Landlord won’t allow wifi fibre cable installation

Katifer_5

Hello! I have recently moved into a flat (it’s part of a very old building!) I checked before moving and was told wifi coverage was good. Off I went to sign up for EE full fibre with an installation date the day after I moved in. I’ve been told by Openreach they need to cut down some branches to access a pole on the landlords’ grounds and run another cable to my flat. Today, finally, the landlord has given a firm no as they don’t want another cable overground and are in the process of getting these moved underground (I am sure Openreach will really give that priority) 
EE have been really good in providing a temporary hub, whilst this is ongoing. BUT, what are my options long term? I need wifi to WFH. Apparently I could still get a copper fibre package but he’s said the speeds would be pretty useless as I’d have 5G on the temp hub. 

To have unlimited data on the hub would cost £70 a month which I don’t really want to fork out for! 

Just wondered if anyone knew of any other options or had any advice?
thanks! 😊

iniltous

If your flat already has an overhead copper dropwire from the pole it’s almost certainly the case that the copper dropwire will be taken down as part of the installation as the  optical cable goes up ,  so there is no visual difference , and the same number of cables will exist after the installation as exist now ,the only difference is one will be fibre instead of copper .

If the landlords excuse for not allowing this is that they don’t want another cable , you could explain that the total number of cables won’t change , and there is no visual difference between an optical cable and a copper one , but unfortunately if they won’t budge there isn’t much that can be done , ultimately it’s their building 

Katifer_5

iniltous said:

If your flat already has an overhead copper dropwire from the pole it’s almost certainly the case that the copper dropwire will be taken down as part of the installation as the  optical cable goes up ,  so there is no visual difference , and the same number of cables will exist after the installation as exist now ,the only difference is one will be fibre instead of copper .

If the landlords excuse for not allowing this is that they don’t want another cable , you could explain that the total number of cables won’t change , and there is no visual difference between an optical cable and a copper one , but unfortunately if they won’t budge there isn’t much that can be done , ultimately it’s their building 

Oh that’s interesting thanks! I have also made the point of if they are looking to get the cables moved underground wouldn’t it make sense to get my fibre sorted prior to this, so they don’t have to dig up the ground again? 

But, I think I will be in a losing battle. I know full fibre will be the only option from next year…so they might find it difficult to let out in future if still not sorted!

35har1old

iniltous said:

If your flat already has an overhead copper dropwire from the pole it’s almost certainly the case that the copper dropwire will be taken down as part of the installation as the  optical cable goes up ,  so there is no visual difference , and the same number of cables will exist after the installation as exist now ,the only difference is one will be fibre instead of copper .

If the landlords excuse for not allowing this is that they don’t want another cable , you could explain that the total number of cables won’t change , and there is no visual difference between an optical cable and a copper one , but unfortunately if they won’t budge there isn’t much that can be done , ultimately it’s their building 

OP has stated that the landlord is in the process of having the overheads  replaced with underground cabling

iniltous

If you believe that the landlord is replacing overhead with underground I’ve got some magic beans for sale if you are interested , any move to underground would be complicated and expensive, every ‘working’ line would  need that customer and their individual ISP to agree downtime ,that in itself is a logistical nightmare, and the landlord would be charged hundreds if not thousands of ££’s for replacing the perfectly adequate network on the basis of presumably aesthetics ,
I recon its  pretty clear that  it’s just an excuse to refuse the overhead , if it were true ( and it almost certainly isn’t ) then this new overhead cable would only exist for a brief period so why refuse its installation in the first place , if a scheme exists to remove it to underground 

molerat

iniltous said:

If your flat already has an overhead copper dropwire from the pole it’s almost certainly the case that the copper dropwire will be taken down as part of the installation as the  optical cable goes up ,  so there is no visual difference , and the same number of cables will exist after the installation as exist now ,the only difference is one will be fibre instead of copper .

Not in my experience.  In the 3 installations with my family the fibre went to a different point on the house so taking the copper down would have involved drilling another hole in the house to tie the ladder to so came under the too difficult heading.

la531983

Katifer_5 said:

Just wondered if anyone knew of any other options or had any advice?

Yes. Move out at the first available oppurtunity.

Katifer_5

iniltous said:

If you believe that the landlord is replacing overhead with underground I’ve got some magic beans for sale if you are interested , any move to underground would be complicated and expensive, every ‘working’ line would  need that customer and their individual ISP to agree downtime ,that in itself is a logistical nightmare, and the landlord would be charged hundreds if not thousands of ££’s for replacing the perfectly adequate network on the basis of presumably aesthetics ,
I recon its  pretty clear that  it’s just an excuse to refuse the overhead , if it were true ( and it almost certainly isn’t ) then this new overhead cable would only exist for a brief period so why refuse its installation in the first place , if a scheme exists to remove it to underground 

Yeah, money isn’t an issue for these landlords. I’ve had experiences with openreach myself and am well aware getting them to do the job of putting the cables underground will not be straightforward or a priority.

Katifer_5

la531983 said:

Katifer_5 said:

Just wondered if anyone knew of any other options or had any advice?

Yes. Move out at the first available oppurtunity.

Ha! Unfortunately we only moved in 2 weeks ago! It’s a slightly odd setup - i think the previous tenant worked on their land and was here for 20+ years.
The tenancy agreement is full of inaccuracies when it comes to the utilities aswell. 

Money is no object for them so if I kick up too much of a fuss I am sure they will just kick me out! Need to tread carefully, but also, do want broadband! 

Neil49

I'm sure you could get unlimited mobile data for less than £70 per month. Who gave you that figure?

I've seen plenty of posts on here where people have switched to unlimited mobile data

https://www.4g.co.uk/unlimited-mobile-broadband/

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/broadband/1410333/best-mobile-broadband

flashg67

Unlimited 4g/5g with Three, Lebara and others can be had for under £25 p/m  - I used it for 18 months with no issues, and still keep a 50gB router & sim as a back up (rural location). Ping times not good for gaming but fine for WFH/streaming etc