BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[t2na]

The house I’m buying only has FTTC, and it looks like the build for FTTP has been pushed back.

It’s gone from building soon to planning to build in the future - not sure if this is just a change in language, but hoping it isn’t too long.



I’ve had a form of FTTP since 2018, so would be weird going back to 50 Mb

Made the same move when we bought this house, went from a lovely 1GB line to the house down to a 35mb line. Ended up getting a second line installed and we've managed pretty well for the past 2 years, Open Reach are installing FTTP right now so we should have it back by the end of the summer but it's been around 2.5 years of much slower speeds.

You do adapt and get used to it. Two lines helped a lot, not sure we'd have managed that well on just a single line.

 

[ChrisD.]

Days like today I'm glad for 1.6 Gbps with EE, having to download multiple software stack builds over 100 GB each.

 

[thewanted]

Are there any Openreach-based ISPs which have a better reputation for routing/contention/latency/better NAT'ing etc. than others? Evidence of this would be even better.

My Plusnet FTTP went live last week and it's performing very well, but I'm just curious if there are some tangible differences between them.

 

[Vertigo]

So, after years of "we have no plans whatsoever to do anything with your road" from Openreach, today i get back from holiday to find they've dug the road up and, from the looks of it, laid fibre!

Of course the checker still says "nope" but how long is it likely to be before this is live? Note that the general area has been for a while, so presumably just a case of hooking up the new street cabling to the wider network?

 

[Yaayuh!]

So, after years of "we have no plans whatsoever to do anything with your road" from Openreach, today i get back from holiday to find they've dug the road up and, from the looks of it, laid fibre!

Of course the checker still says "nope" but how long is it likely to be before this is live? Note that the general area has been for a while, so presumably just a case of hooking up the new street cabling to the wider network?

I'm convinced their tracker is a big pile of poo

 

[t2na]

Of course the checker still says "nope" but how long is it likely to be before this is live? Note that the general area has been for a while, so presumably just a case of hooking up the new street cabling to the wider network?

Checker still says no for us and I’ve been watching the guys lay the fibre lines every day for the past week..!

Had a brief chat with one the other day and he said they usually expect it to be 6-8 weeks from when they’ve finished their part to it being ‘live’ and available.

 

[thewanted]

Checker still says no for us and I’ve been watching the guys lay the fibre lines every day for the past week..!

Had a brief chat with one the other day and he said they usually expect it to be 6-8 weeks from when they’ve finished their part to it being ‘live’ and available.

Keep checking the BT wholesale site. The Openreach one is quite delayed by comparison.

BT Broadband

www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com

 

[Vertigo]

Keep checking the BT wholesale site. The Openreach one is quite delayed by comparison.

BT Broadband

www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com

Ironically I signed up for a fresh 24 months with VM in January. That said, if a decent symmetric deal is available over FTTP I may just run both together for a bit.

 

[Duke]

Comparing 1Gbps Broadband ISP Packages on Openreach's UK Network - 2026

A couple of years have passed since we last published a summary of the key consumer ISP choices for 1Gbps home broadband packages on Openreach’s Fibre-to-the-

www.ispreview.co.uk

 

[esK`]

Had my FTTP installed today, night and day difference. Gone from 78Mb to 900Mb. However according to the engineer very few people are on the 900Mb package. Not fully sure how that makes a difference but downloading at 1.1Gb. Not going to complain.

 

[ChrisD.]

Congrats, but whatever is reporting 1.1 Gbps is likely wrong.

 

[Scam]

I guess that's what I'm asking?

Other neighbours over the road, have got something one of these stuck to their front garden wall (on the pavement). My girlfriend has seen it and she thinks that's what we're gonna end up with. That's obviously what I want to avoid as they do look ugly. No idea if their is for FTTP but I assume it is because they only moved in about a year ago and it appear soon after. Shown here; https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...our-drive-front-garden.18959634/post-35886889

Well I finally won the argument with my girlfriend and ordered Gigafast w/ Sky just now. However I'm slightly confused by the timeframe. I was expecting a 'wait and see' type scenario for an install date but to my surprise they offered me next Friday Which unfortunately we can't do as we're both out. But it also said something along the lines of "we may also need to do a site survey beforehand and we'll be in touch to arrange that". I'm assuming that survey is the Openreach bit, no? So how on earth were they going to get OR round within the week? Surely that's a little optimistic?

So I slightly panicked and changed my "install date" to Mon 27th to allow for a few days where one of us can be around for the "site survey".

Can anyone shed any light on the schedule here? My neighbour had it installed next door, not sure if it was Sky. But OR came round, ran his fibre quite easily under his front garden (presumably through the existing ducting) but then he was left without the external box for a couple of weeks of which I assumed was waiting on his ISP to come round and do the interior work.

I'm confused

 

[TheVoice]

Openreach finally installed fibre to my building (and the one opposite) a couple of weeks ago and now seems to be available to order. Fortunately we had Hyperoptic installed in late 2021 so I've had full fibre for a while, but it's nice to know there's another option to explore when my current contract ends.

