Rant - 3MB 'Fibre Broadband'

TJM · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:11

sparkymark75 said:
Weren't OpenReach even offering to lay the fibre for free if the developers liaised with them early enough in the planning?

They are now.

The problem with my new build was that planning permission was obtained and construction contracts (including for the supply of a copper network) were signed in 2014, long before Openreach was offering to supply FTTP for free. People buying in a few years shouldn't have the same issue.

Vanquish-Storm · 21 Aug 2017 at 15:43

Looking at DSL Checker you seem to have "FTTP on Demand" activated at 300mbps. Are there no providers in your town for this?

Try being in a big town where every street surrounding your area has FTTP but your postcode does not haha!

demonix · 21 Aug 2017 at 16:39

Vanquish-Storm said:
Looking at DSL Checker you seem to have "FTTP on Demand" activated at 300mbps. Are there no providers in your town for this?

Try being in a big town where every street surrounding your area has FTTP but your postcode does not haha!

If I remember correctly, openreach have stopped doing FTTP installs so there won't be anyone who can offer FTTP.

Vanquish-Storm · 21 Aug 2017 at 16:51

demonix said:
If I remember correctly, openreach have stopped doing FTTP installs so there won't be anyone who can offer FTTP.

FTTP Is active at OPs postal code area. If its active will there be no providers?

I should have said FTTC in my second sentence regarding my area.

TJM · 21 Aug 2017 at 17:09

FTTP and FTTPoD aren't the same thing. FTTPoD is a bespoke service and costs a lot - several thousand to link your property to the fibre network and a few hundred a month for three years to rent the line.

Vanquish-Storm · 21 Aug 2017 at 18:30

TJM said:
FTTP and FTTPoD aren't the same thing. FTTPoD is a bespoke service and costs a lot - several thousand to link your property to the fibre network and a few hundred a month for three years to rent the line.

Please expand

TJM · 21 Aug 2017 at 19:02

FTTP is a service for buildings/houses that are already connected to Openreach's fibre network or at least have an access point immediately outside the property line, so activating it is straight forward and you can order a service from an ISP for the usual prices. This is sometimes called native FTTP.

FTTP On Demand is a custom installation that takes several months to complete - Openreach runs a fibre line from your property to the nearest existing fibre node, which may be miles away, and you pay all of their costs. The idea is similar to a leased line and it's not really for residential users.

Openreach should probably label FTTPoD as a business product or hide it in the standard DSL checker results as listing it right below FTTC just causes confusion.

Caged · 21 Aug 2017 at 19:10

BigT said:
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.

I honestly think some developers would rather drag a local authority through the courts than employ someone to liaise with Openreach to get fibre installed.

Caged · 21 Aug 2017 at 21:06

sith said:
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...

So that's quite positive news. If you technically have FTTC available but it's ~3Mbps then working with the local authority to make sure your village is on the map as not having superfast broadband (makes it easier for a company like Gigaclear to bid for funding) is a good first step. At the moment because the postcodes are on a fibre cabinet it will probably mean you aren't eligible for the various grants that are going around.

Disco_P · 22 Aug 2017 at 04:56

I am at least 3KM from my cabinet and get a very usable 5-6Mbit/s on a basic ADSL package. The Openreach speed estimate is 1-2.5mbits. As someone above mentioned I have a billion 7800n router that allows for manual adjustment of the SNR margin which would default to 15db meaning an uber stable 3mbit connection but I have reduced to about 3 for a just as stable connection but at the 5-6mbit speed I much prefer. What is the line attenuation given by your router?

Rroff · 22 Aug 2017 at 05:17

sith said:
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???

Are there any businesses or similar nearby? similar setup near where I work - 20 odd houses on a lane a couple of miles out of the nearest town or so with a couple of cabinets at the end of the row - but they serve the business premises on the hill above (and I think we connect to them as well) and the houses connect to a cabinet over a mile away.

sith · 22 Aug 2017 at 09:21

Disco - currently connected at 42.5db, weirdly this went up with the new Sky Q router from 38db....

Rroff - Yes business throughout the street all the way down, School, Care Home, Hair Dressers, Convenience store, Doctors, quote a few actually. Looking online though they are connected to the same cabinet as me.

Vanquish-Storm · 22 Aug 2017 at 09:44

TJM said:
FTTP is a service for buildings/houses that are already connected to Openreach's fibre network or at least have an access point immediately outside the property line, so activating it is straight forward and you can order a service from an ISP for the usual prices. This is sometimes called native FTTP.

FTTP On Demand is a custom installation that takes several months to complete - Openreach runs a fibre line from your property to the nearest existing fibre node, which may be miles away, and you pay all of their costs. The idea is similar to a leased line and it's not really for residential users.

Openreach should probably label FTTPoD as a business product or hide it in the standard DSL checker results as listing it right below FTTC just causes confusion.

So the FTTP under FTTC on the DSL checker is actually FTTPoD?

#Chri5# · 22 Aug 2017 at 10:01

Vanquish-Storm said:
So the FTTP under FTTC on the DSL checker is actually FTTPoD?

FTTP and FTTPoD show up differently in the checker

and

Vanquish-Storm · 22 Aug 2017 at 10:04

#Chri5# said:
FTTP and FTTPoD show up differently in the checker

Ah, I was just reading the heading not the part on the left

Semple · 22 Aug 2017 at 12:50

FurryLemon said:
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.

My folks are on around 2/0.5, which is frankly awful. The worst part is that my phone with a H+ signal, can get ~25-30 down / ~5-8 up.

Vanquish-Storm · 22 Aug 2017 at 15:42

Success story - after emailing the Openreach CEO a few months ago I now have fibre available thanks to one of his team.

sith · 22 Aug 2017 at 15:45

Vanquish, where did you find his email? Might be worth a shot! Is it Clive Selley or Gavin Patterson?

Vanquish-Storm · 22 Aug 2017 at 16:33

sith said:
Vanquish, where did you find his email? Might be worth a shot! Is it Clive Selley or Gavin Patterson?

[email protected]

One of his team may reply

Disco_P · 22 Aug 2017 at 17:23

sith said:
Disco - currently connected at 42.5db, weirdly this went up with the new Sky Q router from 38db....

Interesting, clearly lower than mine and lower is better. Does the router give the downstream sync speed?

And are you on VDSL or ADSL?