Fibre options - FTTP
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Fibre options - FTTP
24-08-2019 11:25 PM
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For some reason, when built, our house had only copper, and we get about 4.2 down and almost forgettably little up. (In our previous house we had reasonably fast Virgin so it has been a bit of an unpleasant experience.) Not very happy as almost all neighbours except in this single section of the road have FTTC or FTTP already - most of them were built before our house, some after. We were missed.
Thankfully, BT Openreach have seen the error of their ways and are in the process of installing FTTP for us and the rest of the houses on ADSL. All the ducts are fine. We expect this to be done by the end of September.
As current Plusnet customers, what options do we have?
Until a very short time ago, I simply assumed we would get in touch and arrange upgrade to FTTP. Now I have looked, it seems that Plusnet will not offer a product.
First, have I understood correctly?
Second, what options do we have? What ISPs do offer FTTP options? (In case it makes any difference, we do not need or want a phone line. Our current line just rings from time to time with spam calls and has no outgoing service. Only there because we could not refuse it.)
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 7:33 AM
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Slightly off topic, but great news you are getting FTTP.
How did this come about?, was it just OR infilling in a low speed area, or did you go down the private and very expensive route to get OR to install FTTP?
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 8:10 AM - edited 25-08-2019 8:14 AM
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It had always seemed wrong that we were on poor copper. For the first few months we got by on 4G but though the speed was reasonable, the reliability was dreadful. The Superfast Cymru campaign initially indicated that we were possibly covered so I kept looking back - then it ended. Further, the BT copper came into the corner of our garage - as the builder had been told it should for fibre - and we do not have a BT master socket.
I checked the Welsh government help - and they were offering money, up to several hundred pounds, towards other options such as wide area wifi and satellite. But, being in a town, the options like wide area wifi did not cover us (they seemed, naturally, to assume towns would be covered by BT). And my experience of satellite was that it would not be a desirable option.
I used the Ofcom site to check the availability to the other 56 houses in the road and made a list. Quite obviously, the first 40 or so were covered by Superfast. Then us with poor copper (claimed 10, actually about 4). But the most recently built houses has Ultrafast. I put this information together and got in touch with our Welsh Assembly member which had said he was compaigning for universla broadband.
A few weeks later, two extremely pleasant BT Openreach people knocked on our door, on a Saturday afternoon and said they had done a survey of the whole road and absolutely confirmed my report. They had my email and a map which they had filled in with detals for all the properties. They did not have the evidence as to why we were without decent broadband, but they thought it could be done with the minimum expense as the ducts and manholes are all excellent, there is capacity, and it probably "just" needs the final leg from green cabinet to us to be installed. (If I had to do this again, I would have put the extra effort in to plot my Ofcom information onto a map.)
I also complained to Ofcom because their map said it would be updated within a few months and three years later, they still don't have our houses on it! They also identified us as being in an area properly covered by broadband.
Less than two weeks later another very friendly and professional BT Openreach engineer arrived, checked everything in the street, and pulled ropes ready for drawing fibre. And we got an email letting us know it was expected to be completed by the end of September.
My view is that somehow we got missed. The original planning included us but as each house was built (which was pretty much one at a time) and connected, we were missed.
Anyway, I have explained at length so that anyone else can adopt the same plan if they needed.
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 8:27 AM - edited 25-08-2019 8:28 AM
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Hi
Thank you for you very detailed response.
I am not so far down the route to success, but I am hoping someone sees sense and moves 20+ pairs to the correct cabinet.
It is a struggle!!
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 8:49 AM
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Definitely worth considering your political representatives - wherever you are!
No having the fun of trying to find a cheap enough ISP! We don't actually need Ultrafast so not impressed at the costs of some packages. Pretty much every ISP insists we specify property which, in their databases, is shown as copper only. Yawn...
Found this:
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 9:17 AM
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Will try the representative route once I know who the mp will be!!
Landline usage for phone numbers are dropping, so no real need for a landline or a phone via FTTP.
OR need to look out because this is an ideal time for the mobiles to get people on board with a view to getting them on to 5G asap.
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
25-08-2019 10:28 AM
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I've got a feeling it will be several years before 5G hits the extremes of Wales - Cardiff, Newport, even Swansea, but...
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
26-08-2019 10:09 AM
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Most people are on copper, however some are on even slower aluminium.
stick your phone number in here https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ and it should tell you what you can get there's still life in copper yet, with Gfast etc becoming available ( i understand that Sky are/have just started to/are about to offer Gfast packages at the moment with more isps to follow)
When 5G does become available n a wider scale, it will be interesting to see how fixed line providers will react, although some areas have only just got 3G ( and some not even that)
As for line rentals when you don't make calls, line rental really means service charge, the price you pay for the physical wires etc that your internet connection runs along.
All the confusion over Line rental, Fibre, ADSL/Broadband, and so on is down to how ISPs/phone providers have been allowed to market things by offcom. Fibre should have only been allowed to be used for true Fibre to the premises connections, everything else should have been sold as VDSL or ADSL ( or whatever)
And if you don't use your line/connection to make calls and rely on mobiles, then i would strongly suggest you lave a corded phone plugged in, in the event of an emergency, and/or a prolonged power cut, the landline should still work as it should be powered by a backup generator at the local exchange, where the mobile phone signal may fail as the batteries run out at the base station
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
26-08-2019 2:02 PM
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Most people are on copper, however some are on even slower aluminium.
We are on copper.
stick your phone number in here https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ and it should tell you what you can get there's still life in copper yet, with Gfast etc becoming available ( i understand that Sky are/have just started to/are about to offer Gfast packages at the moment with more isps to follow)
I stuck my number into every checker in the universe. They either say 3 to 7 Mbps or they are wrong.
When 5G does become available n a wider scale, it will be interesting to see how fixed line providers will react, although some areas have only just got 3G ( and some not even that)
We have 3G and 4G (depending on company) but the service is unreliable.
As for line rentals when you don't make calls, line rental really means service charge, the price you pay for the physical wires etc that your internet connection runs along.
Quite, which is why we do not want to pay for line renatl, if it can be avoided.
All the confusion over Line rental, Fibre, ADSL/Broadband, and so on is down to how ISPs/phone providers have been allowed to market things by offcom. Fibre should have only been allowed to be used for true Fibre to the premises connections, everything else should have been sold as VDSL or ADSL ( or whatever)
I know, and we will be getting true fibre.
Re: Fibre options - FTTP
27-08-2019 9:21 PM
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RE line rental, the easiest way to se eit is as just the connection form your property to the exchange and then beyond that, whether the line is made of copper, fibre or whatever, somewhere along the way there will be some physical infrastructure, which doesnt pay for itself, but can be made into another layer that communication companies can charge for
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