Broadband infrastructure issues - BT Openreach v TalkTalk

L200man

Hello all

I live in a semi rural area of West Yorkshire.
Sands Lane is half a mile long, with around 15 properties and I live at the centre.

In the summer of 2020 the homes on the upper half of Sands Lane had Ultrafast fibre connected to their houses. The BT Openreach engineer stated that, when the other homes were connected,  I would be very happy with the speed it would bring.
As I get a maximum connection of 11Mb and usually closer to 3MB I looked forward to the upgrade.

I along with other houses on the lower end of Sands Lane, did not get the BT Openreach fibre upgrade.

I live 100 meters or less from a green telecommunications cabinet.
BT Openreach state there is Fibre to the cabinet.

I have contacted TalkTalk several times about this issue.
On one occasion we were told to contact BT Openreach.

On contacting BT Openreach, they stated we shouldn’t be contacting them – our ISP should.
They did state that there was fibre to the green cabinet and that I should get a download speed of around 80Mb (as per above I get 11Mb Max along with a really poor 0.5Mb upload speed).

Given the distance from my house to the cabinet, why the great loss ?
Is it due to the copper lines that come to my house from the cabinet instead of a fibre cable?

I wonder if there is fibre to the cabinet, do the homes that were upgraded connect to a different cabinet ?

Any ideas on how to proceed ?

I can only contact BT Openreach and TalkTalk on line (and get nowhere) – does anyone have an email for either of them or a postal address ?

Fiona

iniltous

There is no such entity as BT Openreach , presumably you are a Talk Talk customer , therefore BT have nothing at all to do with your connection.

Openreach are a network supplier , TT are an OR customer , the same as BT are an OR customer , if Openreach ‘upgrade’ an area , they update records, advise their ISP customers like  BT, TT and Sky , that this new infrastructure is available but they don’t arbitrarily start moving consumers onto it, that’s up-to the consumer and their individual provider, you as a consumer do not have a direct relationship with OR, you don’t interact with them, your point of contact is with a service provider ( TT being your current one ) or one you are considering joining…it’s them that interact with OR , not you.

If ‘faster’ speeds are available because OR have provided better infrastructure, and you want to benefit from it , and want to stay with your current  provider (TT) , you would ask them to upgrade you , if they won’t or can’t get you connected to this better OR infrastructure, then you need to look at other providers that also use OR and can offer the faster speeds you require.

FTTC ( fibre to the cabinet ) gives a maximum of 80Mb, if your address is around 100m from the ‘fibre’ cab , that speed is perfectly possible , if you get 11Mb it’s probably because you are not on FTTC but still connected to exchange based ADSL….why TT haven’t upgraded you to FTTC if you have asked them to , ( and it’s available ) is something you would need to ask TT, or move provider to an ISP  who will arrange to connect you to FTTC 

L200man

Doh, you are of course correct (and in the back of my head I knew) I did mean Openreach.
I have pestered TT but, have got nowhere.
I am really asking if anyone has an email or postal address for Openreach and TT

Cheers

Fiona

L200man

My issue is that only 1/2 of the Lane were upgraded (new cables and fibre equipment).

neilmcl

Sounds like you're currently on the TT's ADSL service so until you change your contract to their FTTC product or move to someone else also offering FTTC you're not going to get the 80/20 service you desire.

brewerdave

Possibly because Openreach have started to install full fibre to your road, TT aren't being allowed to offer you FTTC? Or the FTTC cabinet might be fully utilised (as it will serve more than just your road)

matelodave

Even more possibly is that your incoming line isn't connected to the cabinet that you think it is and takes a different route. In the end you can only get is what is available depending on the existing infrastructure and the roll-out programme for any upgrades. You may just be unlucky and have a long wait ahead of you.

My mate has an FTTC cabinet just outside his house, but his line is directly fed from the exchange half a mile a away because he's had his line for years and the cabinet is a relatively recent installation. Some of his neighbours get good speeds but he is limited to around 10mbit/s and there's no immediate plans to upgrade or shift his connection, so he's stuffed.

We had the situation along our road where the half of the road where we live was served from a cabinet some three miles away in Cambridgeshire and had appalling speeds (1.8mbit's)  and the other half was served from a different exchange/cabinet in Norfolk and went like the wind because it was actually closer. 

Fortunately we've all now got FTTP but it took a long time coming (a lot of civil works to do it - excavations, blocked ducts and new poles etc)

JJ_Egan

Try

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/when-to-get-in-touch-with-openreach

iniltous

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

This checker will show what’s available from Openreach, as a TT customer your phone nunber won’t be recognised so use the address option, if it shows FTTC then providing it doesn’t also show waiting list then FTTC is available , however, as already stated , it’s possible some neighbours that can get FTTC are not served in the same way as your address, in other words they are connected to a fibre enabled cabinet but you are not, or are in a fibre enabled cab but the distance you are from it means that the speed available wouldn’t be an improvement over exchange based services.
If you post the returns from your address ( obscure your address if you do ) it will be possible to know for sure