Does anyone else recall the deal with fibre broadband?

[Fastpedaller]

A few years ago (was it 3 or 4?) I recall we were told the 'fibre optic roll-out' was imminent and our costs would increase by 3.9% plus inflation each year to pay for the new technology to be rolled out. I'm sure the idea was that all areas (even rural ones) would benefit from the shared technology. Fast-forward to last year. We live in semi-rural North Norfolk, and County Broadband dug trenches in our pavements and installed fibre optic cables. The effect this had on our copper cables is another story . Suffice to say we had to go onto full fibre or suffer - the upside is we were able to negotiate it to the same price. The weird thing is when Openreach came to make the change, they didn't use the County Broadband underground fibre, but connected to the telegraph pole. I thought the idea was to share all the tech - Does anyone know what happened to the 'deal'

 

[StuAff]

Sharing all the tech? No, that was never the plan, no more than it ever has been in the past. Openreach are gradually switching their entire network, so no more copper & everyone will have at least one fibre option (allegedly by the end of next year, now…possibly...). I have a CityFibre connection, Virgin Media would also be an option, Openreach yet to pull their fingers out.

 

[fossyant]

We've still not got full fibre, despite being in a well populated area. It's finally at the 'build' stage.

 

[presta]

Our fibre network was installed by Gigaclear, but I can get broadband from nearly 20 different suppliers. There's been a stop-sell on new copper connections for over two years now.

 

[raleighnut]

We have had 2 lots of engineers come out to install 'full fibre*' they keep wanting to stick a big ugly box on the wall outside a bit like the old Sky/BSB fitters of yore, I've told em to go away (in less polite language) they either fit it where I want and where it is tucked away or we'll change provider.

* the box has been sitting in the hall for over 3 years, still in its packaging.

 

[oxoman]

We have fibre care of virgin and they stuck a smallish brown box on the outside of the house, tbh its fairly unobtrusive. Openreach have put there fibre cables on the telegraph poles as well, sadly the top of these poles are starting to luck like the telegraph poles in Mumbai. Loads of connections and black boxes.

 

[Drago]

A few years ago (was it 3 or 4?) I recall we were told the 'fibre optic roll-out' was imminent and our costs would increase by 3.9% plus inflation each year

It hasn't helped that this was recently ruled unlawful in court. In contract price rises must now be by a set and clearly stated figure, not some notional inflation figure that could be anything.

Im in a new house anyway that has fibre right into the cupboard where the router sits.

 

[presta]

The boxes on the outside of the houses here look similar to this one:

 

[13 rider]

Openreach are forced by ofcom to allow other companies to use their network ,telegraph poles and underground ducting ,but if another company provides it's own network there is no reciprocating agreement

 

[Fastpedaller]

It hasn't helped that this was recently ruled unlawful in court. In contract price rises must now be by a set and clearly stated figure, not some notional inflation figure that could be anything.

Im in a new house anyway that has fibre right into the cupboard where the router sits.

Via a pole or through the ground?

 

[ktmbiker58]

We live at the end of a cul-de-sac off a no through road at the end of a village and 2 years ago Gigaclear dug up the road and installed fibre to the boundary of each property.

Then a year ago some fibres were connected to the telegraph poles and we had offer number two from someone else,

We dont need fibre broadband, for the last three years I have been using an industrial 5G modem (I use to use it at a remote industrial unit) with a couple of external antennas and get fast enough speeds and unlimited data from Three for £24 a month.

Our copper BT line is only used for the old fashioned telephonic apparatus with no broadband and I was expecting them to change it to fibre but telephone only as they had written to tell us they were switching us to 'Digital Voice' . They wrote again saying they would make the change at their end so no work required at our property, just a loss of service for an hour. The change was last month and we now have to dial full area codes for a local call but the copper lines have stayed.

The beauty of the 5G modem is that it isn't tied to a particular location, speeds are fast enough at this location; 50MB up and down on internal antennas, 200MB up and down using small external antennas and I have a set of large antennas from the old industrial unit that give me 1GB.

I didn't take any of the full fibre offers as the 5G is more than fast enough, it's portable, it's cheaper than full fibre especially as all the offers I had hiked the prices at the end of the one/two year period.

This message brought to you by a Ubiquiti UDM Pro router, Teltonika RUTX50 modem and the good folk at Three.

 

[Drago]

Via a pole or through the ground?

Under t'ground laddie.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

We're on NowTV BB that isn't full fibre and because of the awful wiring in the loft of our rented flat, we only get ~23/6 Mbps for £32.50pcm with unlimited sub 60min calls to mobile or landline phones.

Discovered Three can now do 5G indoors here and on my mobile SIM, I get ~400/40Mbps on a good day.
Through Blue Light Card, we can get Three 5G home broadband for ~£15pcm, that will increase by ~£2.50pcm in April '26 and '27 of a two year contract.

Alternatively, you can buy a TP-Link 4G SIM router for ~£32 and a Scancom Three 5G capable 25GB per month sim until Feb '28 for a one off fee of ~£55 from Amazon. Still got ~200/30Mbps on a speed test at Think Broadband site when limiting my mobile to 4G.

To buy a TP-Link 5G SIM router, it will cost ~£195 from Argos or Amazon.

I don't think broadband along wires/fibre is going to be a good or cheap solution.

 

[midlife]

Gigabit Fibrus direct to the EERO router here. Fibrus laid the underground cable plus some poles but the fibre for our house uses the same pole as our BT telephone. No box on the side of the house

Replaced 4-12 Mb voneus satellite connection.

 

[Gunk]

Our “fibre“ offering is a max speed of 65Mbps Virgin provides 300Mbps.