Anyone with Gigaclear?

[PikeyPriest]

Now up and running, very happy so far

For me this is as significant of a leap as when I went from 56k dial up to 512k Telewest cable…

We have installation (street) going on right now. Our Sky connection has been poor so will look to move across asap.

Does the modem have 2 ports then? I was thinking of terminating in the lounge and the running a connection to the attic for 2/3 APs. Two ports would be ideal as I could use one for the router firewall input and the other could be a small wired hub for the lounge equipment.

 

[sx_turbo]

Had an email last week saying an engineer has checked out the property and we're still good to install on the 8th...

Fingers crossed all goes smoothly then can cancel now TV

 

[sx_turbo]

well that was short lived,

just had a call that the installation is cancelled for tomorrow as they've just realised they need another piece of equipment, now need to wait till the 10th October.

told them if it gets cancelled again i wont bother pursuing with the fibre installation

 

[sx_turbo]

well that was short lived,

just had a call that the installation is cancelled for tomorrow as they've just realised they need another piece of equipment, now need to wait till the 10th October.

told them if it gets cancelled again i wont bother pursuing with the fibre installation

2nd attempt and failed again, the same piece of equipment was unavailable again, advised less than 24 hours before due to install again.

I sent a strong reply back to their email informing me. Then I phoned up their customer service. I explained if I've already had 2 appointments cancelled what's to stop it from happening a 3rd time, they assured me that the guy who emailed me and rebooked it is the head guy and if he's booked it the machine will definitely be available (they call it the newt or something)

So now booked for 28th October will see, have said this is the last chance otherwise I'm just going to cancel it as it's not worth the hassle. Unfortunately to get faster internet than we already have we don't have much of a choice so I kind of have no choice.

The reviews of gigaclear seem to be very much true. I just hope we don't have any connection troubles when /if we finally get it installed ...

 

[Rroff]

They aren't filling me with confidence around here - they need a way leave agreement with us to go through here so we've had a little more information about the process. Initially told they'd be coming through June just gone, "definitely" connecting people up by September, they currently have an application in for January to do the poles and claiming they'd be connecting people up by the start of Feb but now saying it will be 2-3 months so more like April or even May 2024 before the service goes live.

EDIT: I don't really understand the shambles - the rep is very organised, has loads of info, detailed maps and plans, etc. yet it seems like the rest of the company is on a different page.

We've got 2 other companies with an interest in the area who've been playing dirty tactics to try and preserve their own interests - one keeps trying to sign customers up to a FTTP product they have no intention of ever implementing in the hope the others see low interest and don't bother coming here, and the other is trying to nab customers from GC by claiming they'll be here before them and "less than 4 weeks away" for over a year now but seem to be working to similar delayed timelines.

 

[Itchytrigg]

Just had it installed a week ago and been fine but like the last few posts issues it took us a while to get here. Originally booked for early May but pre-install team could not pull the cable through the conduit so needed someone else to clear a blockage. This took till August when they turned up and said "yeah the previous guys just didn't try that hard, it pulled with a little effort". Took 2 weeks for them to have on the system it was cleared...then was a 2 week wait for an install who cancelled the day before because the pre-install team just couldn't make it, so meant next available install was another 2 weeks later when they finally came 3rd Oct.

Can't fault the install team themselves but in questioning them a little it is apparent that Gigaclear are subcontracting most/all of their work which is why it's such a shambles to get anything done because they have no pull/power themselves, as the contractors are so busy doing work for all the various fibre companies they can do what work they want, when they want to their own needs/schedule.

Last house was Swish fibre who had their own people doing the work, that was super smooth and quick to get things done, including when we needed a resplice due to a failure during a heatwave.

So far though, it's working as advertised at least...just hopefully don't get any issues as I doubt it will be quick to resolve given their setup.

 

[Rroff]

Can't fault the install team themselves but in questioning them a little it is apparent that Gigaclear are subcontracting most/all of their work which is why it's such a shambles to get anything done because they have no pull/power themselves, as the contractors are so busy doing work for all the various fibre companies they can do what work they want, when they want to their own needs/schedule.

Hadn't really thought of that - but yeah it doesn't inspire one as to the level of service if there are problems.

 

[Jamauk]

Once the right person was there to check, and inspect the Openreach duct and run a rope through it the next day the correct team arrived and the install was done in around 1-2 hours.

It took a Twitter rant and some public questions to them on some of their Facebook page before it got to the install phase. Now it is installed the service has been very reliable and comfortably manages 900/900, a few outages have happened since install, some have been local and regional outages since install.

There was one outage in my road where three other houses were impacted, I don't think this was down to Gigaclear though, Openreach were digging the previous day and from what I could establish from Gigaclear another contractor cutting through the cables where they share conduit. The only difficult bit with this was due to the not so great customer service, getting them to understand that there was the issue wasn't easy and they were reluctant to investigate further, according to them at the time it was only my modem offline and they repeatedly asked me if it was powered on and to check the plug on the wall. I got a bit sarcastic with them at this stage and pointed out that the modem wouldn't have little lights on it if it were unplugged. Another twitter rant and they did send someone out to investigate further with what looked like a metal detector that they walked up and down the road using.

 

[sx_turbo]

Once the right person was there to check, and inspect the Openreach duct and run a rope through it the next day the correct team arrived and the install was done in around 1-2 hours.

It took a Twitter rant and some public questions to them on some of their Facebook page before it got to the install phase. Now it is installed the service has been very reliable and comfortably manages 900/900, a few outages have happened since install, some have been local and regional outages since install.

