Held hostage by BT Fibre?

JR1987

Hi, I recently (4 months ago) moved into a one bed flat which is a kind of new build style property which is 10 years old.

When originally arranging my broadband I had trouble finding a provider that would say I am able to get their broadband in my area.

I found I only seemed to be able to go with BT and have fibre broadband. I thought this was odd but went with it.

I was a bit annoyed that I am paying £30 a month for fibre when I just dont need that level of speed living by myself, But when the letter of a price hike came, it was the opportunity to try and to go with a cheaper provider.

However from what BT say, I have no choice but to go with them as they have the fibre cables into the building and the copper wire for broadband doesnt exist in my block of flats so I cant have standard 11Mb broadband.

This is very annoying as BT are one of the most expensive.

But also if I look at my Wifi, I can clearly see a Sky modem that is in range.

Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks

steve_blake1490667

Can you please post the results by entering your BT number on

http://dslchecker.bt.com/

obviously leave out your personal info. If you only have Openreach FTTP fibre coming into your flat then you can still move to another ISP but very few ISPs selling Openreach FTTP services. From the top of of my head other ISPs selling Openreach FTTP: Zen, IDNet, AAISP, Cerberus etc. But we really need to see the results on dslchecker.bt.com first.

iniltous

If you are looking to leave BT, why speak to them , unless it's to try and get a better deal , shouldn't you be checking out the company's you may want to join by asking them directly, rather than asking BT about their competitors.
If you are on FTTP ( fibre to the premises ) , then you do have a choice of providers , but the likes of Sky and Talk Talk , don't offer it , so the choice of providers is quite small , if you are on FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet ) the the choice is a lot larger, but again , if any particular provider doesn't offer service in that area, that is a choice they have made.
As you has noticed , someone close by is using a Sky router, so that suggests Sky will be available , why don't you find out by going on their website or calling them, to see if your address can be served by them...

onomatopoeia99

BT Internet are not holding you hostage. If you are on FTTP and the other pound shop ISPs like Sky and Talk talk aren't offering service on your line then that's their decision, not BT Internet's. There are other ISPs that will provide a service on an FTTP line, some of which were listed on the first reply, and they are all a good deal better that BT Internet. By "better" I mean "better at being an ISP", not "cheaper".

kwikbreaks

If you don't need large amounts of download or streaming you could consider 4G. It is getting cheaper. I saw Three were offering 40GB for a bit over £20 a month depending on the length of contract taken. I got a retention deal from my 4G provider which I use at my holiday caravan of 30GB for £13.

I think I'd stick with FTTP for £30 over those though if I had the option - it depends on your priorities.

Owain_Moneysaver

Just because someone's wifi SSID says SKY12345 doesn't mean that they're using Sky broadband or a Sky router

They might be using a BT router and set the SSID to SKY12345 because that's easier than changing the settings on their tablets, smart tvs, and all the other gadgets set up to use wifi.