Fitting fibre to the house

[Janice10]

I'm having a nightmare with City Fibre and wondering if switching to a provider that uses Openreach will be any better

I decided to "upgrade" to full fibre broadband when my last broadband contract ran out and opted to go with Zen, who use City Fibre in my region.

My current phone line enters the house underground but there is no duct on the front of the house as a porch was added several years ago and so the line is underneath this. It then appears at the master socket on the wall of the hall.

I don't want the fibre to come in here as there are no sockets and nowhere to put a router.  There is a convenient place on the front wall of the house coming into the sitting room. I understood that I could choose where the fibre entered the house.

A number of City Fibre operatives have been to the property and variously tell me that fibre can't be fitted or that fibre can be fitted but digging will be needed, but can't tell me what digging or where this will be to or from.  Some say it can be installed where I want it and others say it can't. Apparently when CityFibre was installed in my street they used existing Openreach ducts rather than installing their own

I accept that some sort of digging will be needed to bring to the fibre to the house but don't understand why I can't be told exactly what will be involved before giving permission for this.  Each person that comes suggests a different route. I'm beginning to lose faith with CityFibre and just don't want a complete mess made of my garden and house

I'm wondering whether to cancel my move to Zen and go with a provider who use Openreach or whether things will be just as disorganised with them!  

Thanks for any advice you can offer

[TimmyBGood]

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@Janice10 wrote:

I'm wondering whether to cancel my move to Zen and go with a provider who use Openreach or whether things will be just as disorganised with them!  

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Whether from an Openreach ISP or an altnet such as Cityfibre, the new optical cable has to arrive at an external wall of the property somehow.

Putting the address into the BT Wholesale Availability Checker should return the Openreach notes for the address.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome 

It's the table and the two text lines below it which are most useful.

Remove any personal information (such as the address itself) if you post an image.

[Janice10]

is this it?

Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Handback WBC FTTC Availability Date WBC SOGEA Availability Date Threshold(Mbps)

High Low High Low

VDSL Range A (Clean) 80 VDSL Range B (Impacted) 80 G.fast Range A (Clean) -- G.fast Range B (Impacted) --

Unavailable Available Unavailable Available Unavailable -- Unavailable --

Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range (Mbps) Availability Date FTTP Install Process

WBC FTTP

Other Offerings

VDSL Multicast

Exchange Product Restrictions

FTTP Priority Exchange WLR Withdrawal SOADSL Restriction

Up to 1000

Availability Date

Available

Status

Y Y N

Up to 220 --

Available

1 Stage

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG congested duct.

FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered.

[TimmyBGood]

@Janice10 

" Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG congested duct "

So Openreach thinks it's unlikely that fibre can be delivered without digging.

[jamesn123]

@Janice10 

Honest answer is that you will likely get the same level of service from Openreach. They will need to dig but until the people turn up on the day they may not know exactly where.

[Janice10]

Thankyou, I feared this could be the case.

It would just be useful if someone who knew what they were doing could assess things properly and explain what will need to be done