Mission: To get faster internet in our new home

[Rroff]

Maybe look at getting a 4G hub (5G maybe next year)? I'm pretty sure Vodafone are selling such a device.

Problem is trying to get a decent bandwidth package at a semi reasonable price if you actually do anything other than light usage. Generally web-page loading times and latency in general isn't as good as a fixed line but generally fine for stuff that buffers like video but then you run into the download limits quickly :s

And that is assuming you get good reception - I'm kind of in this boat at the moment though not as bad - moving from where I have multiple 80/20 lines to somewhere that fortunately looks like having FTTC but speeds more like 20Mbit than 80. Looking to supplement with a 4G connection but unfortunately it looks like a dead spot for Three but other providers like Vodafone seem to cover it well but most of their packages are 50GB or less.

 

[Caged]

Wait because EE and probably BT are going to be looking at hybrid services where LTE is used alongside your FTTC to boost the speed.

 

[edscdk]

Move again

Like what he said... Probably have to just scrap the old house now everyone knows it has no, internet!

 

[fiveub]

what speed do you get on your phone?

Around 10Mb when I checked last night (Not on WiFi). I assume this is what you were asking?

What does BT wholesale (https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s_cid=ws_furls_adslchecker) or this (https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search) say?

Might help others narrow down your options

BT Wholesale says: "We are sorry but the checker is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later."
Sam Knows: Under "Exchange Search Results" it is blank.

So I guess no luck on either website.

Is the estate still under construction? I thought it was standard practice for all large new builds to get FTTP, albeit it could take a while to go 'live'

Phase 1 which is what I am on is finished, they are working on Phase 2 this year which is a much smaller plot. I thought it was standard too, but I guess it is to do with the developer, I assume they have to pay for the lines and they skimped out to save money?

let me guess new build house?

Yeah a new build, moved in 5-6 months ago.

Do a Community Fibre Partnership

I guess this means talking to the estate.

VM sales people generally want an easy life, if it takes longer than the time to credit check you and key an order, they aren't interested. You live in a new build estate where the developer did a half arsed job, harass the developer - that's not VM's problem, but they are the people you need to fix it. Speak to normal sales, ask them to check the property listing on the database and tell you the status, if it's on the web tool, it'll be on the database and it'll have the reason for the failed install. It likely needs a PIV booked and an indication of the amount of construction required, if it's minimal a spotter (a field sales person with some additional training) may be able to supply the information to VM, if it's 8 doors down I suspect it'll need a full PIV. I'm not confident you'll get a positive outcome, but at least this way you'll get an actual answer as to why/why not.

So do you think I have more chance by hassling Keepmoat as they may have just made it difficult for Virgin Media to install?

Wait because EE and probably BT are going to be looking at hybrid services where LTE is used alongside your FTTC to boost the speed.

This looks promising, I just hope it doesn't take years for me to be able to have decent internet as that would be frustrating.

 

[Caged]

I guess this means talking to the estate

Nope, if you have Openreach ducts in place then you can bypass them entirely. If they sold you based on the concept of fast internet though then you may want to pressure them to chip in for the costs.

https://communityfibre.openreach.co.uk/

 

[digitalwolf]

Did VM send a tech out to do a site survey?

Check the document below and see how close the network is to your house by looking for Tee's in the pavement or even Virgin Media manhole covers in the pavement.

You may even have the green ducting with rope in close to your property (usually near front door)

https://keepup.virginmedia.com/cont...gin_media_new_build_developers_guide_v1.4.pdf

 

[bloodiedathame]

I moaned at BT Openreach that every road surrounding mine had Fibre and not mine (that they'd basically forgotten to upgrade our cabinet). 2 years later and they've done the cabinet and I can have Fibre!

 

[~cw]

It's annoying as it says on their website 362Mb is available at my address. When it is apparently a mistake on their end.

Sounds like either their postcode database is stale and they don't have any records for your property, your estate is part of a phased rollout (read: properties nearest to main road and existing cable runs: easy, everything else: later!) ... or the cable teams didn't do a very good job of cabling your whole estate. If you're really unlucky, they may have only laid cable down one side of your road, and you're on the other side. (The supplying cable must run past property boundaries to get service from them, they won't do any digs to bring cable across because they're crap.)

