Who is responsible for upgrading outdated, slow phone lines?

alexjholland

alexjholland

alexjholland

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Joined
8 Oct 2006
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322
Hey, I just moved into the centre of Cambridge, to their 'flagship development', CB1.

'Flagship Development' of the UK's home for technology startups and 'maximum of 5mb internet connection' are two mutually exclusive statements. They are non-compatible. One cannot be true, if the other is.

I lived in the middle of the countryside and had 6MB. I moved to a small town and got 30MB. I have now moved to the centre of a city in a brand new development and the maximum I can get is around 5.5MB - that's maybe 10% of what I anticipated.

I'm with Sky, for what it's worth; and Virgin isn't available.

I've troubleshooted everything and this is, literally, as good as it gets. No fibre available. I don't think there is anything else I can do here to improve it - the problem is the infrastructure.

What I have not been able to establish yet though, is who is responsible?

Did the housing developers make a decision not to upgrade? Did the council block it? Is it totally the remit of BT, which cannot be influenced?

Basically, someone, somewhere must be responsible for my terrible internet speed and non-availability of fibre; and I want to give them hell. Who is it?

Thanks
 
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Well the building developers had the "option" of having fibre to the building. But only if there is a tap point within a financially viable distance.

For example all the new buildings in E20 have the option of 1Gb fibre optic, but that's not because the developers thought "we want our tenants to have good internet", it's because Tier 1 ISP(s) had to have a point of presence at the Olympics anyway so most of the cost of laying fibre was done for the Olympics.

If BT cared about the state of residential telecommunications in Britain, their latest and greatest service wouldn't max out at a laughable 76Mbps, and Virgin Media runs their network on an over-subscription model, so good luck with getting them to expand unless you get everyone on your road to sign pre-contracts.
 
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its BT.

they are still a monopoly on copper lines so get paid line rental whether you get 1mbit or 100mbit. There is pretty much nothing you can do about it but moan and maybe write to your MP but given BT know there in nothing any one can or will do about them dont expect any change.

Openreach and BT retail need broken up, simple as that.
 
I would say that the people who built the estate are responsible. How many properties are served by the cabinet that provides telephone services to your estate? If that number isn't large enough that a FTTC cabinet would return the investment then your developer should have gap funded it if they cared.

To find out exactly why you don't have FTTC available then you need to email [email protected] with your full address and landline number and ask them why you can't receive service. If the answer comes back that it isn't commercially viable then [email protected] will be able to give you a quotation for the cost of the upgrade.

It might be that if you're in the centre of Cambridge that a new copper multicore was run straight back to the exchange or an existing one that already served the site was used, in which case there isn't a cabinet to upgrade.
 
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MissChief said:
Openreach are supposed to treat all CP's the same, including BT Retail. Ofcom will be very pleased to hear otherwise.
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just what do you think ofcom will do. BT so far this year have more or less told MP's to go F themselves so just what will ofcom do to them. ofcom is so toothless as to be nothing more than a feeder for BT senior management hires.
 
yes openreach have to treat all providers the same but there is no provision for them to bother upgrading equipment. Openreach says F you, no vdsl for you because we have no competition.

just what exactly do you think ofcom will do about not upgrading his cabinet?
 
It's not in the regulator's remit to tell anyone what products need to be available in what locations.

Ofcom would get involved if Openreach were letting BT Retail offer FTTC products on a cabinet but not Sky for example.
 
...but not deploying a product into a location isn't an example of Openreach not treating all providers the same. There are no locations where Openreach are throwing Sky's orders into a bin and letting BT Infinity ones go through. If you can find one then as already said, Ofcom will be very interested.
 
I don't even know what point you're trying to make any more. MissChief already told you exactly what happens if Openreach don't treat all providers the same, they get fined.
 
Well you seem to be calling for Ofcom to do something when someone doesn't have a fibre cabinet. This isn't what Ofcom are for, so they will do nothing.
 
MissChief was replying to you implying that breaking up BT and Openreach would somehow make the situation better, by reminding you that Openreach already have to act like a separate body, under regulation by Ofcom.

I can't be bothered carrying on this discussion any more, your perception of the market is flawed and you don't want to be corrected on anything. If you tried forming coherent sentences then you wouldn't have issues with people not fully grasping the points you're attempting to make.
 
As caged has has said, anyone is perfectly welcome to setup their own communications network but no one will. There's a reason that Virgin were running in the red for years as it's bloody expensive. Openreach will only install VDSL equipment where it's commercially viable. If your area isn't then that is not Openreach's fault.
 
mark2410 said:
its BT.
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No. The developer/s are responsible. If they don't want to pay for the cost of the development to be covered by fibre/cable then Openreach/Virgin (or any other network provider) won't fit it out of there own pocket.

mark2410 said:
they are still a monopoly on copper lines so get paid line rental whether you get 1mbit or 100mbit. There is pretty much nothing you can do about it but moan and maybe write to your MP but given BT know there in nothing any one can or will do about them dont expect any change.
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See above. This is irrelevant.

mark2410 said:
Openreach and BT retail need broken up, simple as that.
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They are separate. This is also irrelevant to whether a development is provided with a high speed network. It's down to money, pure and simple. Somebody has to pay for a network to be rolled out.
 
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they are not seperate. they are part of the same group

as for it being down to money, i agree. what i disagree about is openreaches ability to accurately judge commercial viability. if even a company such as sky feels there is money to be made even with its bargain basement offering. its not just rural 10 people connected to a cabinet that BT wont do, i am in a major city surrounded by hundreds of homes and flanked by a perhaps a thousand new flats. the fact is, cant get virgin here so BT have no competition.

i dont believe BT should run at a loss, nor any company. however nor do i believe any should be allowed to exploit a monopolist position.
 
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