Rant - 3MB 'Fibre Broadband'

[sith]

I just want to start this thread by saying that if you have true fibre and a decent broadband connection, make the most of it. I used to have full 40/10 with Sky, but due to a recent move to a lovely new home we have now dropped down to 3/0.4.

I live in a lovely village called Scholes in Leeds, which as of January became Fibre enabled, well our cabinet did... The issue we all have is that the cabinet is 3km away from the village and everyone who thought that we would get a boost from 1mb, well we did, just to 3mb. Strangely, I know we should be achieving more, all the sites say so and our minimum should be between 4-5mb, but we all get less, and I think this is down to very old wiring.

We have no Virgin option (174 homes registered on their site for cable my street), so we are well and truly stuck.

Rant - we actually have a fibre cabinet at the end of my road, on the main street of the village, and it's been there since 2013 but not showing on any site as waiting to be activated - it just seems like they put it in and decided not to bother!? Why use the one 3km away????

No-one seems to have any explanation, and no-one can tell me that we are fibre enabled, as its just nonsense. Postcode is LS15 4BW.

I wish we had an option for Virgin, or they enabled the cabinet at the end of the street, but it seems like we are stuck.

Rant over!

If by any miracle someone has any idea on what could improve/help our situation it would be greatly appreciated. Also 4G only works on Vodafone here, circa 7mb down.

 

[Caged]

If it's the entire village then speak to Gigaclear

 

[TJM]

The unused cabinet may have been put in before Openreach realised that activating it wouldn't be commercially viable - the cost of the power supply, fibre link and rearranging the existing lines can be a lot.

You could email the Openreach CEO and ask if they have any plans to do the work (google his address). If they don't, you'll need to convince https://www.superfastwestyorkshire.co.uk to contribute to the costs.

 

[KIA]

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31078299

 

[DarkHorizon472]

Many Years ago we had about 2Mb broadband for similar reasons and I got it working at 3.5Mb by I think adjusting the noise margin or similar on the router. From memory this affectively allows faster connections by accepting a slightly lower quality connection but not to the point where it drops at all or generates any errors. Interleaving was off on the connection.

You would need to look at this properly as I only vaguely remember what I did and it may not be possible now.

 

[edscdk]

Move to a fast broadband area?

 

[Caged]

The unused cabinet may have been put in before Openreach realised that activating it wouldn't be commercially viable - the cost of the power supply, fibre link and rearranging the existing lines can be a lot.

You could email the Openreach CEO and ask if they have any plans to do the work (google his address). If they don't, you'll need to convince https://www.superfastwestyorkshire.co.uk to contribute to the costs.

I'm not sure activating a new cabinet would help if the line is already served by an FTTC cabinet - usually you won't get any re-arrangement of existing lines done regardless of how much money you want to pay.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31078299

Is there any precedent of a community fibre partnership bringing FTTP to an area already 'served' by FTTC?

Edit: It might be worth talking to them though, since you might be able to get a grant due to the primary school in your village https://communityfibre.bt.com/grant/grant-faqs

 

[FurryLemon]

I get 1/.04 ADSL with no chance of ever seeing an upgrade.

I had to set Win10 to metered mode over wifi because the constant downloading rendered my internet useless. A 4GB update takes 8-12 hours if the internet doesn't drop out. It always makes me laugh when all the chumps on fast internet bang on about how physical media is dead, everyone should download/stream everything....yeah OK. Strangely enough netflix works, but the quality is SD at best. Same goes for Amazon Prime video.

Don't cry.

 

[james.miller]

I get 1/.04 ADSL with no chance of ever seeing an upgrade.

I had to set Win10 to metered mode over wifi because the constant downloading rendered my internet useless. A 4GB update takes 8-12 hours if the internet doesn't drop out. It always makes me laugh when all the chumps on fast internet bang on about how physical media is dead, everyone should download/stream everything....yeah OK. Strangely enough netflix works, but the quality is SD at best. Same goes for Amazon Prime video.