There was one outage in my road where three other houses were impacted, I don't think this was down to Gigaclear though, Openreach were digging the previous day and from what I could establish from Gigaclear another contractor cutting through the cables where they share conduit. The only difficult bit with this was due to the not so great customer service, getting them to understand that there was the issue wasn't easy and they were reluctant to investigate further, according to them at the time it was only my modem offline and they repeatedly asked me if it was powered on and to check the plug on the wall. I got a bit sarcastic with them at this stage and pointed out that the modem wouldn't have little lights on it if it were unplugged. Another twitter rant and they did send someone out to investigate further with what looked like a metal detector that they walked up and down the road using.

See it's things like this that worries me when I'm reliant on working from home I can't afford to have outages or at least if I do I need them to be resolved quickly.

Suppose I could tether my phone for WiFi but it's far from ideal.

 

[sx_turbo]

Got it installed today .... Yay....

Problem is as soon as they drove away it stopped working, quite literally.

On top of that they accidentally drilled through my BT line, so I'm completely without internet now.

I called them up instantly to try and get them to come back round, but apparently they can't call their engineers directly and I have to wait till Monday

Fuming at the moment

 

[BUDFORCE]

Gigaclear or their contractors I guess, have made a right mess of all the footpaths in our village.

They tried digging up a neighbours garden as well.

The joke of it all is openreach already have 1gig FTTP infrastructure here anyway.

Bunch of Muppets.....

 

[sx_turbo]

I've managed to fix the old BT line, luckily I still had a load of cable and some fittings left over. I didn't have quite enough fittings so have soldered a pair of the wires.

The internet was rather intermittent when first put back together, then realised I've had to run the cable in the same hole as the fibre cable for the moment till I get round to fixing it properly, the internet kept cutting out, think it was getting interference front the fibre hub that was still plugged in and on.

EDIT: internet is still intermittent, all I've done is rejoin the cables so no idea what's gone wrong after rejoining them

Anyway now after the repairs my internet is a very slow 3mb/s instead of the 35 it usually is, probably down to the extra joins, but at least I have some internet now and the wife and child can stop moaning at me

 

[sx_turbo]

Phoned gigaclear this morning, guy on the phone was helpful and apologetic.

Said he couldn't give a date there and then but I will get an email within an hour.

Well within an hour I had the gigaclear engineer call me from his mobile telling me he was at my house.. problem was I was 30 minutes away at work, so luckily my neighbour was in.

Just needed to re-splice a cable.

Only issue now is though that the speed is a bit erattic,

I'm on the 500 package with a garuntee of 400 minimum.

I've got 380 so ill leave that, but the upload is 250 again I'll probably leave it.

The WiFi though, is a bit crap, next to the router I get the above figures.

Stand at my front door I only get 16mbps... Yes just 16

Below are my results I've got tonight 18:10 is the first one I took on gigaclear

Screenshot-2023-10-30-20-15-59-38-79d0ff8f9752a3fc32487e6d62330a6a hosted at ImgBB

Image Screenshot-2023-10-30-20-15-59-38-79d0ff8f9752a3fc32487e6d62330a6a hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Do I need to change settings or speak to gigaclear for them to make adjustments?

 

[KIA]

Do I need to change settings or speak to gigaclear for them to make adjustments?

Use a wired device. Try different speed test servers if the issue still persists.

 

[sx_turbo]

Use a wired device. Try different speed test servers if the issue still persists.

Thanks, I've sorted it now.

I reset the unit, split the WiFi so now have seperate 2g & 5g and it's working a treat now.

Will now cancel my now TV package, and start switching all the devices in the house over to the new WiFi

 

[Rroff]

Got a flyer today from GigaClear which was basically an invitation to an invitation to talk about what they are going to bring to the area, still all very vague, though looks like they have roadworks planned through in Jan/Feb. I wish they'd just do some proper communication and/or get a move on rather than all this vagueness and talk as if something is happening when it is still some indefinite way away.

Same with Wessex - had someone out to do a survey and talking like it was imminent but now radio silence (EDIT: The website says available and will take an order for this address but it isn't actually ready to go and who knows how long it'll be).

 

[Pooh]

Been with Gigaclear for over 18 months now. Had a couple of issues where cabling failed due to poor install, but overall very happy and constantly getting 600 up and down. No brainer if you ask me. Time to get an install appointment can be long though.

 

[Scott C]

Been with Gigaclear for over 18 months now. Had a couple of issues where cabling failed due to poor install, but overall very happy and constantly getting 600 up and down. No brainer if you ask me. Time to get an install appointment can be long though.

I’m currently experiencing the same…

It stopped working on Sunday, which they came out on Monday to fix, however it failed again over night and they’re here now trying to figure out what the issue is (fortunately I’ve got FTTC failover as a backup)

I do have to say though that support has been quite good in my experience and I actually got the Monday appointment booked on the Sunday

 

[Pooh]

one of the issues on my connection related to a problem at the main switchbox in the village when an engineer disturbed my connection while setting up a new customer- 5 minute fix but took a couple of days to get the engineer out.

 

[Pooh]

Here's a top tip re Gigaclear.

If you phone up their customer support team and talk very nicely to them, they will sometimes give you a free speed bump, maybe for 3 or 6 months. Occasionally they forget to turn the bump off

Get your sob story worked out in advance

They bumped me from 400 to 600