topic Help! in Broadband

Help!

Reb68 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 10:40:47 GMT

Hello

I'm messaging, in desperation, on behalf of my 89 year old mum and 85 year old dad. They have just moved into a manager run apartment complex which has strict rules on no satellite dishes/no fibre. They are in Devon and I'm in London.
we ordered Sky hub for them plus wifi/phone line, to be installed 17th July. I couldn't be there due to work in Copenhagen . The workmen came to do the phone installation, said there was no fibre and just left!!! No support, no instructions what to do next, no guarantee of anything! My mum and dad were confused, stressed and upset. We were not told about the need for fibre optic at the point of sales/buying the contract. We were told it would ALL be fine. Sky had checked the address and it was fine. But Fibre optic cables are NOT allowed where they live.
what do we do now? My dad has been with Sky for about 15 years. I feel so angry they were just abandoned.
Do I cancel the contract?
Thank you for any suggestions

Re: Help!

caesarome — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 11:00:20 GMT

@Reb68

If the no fibre cables being allowed is a local restriction by whoever runs the compartments where your parents live then this could well be something that Sky themselves are no aware of because as far as they might be concerned their address is suitable for fibre broadband.

Have you spoken to whoever runs the complex to see what they do allow for broadband ?

Re: Help!

TimmyBGood — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 12:17:20 GMT

@Reb68 wrote:

We were not told about the need for fibre optic at the point of sales/buying the contract. We were told it would ALL be fine. Sky had checked the address and it was fine. But Fibre optic cables are NOT allowed where they live.

ISPs simply cannot order wholesale copper circuits in areas designated as 'fibre priority': this is a requirement of the national rollout and so any other ISP will face exactly the same issue at that address. If a building owner is refusing to permit optical cable installation then that's something residents need to resolve as part of their tenancy arrangements: an ISP isn't in any position to force this as Openreach would be acting illegally if they drilled through walls without permission.

It's now extremely short-sighted of property owners not to consent to such work as all tenants wishing to switch broadband supplier will be in the same position. Bringing in optical cable is physically very different to satellite dish installation anyway, but can be problematic if listed building status or a conservation area is involved: unfortunately this doesn't change the overall situation that copper (an Edwardian communication technology) is finally on the way out.

Re: Help!

Deb3000 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:47:05 GMT

If they are in an area with a good mobile phone signal, perhaps a connection through 5g would be the solution? I don't believe Sky offer this but there are other ISP's that do. Checking in my own area, I can get 146Mb/s and unlimited data for £50 a month. Just a thought.