topic BT open reach for my area in Broadband

BT open reach for my area

TimPalarm — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 17:18:45 GMT

I have lived in my area for over 3 years, which is a stone throw away from the town centre. Is there anything that I can do to accelerate BT open reach to start laying cables in my area, which is far from rural. I am frequently frustrated as my bandwidth is lousy by today's standards. I have just done a speedtest and it is 3.43 Mbps. Sky keep telling me that what I am getting is good considering the IT infrastructure, but my own experiences are that this is far from good. Any help would be gratefully received. I have even contacted a company called Lit Fibre and am on their waiting list too!! Anyone with any influential contacts in BT Open Reach? With kind regards

Re: BT open reach for my area

TomThumb5ive — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 18:01:02 GMT

@TimPalarm Openreach do publish a general rollout plan of Full Fiber at

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when-building-ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband

(so any provider who uses the openreach network will have there order book open after completion)

If by chance your postcode isn't on any future build plan of openreach at the moment,

local AltNet fiber will be your best bet, unless there is widespread support from the local community.

info at

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-community-partnership

Tom...

Re: BT open reach for my area

Chrisee — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 18:48:53 GMT

@TimPalarm if you enter your full address in the following checker and post the result after removing the reference to your address forum members can advise on current options as 3.4Mb/s is below the current minimum of the Universal Service Obligation of 10Mb/s.

DSL Checker

Re: BT open reach for my area

TimPalarm — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 14:55:11 GMT

Thank you Tom and I have registered my interest with as many of the AltNet fiber providers that I can. Fingers crossed that one will get back to me with something positive. KR

Re: BT open reach for my area

TimPalarm — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 15:03:51 GMT

Thank you Chrisee and here is the result, which is not as low as the speed test that I did!! Where do I go from here? With kind regards

Re: BT open reach for my area

TimPalarm — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 15:12:49 GMT

The sky app says that our download speed is 19.5 Mb/s and an independent test says 6.36. I would love to run a defacto independent test to contradict the data that Sky provide!!:

Re: BT open reach for my area

jamesn123 — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 15:36:55 GMT

Hi @TimPalarm

You may be surprised to know that actually Openreach often take longer to lay fibre cables in populated areas because it takes a lot more planning & causes a lot more disruption than in a rural setting due to many cables being underground Openreach must get permission from various land owners & the council especially if temp road works are required.

Regarding your speed, the two tests you are using are measuring two different things hence the discrepancy.

The Sky test shows you the line speed between your exchange & the hub, the speedtest on your mobile shows you the actual speed reaching your phone over WiFi which can be significantly lower due to WiFi interference. Are you able to run a test via ethernet to check your true speed?

Re: BT open reach for my area

Chrisee — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 16:11:37 GMT

@TimPalarm the result from the database is very unusual in that none of the various partial fibre solutions are available. Given you say your live quite close to a town and that the ADSL speeds are well over 10Mb/s implies you have something called an exchange line. These lines do not use the normal green street cabinets that most lines connect through but for historic reasons run directly to the local exchange this means the technology used to deliver Superfast services cannot be used as the VDSL equipment that uses cannot be installed in exchanges due to potential interference. Many exchange lines have been converted by installing cabinets outside the exchange building but if I am right your's for some reason hasn't.

Until Openreach get round to your area your options are unfortunately limited unless either Virgin Media or one of the.many so called Altnet companies lay fibre near you. Altnets include companies like City Fibre who are expanding rapidly but Sky only use Openreach lines.

Oddly your local county or unitary authority may know more as they have access to funds to improve connectivity which is mainly used in rural areas but assuming your neighbours are in a similar position your local councillor maybe able to find out what is going on.

Re: BT open reach for my area

TimPalarm — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 17:47:59 GMT

Thank you for your comprehensive reply, which I really appreciate. Your detailed response has provided me with the technical explanation that I needed to E-mail to my local counsellor. Without this information my E-mail would not have been nearly as comprehensive. Have a great day and thank you again. With kind regards