I lived in a house once where the adjoining property behind us (shared an address) already had cable. Posed problems when I tried to sign up and had to get an engineer out to confirm - they visually confirmed and order went in on to the system, cabler showed up next week and fitted. Try ringing and speaking to a clueful human.

Are there any CATV manholes or suspicious looking Virgin Media green/grey street cabs on your estate?

 

[HAz]

Same issue at our new build. Came with top end 2 meg Internet super highway lol. Finally got fibre 40meg BT then virgin build a big box outside our road then make a join across the road. Now turns out they've backed out due to road all block paved!

 

[fiveub]

It seems like all of the old houses surrounding the new estate all have Virgin Media. My house is the first house on a corner, and from my front door, I can see a brown Virgin Media box on one of the old houses next to mine. Also there are 2 houses on the new estate facing the old houses that have the Virgin Media brown box too. So it seems like we're surrounded by Virgin, but cannot get it right now?

 

[digitalwolf]

It seems like all of the old houses surrounding the new estate all have Virgin Media. My house is the first house on a corner, and from my front door, I can see a brown Virgin Media box on one of the old houses next to mine. Also there are 2 houses on the new estate facing the old houses that have the Virgin Media brown box too. So it seems like we're surrounded by Virgin, but cannot get it right now?

Are the pavements down yet?

 

[fiveub]

Yeah they've just put them down. The roads are not finished though.

 

[digitalwolf]

Yeah they've just put them down. The roads are not finished though.

In that case have a walk about and see if you have any grey CATV / Virgin Media manhole covers in the new pavement.

 

[fiveub]

In that case have a walk about and see if you have any grey CATV / Virgin Media manhole covers in the new pavement.

I will try and do that tonight, to see what's around.

 

[bledd]

So it seems like we're surrounded by Virgin, but cannot get it right now?

Giggity!

Also, good luck. Hassle the company you bought from and hassle VM.

 

[Avalon]

It seems like all of the old houses surrounding the new estate all have Virgin Media. My house is the first house on a corner, and from my front door, I can see a brown Virgin Media box on one of the old houses next to mine. Also there are 2 houses on the new estate facing the old houses that have the Virgin Media brown box too. So it seems like we're surrounded by Virgin, but cannot get it right now?

Sounds like potentially a straight forward addition to the database - they won't do it till someone asks though.

 

[fiveub]

Virgin replied to me with this, so I feel it is impossible for me to receive Virgin at this stage.

Hi Steven

I Can understand your frustration, for us to be able to feed the development it would need to come from Keepmoat, the issue we would have is if they agree to us coming onto site to do a retro fit we would need to dig up all footpaths and drop tee’s off at every property, and Keepmoat would insist that we complete a full width reinstatement which would out way the cost of build, the homes that have our service will be sat on existing service, and Keepmoat would have demolished the existing duct work on the new development site, so as it stands at the moment we would not serve the site until the section 58 was lifted generally after 5 years form the local authority adopting the highway, sorry I have to be the bearer of bad news

Regards

Dave

I guess I need to figure out some other options, I've heard of Airfibre, but it seems like no one is providing that in our area right now either.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Virgin replied to me with this, so I feel it is impossible for me to receive Virgin at this stage.



I guess I need to figure out some other options, I've heard of Airfibre, but it seems like no one is providing that in our area right now either.

Virgin replied with that? Out way the cost of build?

Getting access to decent internet is one of the hardest things to find when looking at property :/


What are your options at this point?

 

[fiveub]

I feel like I don't have any options, and moving house is not an option for me. - My package at the moment is Sky:

Sky Broadband Unlimited
Sky Pay As YouTalk (We don't have a household phone)
Sky Line Rental (Same as above)
Sky TV

The Sky Broadband Unlimited is obviously not on fibre, and that's all I can get currently.

 

[ChrisD.]

If you want to pay then get a quote with Cerberus or FluidOne for a FTTPoD install, but it won't be cheap.

If you're registered as a ltd company then you can claim £3k of the cost back from the government.

The initial survey cost is £250 +VAT from memory, it's worth paying for as the desktop quote you're initially given by the ISP is usually vastly different than the actual install cost - especially on a new build estate where records at Openreach's end won't be complete/accurate.