BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion
- Thread starter michellez
- Start date
Not sure who's cage to rattle next. What are my options?.....
Suburb of Leeds so not out in the sticks! Current FTTC connection maxes out at 32Mbps due to distance from cabinet. Openreach have now finished their install in my area and have done every street except the section where I am (approx 20 houses which are all newer than everywhere around us and have under-street ducting). Openreach have said there are no plans to install FTTP in my street but I can't see any logical reason why not.
Virgin media did install in the area a couple of years ago, using the under street ducts to do this, however, after much pain and poor communication and numerous failed visits, they decided there was a blockage under my neighbour's drive preventing access to my property (the duct runs under his drive for some odd reason). Virgin didn't instill confidence in anyone at the time so when the wayleave request came through, he naturally declined.
Can I force Openreach to repair the duct? They own them, after all. Not sure my neighbour will be happy about having his drive dug up. Am I stuck in a heavily populated area being one of only 20 houses that Openreach have decided they don't want to serve? Is 4G/5G internet my only way of getting anything better than the current 32MBps?
Suburb of Leeds so not out in the sticks! Current FTTC connection maxes out at 32Mbps due to distance from cabinet. Openreach have now finished their install in my area and have done every street except the section where I am (approx 20 houses which are all newer than everywhere around us and have under-street ducting). Openreach have said there are no plans to install FTTP in my street but I can't see any logical reason why not.
Virgin media did install in the area a couple of years ago, using the under street ducts to do this, however, after much pain and poor communication and numerous failed visits, they decided there was a blockage under my neighbour's drive preventing access to my property (the duct runs under his drive for some odd reason). Virgin didn't instill confidence in anyone at the time so when the wayleave request came through, he naturally declined.
Can I force Openreach to repair the duct? They own them, after all. Not sure my neighbour will be happy about having his drive dug up. Am I stuck in a heavily populated area being one of only 20 houses that Openreach have decided they don't want to serve? Is 4G/5G internet my only way of getting anything better than the current 32MBps?
I'm pretty sure the wayleave will be in place but it isn't Openreach that want to unblock it because there is no incentive for them to do it. VM wanted to unblock it using their contractor (it took my about 12 months to get them to write to the neighbour in the first place) and I'm not sure if the wayleave applies to them. As soon as my neighbour refused, VM happily walked away and said they couldn't supply us with a service. Frustratingly, the blockage is less than 10m away from my front door!
I would much rather Openreach did the work because I'm confident they would replace like for like (neighbour's drive is part block paved, part tarmac). If VM did it, I have read many horror stories of them making a complete hash of it - they would probably just slap some tarmac in and be done with it. Whilst my existing service is working fine, there is no incentive for Openreach to do anything.
Openreach have finished my area now but looking at packages available from Zen, Aquiss, TalkTalk they’re really bad compared to the altnet around here both in price and speed. I’m also reading on here lots of problems with Aquiss and Zen.
Is that expected to improve at all or is there no point going with a Openreach product?
Is that expected to improve at all or is there no point going with a Openreach product?
Plusnet will do you 1Gb for £42 or 500Mb for £34. It's not symmetric but no Openreach services are.
Openreach don't have the luxury of burning through capital invested in them by a middle eastern state like a huge number of the altnets, their pricing actually has to generate returns.
Openreach don't have the luxury of burning through capital invested in them by a middle eastern state like a huge number of the altnets, their pricing actually has to generate returns.
Associate
I’ve seen some problems with Aquiss but haven’t heard anything about Zen - I’m trying to get FTTP but really unsure who to go with (no AltNets in my area - CommunityFibre were supposed to be but now they’re saying they aren’t building)
What are the problems with Zen?
What are the problems with Zen?
I’d read a lot on here about Zen changing its infrastructure/ routing so that gaming latency was much worse? Has that been fixed?
Associate
I hadn’t heard about this before - but yes it looks like they’ve done something.
Gaming latency is of a particular concern to me after my VM experience so (although latency is different in different areas) would appreciate some guidance.
Was also thinking of going with EE/PN but honestly not sure.
Personally if I was going back to Openreach, I’d probably sign up to talk talk. I was with them before I went to an alt-net.
The product is good, the price is low and the customer service is terrible but you shouldn’t really need it. The customer service is also terrible on all of the other mainstream providers so it’s not really a downgrade.
The product is good, the price is low and the customer service is terrible but you shouldn’t really need it. The customer service is also terrible on all of the other mainstream providers so it’s not really a downgrade.
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Plusnet is cheaper and actuality has good customer service
If Plusnet are cheaper today, I’d pick them but typically Talk Talk are cheaper.
I bed to differ on the service having been a plusnet customer, they are both terrible. Bear in mind you only ever need them when something goes wrong, and when something goes wrong they are both as useful a chocolate fire guard and unable to deviate from a strict scrip that inevitably doesn’t cover the problem.
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I've had about a few issues and they have dealt with them. Can't ask for more. Few were billing and one one a disconnection at the cabinet. Called out Openreach promptly and discounted my bill.
Associate
Pleased to hear you’ve had a good experience with PN
Issues with backhaul performance/migration and customer service going downhill quick.
How did you manage to get the 1.6Gbps for that price?
All of the copper that is left from those that won’t upgrade to fibre will eventually have no voltage going down them either when they switch off the PSTN and everyone is broadband only with VoIP for their landline phone
Are you sure virgin using the Openreach duct? 99.9% of the time they have their own underground network of boxes and ducts (the street boxes labelled CATV are virgin) Very rarely do they use BT boxes and ducts.
Associate
I was last with Plusnet around 5 years ago, I was having line issues due to being supplied by an old overhead copper line, the call handler promply arranged for Openreach to attend and repair with no BS. Couldn't ask for more from them really.