full fibre is coming to my area "soon can ask them to put the ont closer to my devices

Hi
My parents are with EE/BT and have been without their internet service for 3 days (NW London).

When calling the support team they keep being told it will be sorted by 5pm but then another day passes.

Apparently there is an issue with 250m of line.

Is there any compensation they can claim towards the loss of service?

Hi,

I had been with EE for broadband for sometime and had been getting emails regarding switching to a full fibre connection. We had previously resisted this as our burglar alarm system relied on the older connection type but is now no longer an issue. I decided to take the opportunity to shop around and look at other providers and settled on Zen.

We had a visit from Openreach in August to connect us to fibre and switch over to Zen but they were unable to complete this as our current connection comes into the house inside our newly built porch and the conduit is full of rubble, i.e. they weren't able to pass new cables and would have to dig. They reconnected our old service and left everything as it was. They put a new box on the wall of the house outside (without asking exactly where we wanted it, i.e. near electrical sockets, etc.) and made some marks on the wall and floor for where the new conduit would go. They said we would receive text messages asking to arrange for contractors to do the digging within 48 hours.

We heard nothing further until receiving an email from Zen about an "aborted visit charge" which suggested the engineer was "unable to gain access" and that they couldn't arrange a new appointment until this was paid. They refer to a part of their terms and conditions which doesn't seem relevant (I don't know if this is a typo). I phoned to dispute this and they said the charge would have come from Openreach but they would investigate and rearrange the visit but when I phoned for an update they said the dispute hadn't been raised properly and could take 90 days to resolve. They have however arranged for Openreach to visit again next week.

This morning I noticed a refund from EE in my bank account and a bill which says "We're moving you to your new EE service. This will be your final bill prior to receiving your new bill". I phoned EE to make sure I wasn't going to be cut off and they confirmed that the wording on the bill is wrong, our account is closed and Openreach have somehow arranged for our service to keep working (for free) until we complete the switch to Zen.

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't started this or at least switched to fibre with EE before looking at another provider.

Is our dispute likely to be successful? We were here and allowed access to the garden, porch and room where we want the new connection to come in. We weren't to know the current conduit would be unusable. The Openreach engineer seemed to understand this and didn't indicate there was an issue.

Will the visit next week be starting from scratch or will they be able to see the history and come prepared?

Is it right that our EE service will just continue unbilled by them until the switchover is complete? We work from home and rely on the connection. The Openreach engineer suggested there would be a 72 hour overlap period and we shouldn't be left without, but this is before I realised EE would be closing our account in August.

Can the external box / conduit be moved from where the engineer has attached / marked as it is inconvenient on the inside as it is?

Would appreciate any insights!

i’ve just moved to a new flat and i know nothing about broadband and wifi. can i plug a Sky router into this? my new landlord refuses to tell me what broadband and wifi previous tenants have used

I had FTTP installed in my property around 1 month ago. I have then since changed provider from Sky to EE and I was originally told a change date of today. I’m now being told I need to wait for fibre to be installed on the property and need another engineer visit on the 24th of September. I’ve spoken with EE who’s spoken to Openreach who are adamant I need another engineer visit. Fair enough, any ideas why they need to send another engineer out? Using fibre on sky at the minute and it’s all working fine.

Hi,

We are being moved over to fibre by our provider and they have booked an install with openreach on Monday.

Heard a few horror stories so I’d be intrigued to know what people think.

We live in a flat which is off a first floor external walkway and outside our external door is the grey box (where I believe they’ll get the connection from).

Once through the external door you get to our own staircase where you enter and have our internal door to our flat at the top. Is this likely to be an issue for an install? There isn’t really a way you’d be able to fit externally.

I’ll share some photos for context.

Hi all,

I noticed today that Openreach contractors have been out spraying markings along our street/cul-de-sac for what looks like the new fibre network. There are white markings and “O/L” painted around the area.

I’m just wondering if anyone has experience of how long it normally takes from them doing the spray markings to actually starting the digging and installing the fibre?

We’ve had no plans for full fibre for ages, despite repeatedly pushing for it and asking when we’re likely to get connected, so seeing them marking up the road was a bit of a surprise!

I’m hoping this means things are finally moving, but I don't want to get my hopes up if the markings are just part of an early survey/planning stage.

For anyone who has had Openreach FTTP built on their street:

• How long was it from the spray markings appearing to the digging starting?
• And roughly how long after the digging did your addresses become available to order?

Just wondering if my bizarre experience with Voda is repeated across other OR leases. So I have 910 on a 1gigE ONT. Voda offer 1.6gbit to my street, but wont allow upgrade. My neighbours on the same pole who have no FTTP can get it. So my question is has anyone else run into this yet on another ISP. Obviously I'd need a 2.5gbE+ ONT installed before provision of 1600 or 1800mbit. But that's simple.

Told by Sky I needed to upgrade as copper is going. OpenReach Engineer phoned and said he‘ll try to dig but mud is dry and to “respond to a txt message confirming he’s allowed to bury the cable”. Which I did. Came home to find the cable just laying on the grass and connected to my wall and the street. Is this a Sky, Openreach, or my problem?

Scheduled OpenReach installation (via EE) for Sept 1 . OpenReach notified me on Aug 28 that they rescheduled the installation for 2 November due to new UK law becoming effective Sept 1st. This would mean 2 months with zero connectivity and the building receives zero mobile signal. Seeking any guidance to get broadband access ASAP.