 

[arc@css]

So, after years of "we have no plans whatsoever to do anything with your road" from Openreach, today i get back from holiday to find they've dug the road up and, from the looks of it, laid fibre!

Of course the checker still says "nope" but how long is it likely to be before this is live? Note that the general area has been for a while, so presumably just a case of hooking up the new street cabling to the wider network?

In February, I had a letter from BT informing me that my street had also been upgraded to full fibre broadband and that there would be no increase in cost.
Of course, I didn't believe it and in March, I received another letter saying that the service would be going up, albeit only by £3.

Aside from that, I haven't heard anything since. I've just done a quick check on Speedtest, but no change.
I wonder if this service upgrade - when it happens, was prompted by Virgin's introduction of full fibre in my area? No doubt, it must have influenced it.

 

[batfink]

So, after years of "we have no plans whatsoever to do anything with your road" from Openreach, today i get back from holiday to find they've dug the road up and, from the looks of it, laid fibre!

Of course the checker still says "nope" but how long is it likely to be before this is live? Note that the general area has been for a while, so presumably just a case of hooking up the new street cabling to the wider network?

I've just had similar. Virgin installed in the street a few years ago but the Openreach checker has always stated "we have no plans....", then randomly they turned up a few weeks ago laying fibre under the street (all ducting already in place) but the checker continued to say" we have no plans.... ". Three weeks later and I get an email from Openreach stating full fibre is now live. 5 mins later and my order was placed!

Only issue is that the duct to my house is blocked under my neighbour's drive. Virgin stopped trying at the point my neigbour refused to have his drive dug up. Openreach came and tried this week but still failed to get a cable in so they're going to try a "cut and pull" in a few weeks time, pulling out the old copper cable at the same times pulling through the fibre. They say the copper cable moves freely so it should be straightforward, fingers crossed, or I'll be left with no service and needing to persuade my neighbour to allow his drive to be dug up!

 

[b0rn2sk8]

In February, I had a letter from BT informing me that my street had also been upgraded to full fibre broadband and that there would be no increase in cost.
Of course, I didn't believe it and in March, I received another letter saying that the service would be going up, albeit only by £3.

Aside from that, I haven't heard anything since. I've just done a quick check on Speedtest, but no change.
I wonder if this service upgrade - when it happens, was prompted by Virgin's introduction of full fibre in my area? No doubt, it must have influenced it.

What have you got now? They need to physically run a new able to your house from the street for you to get full fibre.

All that letter means is the equivalent speed in ASDL will be the same price on full fibre. The full fibre connection will be better as on ADSL up to 80mb can be anything from 40-80mb on fibre it will be 80mb.

The benefit of fibre will that you can go faster, up to 1000mb currently but due to go up to 2500mb in the near future.

You might as well get on it as the old ADSL lines will be withdrawn in due course.

 

[arc@css]

What have you got now? They need to physically run a new able to your house from the street for you to get full fibre.

All that letter means is the equivalent speed in ASDL will be the same price on full fibre. The full fibre connection will be better as on ADSL up to 80mb can be anything from 40-80mb on fibre it will be 80mb.

The benefit of fibre will that you can go faster, up to 1000mb currently but due to go up to 2500mb in the near future.

You might as well get on it as the old ADSL lines will be withdrawn in due course.

I currently have their fastest (non-full fibre) package. I think it's called Fibre 1.
So, ~ 66 - 73 download; 16 - 18 up.

I suppose I need to actually give them the go ahead to upgrade.
My contract runs out in July and before I received their letter, I was quite set on giving Virgin a go.

My mobile network provider is giffgaff, so I could also consider trying them out.

Oh, and don't know if it's me, but on the occasional website, BT.com being one of them; I'll log in and then find myself greeted with another webpage requiring a second login...
What's all that about!? Maybe it's an extra security step.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Yes, you have to tell them to upgrade but you would do it via your ISP and no doubt have to re-contract for 2 years.

Unless you are a power user, all Openreach based ISP's are basically the same so consider who has the best price, it probably isn't BT direct.

 

[arc@css]

Yes, you have to tell them to upgrade but you would do it via your ISP and no doubt have to re-contract for 2 years.

Unless you are a power user, all Openreach based ISP's are basically the same so consider who has the best price, it probably isn't BT direct.

Yeah, only earlier I was on Openreach to check out the provider options I have.
It was way more than I expected, well over 30 - at least according to the info on the screen.

 

[ChrisD.]

My contract runs out in July and before I received their letter, I was quite set on giving Virgin a go.

Honestly, if you have Openreach FTTP available, it's an easy decision unless you consume the TV services such as Sky Sports etc which Virgin Media can offer. Virgin can be a gamble internet wise as to whether there is local area congestion.

As for the price increase, this would be the annual April time increase, and unrelated to FTTP being rolled out.