FTTP providers

samg84

Can someone please explain how FTTP works? Once the connection to the house is in place are any provider able to offer full fibre services?

I'm currently with BT, 100Mbps connection but coming up to renewal and find them expensive in comparison. Along with their 24 month contracts and RPI + 3.9% mid contract price rises I'm not keen to renew with them.

I have tried comparing various providers and they seem to offer different services.

Vodafone will offer 100Mbps although their website availability checker doesn't work for my address.
Sky online says they will offer 150Mbps
Talktalk both online and on the phone say they can not offer services at my address. Why is their a difference between providers? Do they not all have access once the infrastructure is in place?
Thanks for any advice 

littleboo

All providers have access to Openreach infrastructure, but despite this the well known providers have been slow to offer FTTP. Its their choice.

matelodave

A lot of the ISP availabilty checkers dont work for FTTP services, we've had FTTP for over 30 months and so far only SKY has been able to offer FTTP (and thats only since about September).

Companies like ZEN, Andrews and Arnold and various other companies will also offer it, but Vodafone, Talktalk and even Plusnet dont. Even if you phone them they don't offer it where I live

I investigated changing from BT in January 2020 but couldn't get any commitment out of anyone else (including Zen and A&A) and non of them had a process in place to change suppliers without a break. The advice was to cancel with BT and then apply for a new service. I was unwilling to try this approach as I could foresee problems so I've stayed with BT until some of them can get their act together. Fortunately my contract with BT although for 24 months only applies the RPI increase and not the 3.9% uplift as well.

Hopefully there'll be a properly defined process in place with a few more suppliers when I try to escape at the end of my present contract.

jaybeetoo

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fttp-providers

Timalay

Some providers install the fibre network themselves and offer it exclusively to the their network.  Prime example, the town I live, we have a company (County Broadband) who are installing the fibre cables themselves but have permission to use the BT FTTC infrastructure.

JJ_Egan

I just ran down the Open Reach FTTP list and entered my postcode .

Renewed with Bt FTTP 74/20 .

samg84

Thanks for the replies. The problem I'm having is going through the providers and putting in my postcode a lot of them say it's not available. Talktalk for example comes up on comparison sites but when I spoke to them they say it's not actually available at my address.

JJ_Egan

As said not many are taking up FTTP from Open Reach .

StevieD54

Maybe not the correct thread, but......
does anyone have knowledge of how fibre is installed in an older property i.e. one where the phone line is connected by wire from a telegraph pole into the house?  My parents are with plusnet, regular broadband, but I’m thinking of upgrading them.  They have a 60’s brick built bungalow with solid walls and the phone point is more or less in the middle of the property, in the hallway, at skirting level.  I’m guessing the wire is coming through the loft space and then vertically down to the phone point via a conduit buried in the wall.  So how would fibre be installed in this scenario? x

JJ_Egan

Fibre as in FTTP or do you mean the old basic fibre .
Basic fibre runs only to the local street cabinet  , then the phone line takes over into the house from the pole .

StevieD54

JJ_Egan said:

Fibre as in FTTP or do you mean the old basic fibre .
Basic fibre runs only to the local street cabinet  , then the phone line takes over into the house from the pole .

Mmm, not sure.  I upgraded to fibre with BT last year (FTTP), but because our property is newer (no telegraph poles in the street), they used the same underground conduit to push the fibre through alongside the old phone line from pavement to house.  Could my parents have FTTP?  I don’t know.  How would Openreach get the wires into their bungalow?   But if they could only have ‘basic’, when you say “the phone line takes over”, doesn’t that negate the whole point of fibre? i.e. that last section being ‘old technology’