Full Fibre Freedom Fibre 28 April 2022 at 6:08PM in Broadband & internet access 6 replies 199 views

Pat38493

Good day to all,

I received a letter from Freedom Fibre that they will be installing full fibre cables in our area between May and August including my street.

This raises a couple of questions for me.

Does this full fibre work on a totally different connection cable that comes into the house?  So the existing copper cables are not removed or replaced in any way, and can therefore still be used in parallel if needed?

Also - is freedom fibre somehow supported or funded by the government?  It seems to imply that they are part of Talk Talk and that if I want to use it I must change to Talk Talk?  However hopefully this would only be at the beginning and other providers would be able to use those cables later?

TIA for any advice
cheers

Lavendyr

Hi there, we recently changed to a local full fibre provider. They use the same tunnels/cable spaces that already enter your home. You could, if you wanted, keep your separate landline on copper, and pay for that, and also pay for your full fibre separately.

I'm not sure how TalkTalk feature in this, but there are a lot of small full fibre businesses working in rural areas at the moment (including where we are) to install the infrastructure and then provide the internet service as well. So from our perspective, we are paying to use the actual fibre that our provider has installed and I'm not sure if or when that would be opened up to any other provider, but the price is very competitive and frozen for 2 years so we are happy to go with it. We don't feel the need to keep a landline but as I say, if you wanted, you probably could as the new fibre installation wouldn't interfere with it. 

littleboo

Freedom Fibre re part owned by TT and it seems that they only retail through TT, so yes you would need to but the service from them. The new fibre connection will need to be brought into the house, that may require digging the garden or drive to do so, the existing copper connection will remain untouched. 

iniltous

They may install their own duct/cable  to your home , or they may have access to Openreach PIA and use Openreach ducts , they absolutely should not remove or damage  Openreach cables if they put their own kit in OR’s infrastructure.
Freedom Fibre can do what they like as far as which ISP are allowed to offer service over their network , they are a private company after all , if they have some sort of arrangement with TT that means to connect using Freedom Fibre means you have to use TT, then that’s a choice for you to make , you obviously don’t have to take service from them if you don’t want to, but if you do it’s TT that will be your ISP.
Some areas are subsided by the Government,  if they conclude that’s is unlikely that a commercial company would provide service as the potential return would be poor or a FTTP network provider would never make a return on the investment, any network provider can apply for BDUK funds ( in the areas that are deemed to qualify)  , but I don’t think FF have ever tried to use this joint funding model ( it comes with conditions that they may not want to comply with ) so it’s unlikely that in the future other ISP will be available, unless FF is bought out by someone else…you certainly shouldn’t assume that FF will be a network open to other ISPs in the future 

Pat38493

littleboo said:

Freedom Fibre re part owned by TT and it seems that they only retail through TT, so yes you would need to but the service from them. The new fibre connection will need to be brought into the house, that may require digging the garden or drive to do so, the existing copper connection will remain untouched. 

OK but if they dig up my drive to install it, do I have to pay for these works or do they do this automatically if needed as part of the subscription, and I assume that they have to make everything good again afterwards?

Regarding the actual ISP - do I understand from the replies above that Freedom Fibre are not receiving any money at all in subsidies from anywhere?  They are a completely private business, but apparently they can go around installing telegraph polls and digging up roads all over the place without any kind of planning requests or anything?

To me there would seem to be a slight flaw in allowing them to operate like this because I doubt that BT Openreach will install full Fibre to my house if they know that another company already did it - as such, this company is creating themselves a permanent monopoly of supply to my home.  Is there any regulation in place to stop them from doubling their prices the following year if they are my only choice of supplier?

Lavendyr

Pat38493 said:

littleboo said:

Freedom Fibre re part owned by TT and it seems that they only retail through TT, so yes you would need to but the service from them. The new fibre connection will need to be brought into the house, that may require digging the garden or drive to do so, the existing copper connection will remain untouched. 

OK but if they dig up my drive to install it, do I have to pay for these works or do they do this automatically if needed as part of the subscription, and I assume that they have to make everything good again afterwards?

Regarding the actual ISP - do I understand from the replies above that Freedom Fibre are not receiving any money at all in subsidies from anywhere?  They are a completely private business, but apparently they can go around installing telegraph polls and digging up roads all over the place without any kind of planning requests or anything?

To me there would seem to be a slight flaw in allowing them to operate like this because I doubt that BT Openreach will install full Fibre to my house if they know that another company already did it - as such, this company is creating themselves a permanent monopoly of supply to my home.  Is there any regulation in place to stop them from doubling their prices the following year if they are my only choice of supplier?

 I'd be surprised if they dug up your drive and they certainly shouldn't do that without your permission and agreement to any costs. But, as I said above, most full fibre companies will use the existing ducts to push the fibre through the existing copper wire tunnels. When Lightspeed Broadband did ours they spent almost a full day because there were blockages in the ducts that they had to push through, and yet they did it (Openreach would have stopped and demanded a civil engineer from the council according to one of their guys who used to work there). 

Ultimately why not just ask them? 

iniltous

Just because FF are supposedly installing in your area , that doesn’t stop Openreach, OR are installing FTTP far and wide, obviously if FF excavate your drive/garden to install your service , it would only be if you ordered service from them , the quality of the reinstatement is obviously unknown, if they are in your area , you could check out the quality of a nearby neighbours FF install and check for yourself ( assuming you won’t be the very first FF customer in your area ) , generally you don’t pay any extra for the install , FF stand this cost , as a cost of doing business, otherwise they may not get many takers. It is  possible they may charge something if installing your service will require more than a normal amount of work or something makes your install extra difficult or complicated, like you have a driveway surface that would cost a lot to reinstate and there was no alternative but to dig it up , but generally installs are free’ if installs are not free , they should tell you in advance , and again you wouldn’t have to proceed if there was a cost that you were not prepared to pay.

As a network operator FF  have ‘ code powers’ to excavate roads , paths , install equipment etc. in public spaces ,  ( that is public /adopted roads and footpaths ) , and although the local authority should check that they work safely and reinstate in the public area correctly, they already have permission, all they do is give notice to the council about when, where , and how long the works will be.

Could they double the price once you have signed up ?, they can do what ever they want (within the law) , generally a small increase plus CPI/RPI is allowed without giving you the option to leave without penalty, but if they doubled the price , you should be able to cancel without penalty, but should check out their customer service etc as there are plenty of cowboys in the Telecoms business.

Once they have installed their kit into your home, for example, if you took service for 12 months and then cancelled at the end of the contract , they retain ownership of the items they installed , the duct , cable , ONT , and you can’t ask them to come and remove it , they will require you to leave it in place in case you change your mind , or move and the new occupant wants to use FF.