universal service obligation- anyone successful?

frugal90

A bit of context first.
I am connected to an exchange and there are 6 green boxes connected to the exchange, our max download speed is about 4 mbps and upload is about 0.8 mbps. It takes about 20 mins to upload a 5 second low quality video clip, so not very good.
Five of the green boxes have fibre to cabinet with copper to the houses. Our box has copper from the exchange to the cabinet and copper to our house which is 2.1km away from the green box- rural area.
Recently fibre was laid less than 1 m ( a big step) in front of our box to a new cabinet down the road from us( more than 3 km away). 
Now, I believe that even if our cabinet had fibre to it, we might not get an uplift in our speed due to our distance from the cabinet.
I have been in contact with mp's, local press etc to try and get an improvement but nothing yet.
I recently contacted the Universal service obligation team and will apparently hear within 30 day. 
We can't get 4 or 5g, so that is not an option but I have noticed the get out clause for the uso, £3400 per property!!

Has anyone had any success, or can advise me where to take the battle next, really showing up as being a problem now with homeworking, kids learning at home.
Things that most people take for granted we struggle with, catch up tv etc!!

Neil_Jones

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/broadband-uso-need-to-know

They have 30 days to get back, but the key phrase is "Most people will get a connection within 12 months, but it may take up to 24 months for some."

cranford

So what speed can you expect  at your address?
Try a post code checker such as:
https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/postcode_checker/

brewerdave

My brother in law had a similar problem in a rural village. He banded together with a group of neighbours and they organised a wireless broadband service - not cheap but certainly a lot cheaper than £3400 per household!!

frugal90

no the quote we were given for community broadband was £21000 per house so a no go.
The price cap of £3400 is the cap for the universal service obligation. They group together properties together then divise the cost by the number of properties that can benefit then if it is more than £3400 per property then they won't pay it and home owners would.
Scottish government said they would reach 100% of homes by the end of 2021, but they just changed the target back to 2023. There always seems to be a get out clause. Targets are a waste of time!!

ray_roughmoose

This is one of those schemes that are made so difficult to wade through. The aim is to make you give up before getting the desired result. BT's USO site directs you to order a Home 4G service (that they couldn't tell me what the download speed would be when I rang them) rather than tell you if you are eligible for a USO connection. Dig deep into the T&C to find a USO contact number.

Also, slightly disappointed, but not surprised given the small number of people likely to be affected, that there are no MSE articles on this.

KDACorfu

Broadband USO is a headline-grabbing con.

If you can get 4G, then the USO doesn't apply as it will give you a 'decent speed' for a 'decent price' (ie over 10Mbits/s and under the cut-off of £46.40 a month, according to OFCOM).  Personally, I think this is expensive and BT just wriggle under this with a 15Mbits/s for £45.24

If you can't get 4G, then you can ask for the USO to consider upgrading the network - but with a cap of £3,400 per property.  If you can't get 4G - I doubt you'll be near enough for it to only cost £3,400! So who is this USO for?  

I don't think expecting someone to fork out £45.24 for 15 Mbits/s when someone with a fibre cabinet on their street can get a 35Mbits/s for £25.99 is at all 'universal'.  The USO for a landline means everyone can have a landline for the same price.  Not so with broadband.

Spelunthus

We had an issue getting 25 Mbps broadband into a house (which had no phone line)  in a large town in Cornwall. The issue involved ISP, Openreach, Power Company, Local Council, Highways Agency and their various contractors.  After 12 months of zero progress I started to use the phrase "USO" in my emails. We also escalated a complaint with the ISP.   It was all resolved within a month  and we got six months "free" rental as a credit...