BT new build tie in

Darthnoga

My niece lives in a housing association property that was built with BT as the telephony provider. She now wants to change to a cheaper supplier but BT are saying that as the building owner has a contract with them they are tied to them. Surely this is illegal and anti competitive?

Neil_Jones

Darthnoga said:

My niece lives in a housing association property that was built with BT as the telephony provider. She now wants to change to a cheaper supplier but BT are saying that as the building owner has a contract with them they are tied to them. Surely this is illegal and anti competitive?

Not necessarily.  No different to if you rent a property and pay the landlord for your gas and electricity, and also no different to if you buy a new build property and get lumbered with Fibre Nest. for example.

If the housing association set up all the properties under contract and they are paying the bills (and you are paying them for the internet and not BT directly) then they can be with who they like and you can do nothing about it.

littleboo

Who bills her for the service - BT or the HA?

iniltous

I suspect that there has been some misunderstanding, BT do not have any ‘exclusive’ arrangements anywhere , if BT can supply service , other ISP’s (  if they want ) can also…BT use Openreach network , Openreach is open to anyone that want to use them.
What can happen is, if Openreach has put in FTTP , not every provider is geared up to use it, that’s not BT stopping them, it’s the other company deciding not to offer it ..so ( for example ) if your relative is with BT ( even initially they didn’t have to use BT ) and now want to use someone else, they call this other company and this other company say ‘No’, that’s nothing to do with BT, it’s the other company not arranging access with OR, probably because they need to invest in their own interconnect network to use the OR FTTP network. 

Check out the Openreach website to see what ISP’s apart from BT, use OR, there are lots , pick one of those if she doesn't want to use BT anymore .

As already stated, if the landlord has signed up with a provider , and the tennants have to use whoever the landlord picked , that will be part of the landlord /tennant contract, and would be the same if the landlord did a deal with Virgin or anyone else, and although BT gain by this , ultimately it’s the landlord who signed up, but if the housing association isn’t involved in the provision of broadband, ( and that’s the most likely case ) then your relative can use whoever they like, provided the company they want ‘ use’ Openreach network.

Finally, if your niece wants to use someone else, how did  ‘BT’ get the chance to say she cannot move provider ?, when switching provider , you call the new provider and they arrange the switch ( assuming they use OR ) you don’t even speak to the provider you are leaving, so how did BT tell her she cannot move , if she never called BT ?, if she called BT by mistake, simply ignore what they said , pick a suitable provider and let them do the rest.
As far as BT, being anti competitive and illegal, it would be if they could do it, but they don’t do it 

Browntoa

Openreach will cable a new development for free ( as will other suppliers) .

In return they are allowed , by the regulator , to have an exclusive lock in period to recover that investment.

It's not illegal , it's now often standard practice 

iniltous

Openreach are not the same as other network providers, Virgin ( for example ) could do a deal with a developer and as Virgin are both a network provider and ISP ,  basically be the only choice on that development, Openreach are not a retail provider , they only provide a network, selling access to it to any ISP that wants to use it, they are not allowed to favour any company over others,
BT are no different to any other ISP in Openreach eyes, OR are regulated much more than any other network provider because of its scale and reach, they have never had an exclusive period with BT ( or anyone else ) with new sites, they are not allowed to do that by the regulator, if they did the other industry operators would have OR in court, the reason there has never been a court case is because BT have never been offered a sweetheart deal on new sites by OR…anyone stating anything other than that, is just wrong, it’s a simple as that, anyone claiming you have no choice but BT on new sites simply  don’t know what they are talking about.

JJ_Egan

Current   OR  FTTP supplier list has grown .

OP should check out .

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

onomatopoeia99

Browntoa said:

Openreach will cable a new development for free ( as will other suppliers) .

In return they are allowed , by the regulator , to have an exclusive lock in period to recover that investment.

It's not illegal , it's now often standard practice 

Try buying broadband from Openreach as a retail customer.  You can't.  Any Openreach lock in period will stop the like of VM putting in cables, but still leave the customer with a choice of all the dozens of ISPs that supply over Openreach backhaul, 

iniltous

Openreach do not ask exclusivity, if any other network builder wanted to be in at the construction stage ( and the developer was agreeable ) then it makes no difference to OR , they fact that the majority have OR and only some will have OR and Virgin or OR and someone else is more to do with the fact that OR have much greater network reach, relationships with developers and probably most importantly pay the developer for the work they do on OR’s behalf…..and as the ‘rate’ for installing duct or building a box, or fitting a socket etc, is a rate agreed with the NHBA , there is no wrangling over what the work is ‘worth’.
Amazing how misinformation claiming ‘BT’ are the only company that can offer service initially on new builds , becomes OR lock out others, other network operators can get away with doing exclusive deals locking out OR , but OR is not allowed ( by the regulator ) to do the same

jon81uk

Darthnoga said:

My niece lives in a housing association property that was built with BT as the telephony provider. She now wants to change to a cheaper supplier but BT are saying that as the building owner has a contract with them they are tied to them. Surely this is illegal and anti competitive?

Sounds like a mis-understanding somewhere. She needs to actually check if the other suppliers are available and what the agreements are with the housing association.
The builder would get Openreach to install the cabling.
Sky, Talktalk, BT, Plusnet and many others all supply via the openreach line, so if she can get BT she should be able to get the others too.
Unless the housing association have some very unusual set up.