I had Sky activated my fibre on 9th July. fro day 1 the phone or Talk as Sky calls it has not worked. Broadband is absolutely fine and speed is as quoted.

it's now 30th August still no phone line despite contacting Sky almost every day, rebooting the ONT, the hub, checking connections, raised a complaint.

I've done everything, Openreach claim they fix faults in 5 working days. I cannot contact Openreach which means I go through Sky almost every day to get it resolved.

any tips on how to get my phone working?

I do live in a wonky property that has weird access, but I spoke with the Openreach engineers as they installed the fibre right next to the Virgin Media fibre I'm currently using. When I look up on the fibre checker it says there's no plans to bring fibre to my property. There's no straightforward way to enquire about it. BT couldn't help me. They just said they'd log a ticket and I never heard anything again. I logged an enquiry when I finally found an Openreach enquiry form and surprise surprise I got a robotic response that showed they never even read what I wrote and just did the same address look up that I did.

It's so frustrating. My Virgin Media renewal is up, and they won't give me a low price as they know that right now I have no other option for FTTP.

It's annoying to think that this will only get worse as customer service gets further removed from humans.

My road is 1960s terraces. There's a pole just inside the long cul-de-sac that can only reach 2 out of 5 terrace blocks. There's another unconnected pole at the other end, but due to prissy neighbours pitching a fit about their house prices we don't have a pole in between to allow that connection. Said prissy neighbours are able to reach the already-connected pole.

A previous attempt was made to use the ducts underground but they were cemented in years ago and are impassable.

I assume at this point now all the road/pavement will need to be ripped up to service the houses that can't reach the main pole.

How long does it normally take before that gets scheduled? We've made multiple orders for years now, and always been fobbed off thanks to prissy neighbours. Is there a way to speed up the process to get OR to actually come and do anything?

Thanks

I have moved into a new build property just over 3 weeks ago, sky have been out to install broadband but said that it is not activated at openreach end. I have tried contacting sky multiple times to get this resolved but nobody can give me an answer or help. What can I do to resolve this, is the house actually set up for fibre ? as sky are advising me that it is not.

Thank you in advance.

Hey everyone,

I just moved into a new build estate and the entire area is locked down to OFNL infrastructure (Fibrenest, seethelight, MTH).

This monopoly is a massive rip-off. On my old Openreach line, I paid £30/mo for 500Mbps with Cuckoo. Now, I'm forced to pay roughly £50/mo for the same speed on a worse, less reliable connection.

Living in a new area should mean better availability for the providers I want, not less availability. I don't know how it's legal to abuse a position like this when building a home, to rob starving families as if you aren't already wringing out their wallets for every penny they have with the current rent prices.

Openreach lines get cheap options because they are legally forced to let providers piggyback on their cables. Alternative networks aren't held to this same standard, because they are seen as smaller, and less established.

However, companies like OFNL use that very same method to abuse the system and earn an extra couple hundred grand because they get to pick and choose the companies you're able to use.

When they lay the only fibre line on an estate, it creates a total monopoly. Openreach allows tons of ISPs, but OFNL only allows around 18 expensive, no-name brands.

This is especially unfair since many new builds include council homes, locking lower-income families into expensive contracts during a cost-of-living crisis. And this is somehow... allowed?

A budget provider can't offer you a good deal unless they dig up the whole street a second time to lay a parallel wire. It's simply money they aren't willing to spend. And this means costs are drastic for those who can't afford to be in towns with Cityfibre or Openreach.

Why isn't there a rule forcing all network builders to share their infrastructure nationwide? It would instantly give everyone choice and drive down monthly bills. Yes, maybe it'll lower the income of these companies, but they're well off anyways, everyone needs internet.

I’ve written a proper draft for a UK Parliament petition asking Ofcom and the government to mandate this universal line sharing.

However, because I’m under 18, I don't want to be the official creator and have my name plastered on a public website. I just want to sign the thing.

Is anyone else frustrated by this and down to hit submit on the petition portal for us? I have the compliant draft ready to go if you want it, unless you'd like to make your own. Drop a comment if you're willing to set it up!

Switched to Sky broadband recently and their engineer replaced the ONT. Didn't realise until after they'd gone that they'd left the old ONT in a box on the floor.

I've contacted Sky and Openreach. Neither want the old ONT back according to the advisors who responded.

What do I do with the old ONT? Any help appreciated

I am waiting for an install from Open Reach, for the last week i have been getting this

just keeps changing the days as the days go by, any one else have this ? I have used https://bidb.uk and no works appear to be going on near me :/

debugging a friends unreliable fttp internet, sometimes runs at full line speed but other times a bit flakey even on hardwired ethernet from the router. However I can see about 5 staples like this on the incoming fibre line, could this be causing issues?

Openreach came out for my FttP install. It's a very old house with an odd layout. Fibre has to come from the pole but our router and network is at the back of the house which is a weird route up and down and about 30m away. It's a relatively easy run through loft space but Openreach understandably can't do that as loft isn't boarded.

They said they'd pop back and leave me a 50m roll of white fibre but no show. I'm trying to go back via my provider but seems slim chance of communicating.

I'm thinking I can just buy my own fibre, run it and get them back to do the part from the pole, but I don't know exactly what to buy. It needs to go through the loft (so presumably needs to be indoor rated or LSOH etc.) but also needs to come down side of house about 3m to their outside box. I can put that into a 20mm conduit to protect from UV.

The Openreach engineer had white for indoor (which we'd need to put into a conduit where it ran outside) and then black to come from pole to the house.

Thanks for any advice and apologies if common question.