Who should I write to re: broadband availability?

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:08

I live less than a mile from the centre of the UK's 10th biggest city and I can only get a max of ~7mb. As of last night that seems to have dropped to 3.5mb as "BT probably put more people on the exchange" :rolleyes:

. 100yds away on another street and you can get 100mb fibre.

Who should I write to to query why our street hasn't been dug up and had new cables laid? Local MP/mayor or someone more specific?

In before the "I can only get 1mb, count yourself lucky" brigade.

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:15

Thanks folks.

@Oliver: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSWES. Just says "In some areas", and checking my specific address it says "FTTC services available"

It also reckons we can get Virgin but we can't.

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:18

Gilly said:
I'm not sure what you're getting at. The providers will put it where there is demand. It's not anyone else's remit.

Have you registered interest for the big providers to come along?

That's what I'm asking, surely?

There's 77 houses on my street and flats at the bottom, and the houses are mostly converted into between 2 and 4 flats. That's about 400 individual residences. Availability seems to be everywhere except my street and the adjoining one so I don't think it's a demand issue. Houses are also Grade listed so you can't have a Sky dish on the front which is a massive bonus for Virgin.

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 19:32

What speed should I be getting? I'm 0.8miles from my exchange (walking on Google Maps).

Rate (Kbps): 5128 kbps/927 kbps
SNR Margin (dB): 9.6/11.7
Attenuation (dB): 40.0/18.9
Output Power (dBm): 0.0/12.3

Anything standing out in those stats or anything else needed?

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 20:01

Thanks. Gives me something to go on when I contact them next.

Russinating · 14 Mar 2013 at 22:35

Going on holiday for a week tomorrow without the girlfriend so don't want to mess around too much in case I screw anything up before I go. Will check it through the test socket when I'm back.

Russinating · 15 Mar 2013 at 09:31

You say that like it's common knowledge or obvious. Could have fooled me with Virgin adverts every ad break.

Russinating · 15 Mar 2013 at 13:48

KIA said:
OP still hasn't checked FTTC availability...

How do you know? I contacted both Openreach and Virgin yesterday.

Russinating · 26 Mar 2013 at 14:52

Had responses back, none good.

OpenReach said:
Thank you for your enquiry. You are connected to the Bristol West Exchange, cabinet 48.

When deploying cabinets, we must inform the local planning and highways authorities of our intention to site a cabinet. This is performed by sending a noticing of intent to the council. (This is not part of the normal planning application process).

When planning our deployment, we must ensure that the DSLAM cabinet is located within 100m of its associated telephony connection cabinet and that there is adequate access to power and existing telephony infrastructure. Also, ensuring that the cabinet does not obstruct pedestrians, or provide a danger to road-users. To further enable the location of the DSLAM, we must accurately survey for other utility underground structure and obstacles.

After multiple surveys we could not find a location which fits with the above criteria. On this occasion it is due to other utility services in the area, therefore as we couldn’t find another suitable location to place the cabinet, it has been deferred out of the program until further notice.

No room for a cabinet? :confused:

Virgin said:
Further to your enquiry regarding the provision of Virgin Media cable services to your property; we have undertaken a series of surveys to assess whether this is feasible at this time.

Unfortunately our surveys have highlighted that it is prohibitively expensive to upgrade your block of flats to receive digital services.

Also with existing apartment blocks, we do not have the ability to wire internally and to attach our wires externally would require wayleave permission from the property's Freeholder/Management Company which is difficult to secure. Also we have Health and Safety restrictions which do not allow us to install our wires externally above the third floor.

Regrettably we are not in a position to offer service at this time, but we have a clear understanding of the need for provision in this area. As different ways of serving non-cabled streets and estates within our existing built network change, we will continue to look at technically feasible and cost-effective options with a view to providing service at some time in the future.

Urgh! I don't even live in a block of flats.

Russinating · 26 Mar 2013 at 15:18

The flats are minor. This is my road(s): https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.454532,-2.622133&spn=0.002972,0.008256&t=h&z=18

I live on West Mall. The road to the East called Regent Street has Virgin, even though they're all flats above shops. Our two roads (West Mall and Regent Street) are all houses the whole way down, some converted into flats some full houses. The only flats are at the bottom of the road where it says "St Vincents Rocks", and I wouldn't imagine there's any more than 10-15 apartments in there.