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[sjmonday]

Hi everyone,

I moved house in March, believing I could get a decent FTTC connection at my new home. It sadly transpired that Openreach's routing records were wrong and my house was actually connected to a non-fibre cabinet.

The best OR's network could provide was a 10/<1Mbps ADSL connection. This isn't fast enough for home working so I started looking into FTTP.

OR's fibre availability checker reported my address as in scope for FTTP, so I contacted their Fibre Enquiries team in April and they told me that I should have FTTP available to order by the end of October. Result!

In August, I noticed my address had disappeared from the OR fibre checker and I contacted the Fibre Enquiries team again. They replied to say that my property had been descoped from the FTTP rollout in my town (no specific reason given as to why). I was disappointed and started making plans to upgrade the little 4G router I've been relying on since moving.

This month, I saw my address had been put back on the OR fibre checker and it was showing as in scope again! Openreach - this time via Twitter - told me this meant they were 'looking at my area, but have no confirmed project for my cabinet yet'.

So my request for advice is this: Are there any other avenues to get clarity from Openreach on whether my house is still in scope for FTTP? Asking the question to OR three times has given three different responses, with the latest one not reconciling with how I understand FTTP to work (i.e. why would there need to be a project for my cabinet when FTTP doesn't go via the cab and the whole town is notionally covered by the rollout anyway?).

There's already a lot of FTTP coverage in my town and I've seen OR installing CBTs along nearby streets over the last few weeks. The OR engineer who attended the failed FTTC order said that - in principle at least - there's no reason my house shouldn't be able to get FTTP.

I would otherwise be content to wait and see but I can't go on with my current broadband setup much longer. If I need to invest in better cellular broadband equipment for my home then so be it.

Any help or advice appreciated!

[Weaver]

One other option is that of multiple bonded lines. This means combining the throughput of multiple lines for increased speed. It’s not cheap but you could double, treble, quadruple your speeds, even of single downloads, and in both directions as I have done. Plus the incredible reliability is a huge plus, as several lines can go down but you still stay working with no interruption.

4G would be a cheap option, but speeds may be variable, as you’re competing with everyone else, unlike your DSL.

[Weaver]

And a very warm welcome to the forum, sjmonday!

[sjmonday]

Thanks for your suggestion and for the warm welcome, Weaver.

My house actually used to be an office and I have my own DP in the cupboard under the stairs - there are plenty of copper pairs to choose from! I will look into bonded lines although, as you said, I think a 4G antenna on the roof is likely to be more cost-effective.

[Alex Atkin UK]

a 4G antenna on the roof is likely to be more cost-effective.

More cost effective definitely, but far less reliable.

[sjmonday]

As an update for anyone following:

Yesterday afternoon, I walked past a team of Openreach contractors who had been pulling fibre along a street about 100m away from mine. They were packing up their vans so I thought I'd politely ask if they knew anything about the rollout for my street. They told me their contract with Openreach stopped about 50m away from my house, but believed it would still be built by someone else within the ongoing FTTP rollout for my town. Quote: "Everyone around here is getting it soon."

They named the specific property (a shop) their contract extends to in the direction of my house. It's really interesting to me because everything is ducted and the boundary looks totally arbitrary above ground, so I'm assuming there is a subterranean reason for the work to be carved up like this. It must be a significant engineering challenge to overbuild a copper network that's existed long before the internet was even conceived.

Another item of note is the Openreach fibre availability checker shows most properties on the street the OR contractors had just completed as not in scope for FTTP. It seems very likely the checker isn't an accurate reflection of the rollout plan for my immediate area.

The contractors suggested my street could've even already been done and it's just not live yet. My house is duct-fed from a footway box so it's possible a CBT was installed in there recently. I think the best thing I can do now is just keep an eye on when nearby addresses start to go live and hope mine joins them in short order!

[Alex Atkin UK]

Take anything a contractor says about "areas outside their scope" with a pinch of salt though.

[sjmonday]

Absolutely! But on the balance of probabilities, I'm going to wait and see what happens once FTTP starts going live for nearby addresses. If I can avoid converting my attic into a Signals Intelligence station then so much the better

[sjmonday]

Yesterday, Openreach surprised me with a response to the hitherto-unanswered fibre availability enquiry I sent them two months ago.

It was a templated email saying the Fibre Enquiries team have communicated with the 'project manager', and that FTTP is now expected to be available to order at my address by February 2022.

The story of OR's advice to me so far:

• Available to order by October 2021
• Out of scope
• In scope but no active project
• Available to order by February 2022

There may be some twists yet but I'm glad to learn my address hasn't been written off for some unknown reason. There is still a lot of installation activity going on nearby so I'll keep my fingers crossed it comes my way soon.