BT / Openreach TV / Broadband set up saga 13 March 2021 at 4:54PM in Phones & TV 5 replies 167 views

homeless9

Hi,

I moved into a new build property 1 year ago. In the marketing materials it said it was 'Setup for technology' or something to those words.....

The TV aerial sockets don't give me any signal. The internet/phone cabling going from the house to the street doesn't connect up. It falls 1 metre short. Should the developer have sorted this all out before selling these new builds.

The latter has caused myself and 2 neighbours to be without TV or broadband for 10 months now. We all either want TV and Broadband, or just broadband from BT. But these companies are utterly useless, they can't work out that they need to send someone with the correct tools and correct skills to adjoin some wires from our properties to a point under the street even though myself and my neighbours have told them this, even though openreach employees that have been sent here and couldn't do the job have told management this, and apparently management arranged for the work to be done but nobody turned up.

I am after any advice as how I can get them to sort this out. All they do is say someone is coming to do the work and they don't turn up or the person who turns up isn't expecting to have to connect these wires up and simply says 'I can't do this and disappears'

J_B

Get a local engineer to fit you an aerial for Freeview TV or a dish for $ky or Freesat.

Get a dongle and get mobile 4/5g broadband

Ten months? Why have you not acted sooner?

Neil_Jones

Hmm, if it was me and the aerial points didn't work and the earth was promised that this, that and the other was installed and working, I wouldn't have waited 10 minutes, never mind ten months.

Anyway if it was a totally new build it may be under the control of FibreNest or similar, which if it is the case, BT won't be the least bit interested in the OP's issues until that expires (average two years maybe?).  Not uncommon on new estates, since if its the case that the developer owns the infrastructure on the estate then the council can't "adopt" the roads until that expires, and IIRC until the council adopts (if they want to, they don't have to), nobody else (BT or Virgin) can come in either.

MidnightWolf

A new build is likely to have fibre broadband provision (FTTP). Check what broadband service should be available to you at https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL and https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband. If fibre is/should be available to you, try contacting the BT FTTP fibre team directly on 0800 587 4787. When I moved in to my new build 15 months ago, that’s who I contacted to get my fibre service up and running. Although Openreach had already connected the line from the house, an engineer did have to come and provision the service. If the line needs connecting, they are legally obliged to connect it and the job will be raised with Openreach.

homeless9

I can get superfast fibre according to that website, but the lady a spoke to at BT said there was no fibre available and said something about copper. So I don't know - BT and their friends Openreach are so incompetent it is unbelievable.

I didn't get TV and broadband sooner as using the hotspot on my phone for internet is perfectly fine and the TV package I wanted was expensive so after moving into a new home with furniture etc to buy I didn't want to be paying a fortune for TV and Broadband right away. Anyway - it's been 5 months since I ordered TV and Broadband from BT and they have done nothing so far except send me round in circles. My neighbours have been waiting 10 months and got nowhere with BT.

I have now been told that the wiring under the road will be done on Tuesday so will see if they will finally get this done. If not then I'll tell them to shove the TV package where the sun don't shine and go with SKY.

MidnightWolf

I’d be surprised if it was copper line-based broadband as new builds are now usually provisioned with full fibre, particularly if it’s a large house builder. Have you tried the number at BT I posted? That is for the dedicated fibre team who will be able to get things moving if FTTP is available to you. It would be worth having a chat with them to at least check either way. They were able to sort a colleague of mine when we found all his neighbours had a fibre connection but his house alone hadn’t been connected to the fibre point on the telegraph pole.

Don’t forget that BT don’t get any priority treatment from Openreach as they have to be treated as separate legal entities and subject to equal treatment with other ISPs.

It may also be worth asking for advice on the Think Broadband forums at https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/