Full fibre availability

[moorlander]

Im having a real problem finding out if full fibre is available at my house.

We live in a house which has fibre to cabinet..The comms cabinet, which has been in place for approx 10 years , is approx 250m away and we are connected to our house by underground copper cables from the public highway, up a private drive shared by four houses . All the houses in our street ( approx 30 ) all have underground copper cables and there is no duct work or conduits ....the cables were just laid in trenches and back filled when the houses were built in the 80's. Most houses are adjacent to the public highway apart form ours .

All the neighbouring streets which have overhead cables and telegraph poles have been upgraded to digital phone lines and full fibre to property yet our street of 30 has been left out.

Now this is where it gets frustrating ;-

Talktalk advise that FULL FIBRE TO PROPERTY is available ....yet when I have spoken to City Fibre ( talktalk contractors ) they advise it inst available as open reach haven't upgraded the cables yet and city fibre have no date yet for upgrades.. I spoke with open reach who advise that full fibre to property is available and then we are already connected ...

I tried to explain to openreach that we have no overhead cables ...no digging has been undertaken to lay underground cables and no one has been in my house, or the other neighbours houses , to install new fibre phone lines. They went on to say that the ''new'' comms cabinet was placed outside my next door neighbours house!!  We both have looked and unless its extremely tiny and well camouflaged we could not find it !

I am loathed to start placing an order to upgrade having heard all the horror stories of ''upgrades'' being disconnected / reconnected / never carried out and then service takes months to get reconnected / engineers never turning up etc......

So what do I do ?????????????????

[Gliwmaeden2]

Within the last month of the contract, @moorlander.

Anything earlier will trigger an early termination fee. 

[moorlander]

Neighbour had openreach up to install fibre to property on the proviso that it was shown as”available “ on the openreach system …. It would be available after openreach contractors had dig most of the drives and gardens up to intall ducting and new cables . Openreach commission engineer wasn’t happy …said he couldn’t understand why they didn’t undertake a physical pre install survey prior to people actually signing up to have their service upgraded or to change provider … 

[moorlander]

My contract runs until July 2024. When is the earliest I can leave Talktalk ?

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Problems can happen with any provider. 

[ferguson]

Don't order it then?

[moorlander]

Having watched watchdog tv programmes last week which was about fibre/ internet upgrades and several people experiencing major problems with upgrades —— ie, placed an order , old copper network disconnected and then engineers advised not possible to install full fibre , then having a hell of a time getting the old connection / service reconnected I’m not happy with the ambiguity … Been on the phone to openreach today and they are the same “computer says it’s available “ bit but none of my neighbours are FTP yet openreach adamant they are !! 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Feels like the only way to sort this is to place an order, an engineer will need to come out and maybe start a survey to find out what is required.

[moorlander]

Hi Michelle 

it says it’s available but has a “congested duct” ……. 

as described earlier - there are no ducts …. I saw them build our house and also laying of services and they were all just placed in an open trench which was then just backfilled …..

the cable from the footpath to our house is just the same 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

What does the availability checker advise please?

Thanks

Michelle

[ferguson]

Did you have a look at that checker I mentioned?

[moorlander]

Yes - just laid into a trench . I had an extension built approx 10 years ago and nearly chopped the cable which runs under my lawn to the house !!

[ferguson]

What does it show towards the bottom of the checker here by the way?

Mine says: "Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG congested duct." As I mentioned, there weren't any issues encountered.

[ferguson]

Ah OK, so just bare cables were laid directly into trenches? Hmm! Ultimately though, you can only find out what is going to happen by starting the order process. They certainly won't be installing drop wires if there aren't any telegraph poles already in situ. And Arne has already said that the service is available from Openreach, rather than City Fibre at your address. 

[moorlander]

There is no ducting for the cables . They were just laid into trenches and then backfilled when they built the housing ( i lived nearby and saw them do this )

with regards to city fibre ——- I rang talk talk upgrades and they said o had to check with city fibre as they would be doing the upgrades / installation of full fibre …..

so having watched Watchdog last night where a broadband customer a requested a full fibre upgrade and then had her broadband and phone disconnected “pending connection to full fibre “ then was told that full Fibre  could not be installed and then had to fight for reconnection to her service over several months ———-  that’s why I want to know for sure of fibre is available …… 

[ferguson]

@moorlander 

Just a bit of added information. If you already have underground cabling then it is likely that no digging work will be required. Openreach will simply "blow" the fibre cabling via the existing ducting to your home. This is what happened in my case, with minimal disruption. The only issue will arise if there any blockages, or damage to the ducting which may prevent that from talking place. But that would be a bridge to be crossed if you came to it. 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi moorlander

When i check your account the option to upgrade to FTTP via Openreach, (not City fibre) is available, its up to you to place an order and an engineer will need to come and install the extra equipment. 

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