand why I cant get faster speeds due to distance from the cabinet. This also affects many of my neighbours.

I have found a solution to increase my speed. This is to use 4g router. I have tried a friends 4g modem and received speeds of 25mb. At £22 per month it is good value and a no brainer to setup. Just the hassle of losing the home phone unless I port it.

Before I go down that road I would like to know if there is anyway of finding out about forthcoming upgrades from Openreach?

Or can anyone tell me of an address I can send a petition to at Openreach?

Thanks for looking.

[#2]

Hi there, unfortunately I don’t think there’s much more that can be done as we’ve already gone through the raising a proforma route with little success. I mentioned a while ago here: https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Neighbours-speed-89-faster-and-on-the-same-cabinet/m-p... that a community partnership may be the next way to go. Have you given any thought into this?

[#3]

I'd suggest that if 4G is better you should use that - I have gone down the same route. I spent quite a bit of effort looking into a community partnership application, but the cost was just way too much.

If you happen to be in one of the BT FibreFirst cities then you may be in luck. Otherwise I expect you will wait years for anything better. Openreach are pretty secretive about planned upgrades, apart from the very general city level. I'll be giving up my ADSL when my contract is up

[#4]

I also looked into fttp for the unfortunates in my street, 20+ souls.

Are you sitting down, well the initial estimate was 20000 pounds, though to be fair if we started a charity and added a few companies we may get it down some.

4G is being investigated, but as usual the provide is cagey about the speed.

[#5]

@malkpm 

I tried due to a misplaced cabinet, to no avails

You can raise a complaint via the OR web site (i used misplaced equipment option )

but their policy is not to lift and shift (but engineers have told me they do), not to add new dslams and they are concentrating on fttp.

I have in the past used satellite, and 3/4G as alternatives.

Curios, how far are you from the cabinet?, a GEA test will tell you

[#6]

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@malkpm wrote:

I have found a solution to increase my speed. This is to use 4g router. I have tried a friends 4g modem and received speeds of 25mb. At £22 per month it is good value and a no brainer to setup. Just the hassle of losing the home phone unless I port it.

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If Plusnet aren't prepared to continue to provide your phone without broadband then there are companies who are. I wouldn't have thought that moving your phone account and number was any more hassle then cancelling your Plusnet account. You don't have to do the two at the same time. You could move the phone and once that's settled close your Plusnet account.

In the future I can see people moving away from FTTC in droves to wireless. I hear that the majority of us is to get FTTP in the next few yearsbut who really believes it? It's quite easy for older properties fed from overhead poles but millions are supplied underground. I await the diggers and molers to arrive in my road but I very much doubt that it will happen in my lifetime.

Unfortunately instead of investing money in high speed communications so that people do not need to travel so much the government thinks it better to spend our taxes on high speed trains that we either can't access or afford to ride on.

[#7]

@Baldrick1, I agree that it would be more sensible to enable people to work remotely (as I do) rather than commute more quickly. However, fast broadband for everyone wouldn't allow London to suck all the businesses from the other parts of the country in the way that HS2 will.

[#8]

Just as a heads up on the back of @Baldrick1‘s response, if you move your phone number and/or phone line to another provider not using the BT network(Think LLU like Sky and TalkTalk, or VoIP) it’ll cease your broadband and auto-close your account.
On the other hand, moving your number/line to another provider who uses the BT network(Off hand for example BT) would keep your broadband active and account open until/if you request it ceased.

[#9]

Thanks @Gandalf . I totally missed that potential trap.

@malkpm My apologies!

[#10]

No problem

[#11]

Thank you and everyone else for their thoughts and comments .
My contract with pn is up in November. I now have a good idea as to which way to go and that is..... use 4g and port my home no to a voip. Reading up about it,it is fairly easy.
Or ....... do I wait for Boris 😁😂😁😂
I give up asking.
Ps....anyone seen the Vodaphone offer?
Looks like they only offer Fttc and if speeds are not as advertised they give money back till fixed.