Don't cry.

I'm gonna say it....it's 2017 and those sorts of speeds shouldnt be acceptable any more. 3Mb/sec is less than a 10th of the average speed across the UK, and we are...wait for it... 23rd worldwide. Uk internet is a joke.

 

[FurryLemon]

Its even worse here. Even in fairly large towns you'll be lucky to get 20mb. Only cities get fast fiber connections. And the price...

I pay 35 euro a month for my internet/phone.

 

[BigT]

I feel your pain:

3km from FTTC cabinet. Campaign to the county council has got a new cabinet on the village green after three years, but now Openreach are stalling on connecting it up so no doubt more years of complaining before we get half way decent speeds.

 

[sith]

Thanks all - Caged, thats not a half bad idea. I'll take a look into the grant and co-funding route.

If that doesn't get anywhere, we will just have to hope Virgin fancy extending to our village. Lots of new builds popping up around us so who knows....

 

[Caged]

Like I said, if it's an entire village without a decent broadband service then I imagine Gigaclear would be interested. Especially being so close to Leeds proper, the infrastructure won't be too challenging.

 

[sith]

Just submitted a case to Gigaclear, keep my fingers crossed for a decent response!

 

[sparkymark75]

I'm gonna say it....it's 2017 and those sorts of speeds shouldnt be acceptable any more. 3Mb/sec is less than a 10th of the average speed across the UK, and we are...wait for it... 23rd worldwide. Uk internet is a joke.

Exactly. Even less excuse in a new build estate where there's no excuse for not laying down the cabling when the rest of the utilities are being laid. The first thing the government needs to do is make it a requirement that new developments have fibre ran along with waste, water, etc.

I'm in a similar boat to those above. Moved into a new build in the middle of an average sized town. I get 1.6Mb, which is just about useable for web browsing but with two teenage kids, is pretty much useless. And just to rub it in, the houses at the start of my street (that were built a few years ago by a different developer) have all just been enabled for FTTP!!!

 

[Caged]

If a new build estate doesn't have FTTP then it's because the developers couldn't be bothered to arrange it.

 

[sparkymark75]

If a new build estate doesn't have FTTP then it's because the developers couldn't be bothered to arrange it.

Quite possibly, but in this day and age, they shouldn't have the choice.

 

[BigT]

If a new build estate doesn't have FTTP then it's because the developers couldn't be bothered to arrange it.

You can also lay blame with the local planning authorities. In granting permissions for new estates it should be mandatory for the builders to pay for fibre to be laid. They wouldn't approve planning if other utilities like water, electricity or gas weren't provided for.

 

[sparkymark75]

You can also lay blame with the local planning authorities. In granting permissions for new estates it should be mandatory for the builders to pay for fibre to be laid. They wouldn't approve planning if other utilities like water, electricity or gas weren't provided for.

Weren't OpenReach even offering to lay the fibre for free if the developers liaised with them early enough in the planning?

 

[sith]

Just an update on my side; both Gigaclear and Superfast West Yorkshire were both very quick in their replies, less than 24 hours.

Gigaclear

Good Morning

Many thanks for the email. I will pass this to the marketing team to look into whether there’s any potential for us to connect your region.

Just to give you some insight into how we choose our projects; we generally work in one of 2 methods: at county level with a BDUK bid as the rural operator, or at community level.

With community level network builds we select villages adjacent to our live areas of around 300-400 properties, or new areas with aggregation of settlements totalling around 2000 residences. These must be without superfast broadband, even in the form of FttC, but with an expected demand from residents (determined by various demographic factors and expressions of interest), they must also be within reach of the national fibre-optic backhaul.

We will return to you as soon as there is any further guidance.

We really appreciate your interest and enthusiasm for this.

Kindest regards

Superfast West Yorkshire - These guys are now running tests on the whole village to see what the score is throughout, max and minimum speeds on this 'fibre product'. They said if they find their results unacceptable it will be put forward to their current delivery partner to resolve. Fingers crossed...