Openreach/unknown broadband provider in student flat

Wonka_2

DS and mates have just acquired keys to their 3rd year student flat - 1 of 4 above a shop.

Previous tenants have all left and they're the first of the 'new' tenants to move in so other properties are currently empty.

All sorts of issues about the address of each individual flat when they've come to set up utilities and all are resolved except broadband. Landlord is incommunicado and the agency are useless/not interested.

No visible, traditional router in the property but a small, wall mounted, socket-type Openreach box with an SN number/barcode on the front.

How can I find out from that who the current provider is ? And if not then what the address is registered to that box ? The risk being no supplier will set something up without the address and we could quite easily set something up for the wrong address ?

Any suggestions ?

Browntoa

Simple 

Go on a broadband comparison site, enter the address and it should tell you what's available 

If it's ever had broadband then it should be listed as individual flats 

iniltous

What you describe ( white box with a serial number and bar code ) sounds like an ONT , so they may have access to Openreach FTTP .

Why do you want to know the previous occupants ISP , it’s completely irrelevant ,you just  pick the ISP you want to use , they should identify the property (  the ‘better’ ISPs could even confirm they have the correct address by the serial number of the ONT ) and arrange service.

If the previous occupant has informed whoever their ISP was that they have vacated the flat , whoever you use should be able to allocate the ONT to themselves, send out the router etc and in a short while , away you go ,  if the previous occupant didn’t tell their ISP that they have left the flat , then that connection will still ‘appear’ to any ISP checking , that it’s still in use , so it’s an extra 10-14 days while the old ISP sends a communication to the previous occupant saying someone wants to take over the ‘line’  and is it OK to release the line , that say tell us if it’s not OK within 10 days ,   this is the same if coincidentally the ISP you pick is the same as the ISP that the previous occupant used , that sent  communication almost certainly goes unanswered, and that releases the ‘line’ to be used by the new ISP , but obviously takes longer.

Flats above shops can be dodgy conversions with poorly registered addresses ( if they bother to register them at all ) , but presumably this one can’t be too bad as the previous occupants obviously managed to order FTTP otherwise the ONT wouldn’t exist.

You can check what the address shows here 

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

Wonka_2

iniltous said:

Flats above shops can be dodgy conversions with poorly registered addresses ( if they bother to register them at all ) , but presumably this one can’t be too bad as the previous occupants obviously managed to order FTTP otherwise the ONT wouldn’t exist.

You can check what the address shows here 

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

This was the critical part - there are 4 flats plus the shop yet the link provided shows 6 addresses of which 4 have vague enough addresses that they could be his flat. 

Anyway all resolved today via a helpful staff member at local Vodafone shop who managed to ascertain proper address from the serial number and carried over their contract from previous address