FTTC - what needs to happen?

[#1]

Hi,

Pragmatically speaking what needs to happen in order for me to have access to a higher bandwidth internet connection?

I don't live on top of a mountain, I don't live surrounded by a forest, I'm in E2, zone 2 in London but less than 16MB/s is the only internet connection I can subscribe to, with any provider.  So I'm assuming we don't have FTTC.  My line speed is 5.3MB/s when all is well.

There's a cabinet about 300m down the road, it's perpetually open, i.e. doors not even closed, equipment exposed to the world.  It's a miracle there's any service at all.

If I could pay more for a connection that provided 25, 50 or 100 MB/s then I would.  

There's at least 50 flats in this complex, there wouldn't be a shortage of subscribers if there was a better service available.  In the exact building I'm in, there are only 6 flats.  Is this potentially a problem?

I've registered my interest in a fibre connection on the website of Plusnet/Virgin/Openreach/Hyperoptic et al several times over the last 10 years.

I'm not trying to run a business out of my flat anything but with 5 MB/s there's no point even buying a new 'standard' TV, I'll never get a 4K picture on it from a streaming service.  

There are several businesses on the same street.  There would probably be more if there was even average internet connectivity. 

I realise it's difficult to get permits to dig up the road in central areas but this is an area with sufficient demand and it's been 12 years since 50MB/s broadband was introduced in the UK.

Any useful advice or explanation would be appreciated.

[#2]

Unfortunately you are in the same position as a lot of others - some in urban areas, others (like me) in more rural areas. These tend not to be viable for commercial rollouts (for various reasons including wayleaves, population density, conservation areas, etc.). Some areas are within BDUK schemes, but these have now largely finished apart from FTTP rollouts - however with various altnets building FTTP some BDUK schemes are taking a more wait-and-see approach.

Now that the political emphasis is on Gigabit, those of us left on ADSL have largely been forgotten - we're a small percentage, so is easy to ignore when it is easier, faster, and cheaper to upgrade areas with FTTC to FTTP.

In the short term I'd check 4G - there are unlimited 4G contracts available now that are cheaper than Plusnet, and are likely to be much faster than your current ADSL (that's what I use now - it isn't superfast, but it is faster, particularly upload). I can now stream iPlayer.

Longer term, contact your council, your MP, your flats' management company, and talk to neighbours. If you can get a group of locals you may be able to get Hyperoptic interested, or get a CFP together.

Good luck.

[#3]

I'm in much the same boat.

Have a fibre compatible exchange 200 metres from my front door... With a dual carriageway that happens to be one of the main roads into my town in between.

Therein lies the issue - Openreach simply wouldn't be able to ever get permission to close that road to install the relevant infrastructure meaning that anybody on this side of the road has to pay top whack for VM (so maybe not quite the same boat but it's an extremely deprived area), whereas on the other side of the road people can enjoy the lower priced offerings.

Maybe we'll eventually get a new exchange to serve this side.. But I doubt it.

Many of us are trapped by the antiquated (30/40/50yr/old or older?) infrastructure and I can't see that changing until we go completely wireless - Here's to the bunch of sattellites that a well known company have just launched.

[#4]

Thanks for your post @rhohydra 

If you enter your landline telephone number into the BT Broadband Availability Checker Here do you see VDSL under Featured Products and if you do, what's it say under the column WBC FTTC Availability Date?

Also at the top of that page, does it say your exchange is served by a cabinet?

This should help identify whether fibre is available, but there's no capacity or if fibre is simply not available and if your line is exchange only. 

Do your neighbours get fibre through a provider who uses the Openreach network?

It also may be worth filling out the formwize here: https://www.formwize.openreach.co.uk/run/survey3.cfm?idx=505d040e0b080d to query this further with the Openreach fibre enquiries team. 

[#5]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to Fibre