No broadband providers to switch to.

--Tony--

My mum lives in a rural location and has BT for her phone line and broadband.

I have checked her availability to switch and all the normal providers come up on uswitch, go compare etc but when you click through to any of the providers it says they can't offer broadband to her address.
I don't understand why, there is no fibre just the old fashioned copper wires, I thought anyone could take over the line from BT.

Any ideas why there would be no opportunity to switch at her address?

QrizB

If the cabinet that serves her property is full, no-one will be able to obtain a free port. It crops up occasionally on this forum.

Ayr_Rage

Is she on the very old ADSL direct to the exchange or part-fibre to a local cabinet, last few metres over copper?

In either case it could be a capacity issue as above or the fact that other ISPs have stopped selling the product.

--Tony--

QrizB said:

If the cabinet that serves her property is full, no-one will be able to obtain a free port. It crops up occasionally on this forum.

Thank you.

Ayr_Rage said:

Is she on the very old ADSL direct to the exchange or part-fibre to a local cabinet, last few metres over copper?

In either case it could be a capacity issue as above or the fact that other ISPs have stopped selling the product.

I'm not entirely sure, the exchange information says "FTTC enabled", she is very rural, so much so there are no green cabinets to be seen like you see in town. Literally in the middle of nowhere in Devon.
Her copper line goes over lots of poles so its not the last few meters that is copper & god knows where the nearest cabinet is.

This is the exchange information if it helps, it does not mean much to me, sorry.

Ayr_Rage

That would suggest she is on basic ADSL and getting a speed below 10 Mbps with no other providers having equipment in the exchange, hence the inability to switch

--Tony--

Ayr_Rage said:

That would suggest she is on basic ADSL and getting a speed below 10 Mbps with no other providers having equipment in the exchange, hence the inability to switch

Thank you for that, I can't believe she is tied to BT and unable to switch in this day an age.

Hoenir

--Tony-- said:

Ayr_Rage said:

That would suggest she is on basic ADSL and getting a speed below 10 Mbps with no other providers having equipment in the exchange, hence the inability to switch

Thank you for that, I can't believe she is tied to BT and unable to switch in this day an age.

New entrants to the market aren't going to invest their money into areas where it is financially unviable. 

Much in the same way that many people have never enjoyed a connection to a main gas supply. Even though there's a pipeline a short distance away. 

M25

I don't think she's tied to BT at all it's simply there's nobody else interested in supplying a better service. 

Certain housing estates or building developments are literally tied to suppliers as they have a contract with the builder and that doesn't apply here.

Isn't there any option to apply for a grant from Devon council or some other agency? Like https://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/

You could consider https://www.starlink.com/gb too

iniltous

Picking a random address in High Bickington ( EX37 9AX ) shows very good SoGEA (FTTC without a PSTN phone line ) obviously this may not be the same postcode or even an adjacent postcode to the OP’s relative, but does suggest the general area has FTTC available , and that individual postcode has very good FTTC speeds , in the order of 80Mb , the resource the OP used to check what’s available is known to be many years out if date .

Put your relatives postcode into an accurate and up-to date checker like this one , not the one you used .

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

FYI , even if Sky and Talk Talk haven’t ’unbundled’ the exchange ( that’s their choice ) and there are no LLU providers , there are still dozens of alternatives to BT , some like Plusnet and EE , that are the same family or group of companies as BT , or for example , Zen , A&A etc that don’t use ‘BT’ , apart from the Openreach FTTC equipment , it’s nonsense for anyone to say they are limited to BT , I’d accept any challenge to disprove it , simply provide the postcode of the supposed address limited to ‘just BT’ , there is a difference between not having one or two ISP’s available that you want to use , and only having BT available, there will be many others available as well as BT , 

molerat

My SIL is in a similar situation.  She has her own one mile of 20 pair cable laid on the ground / part buried from the nearest pole.  That pole is served by around 4 miles of similar cable laid on the ground / draped on fence posts.  No supplier, including Plusnet and EE, other than BT will quote to supply a service.  The exchange is listed as FTTC but there are no cabinets far outside the village.

--Tony--

iniltous said:

Picking a random address in High Bickington ( EX37 9AX ) shows very good SoGEA (FTTC without a PSTN phone line ) obviously this may not be the same postcode or even an adjacent postcode to the OP’s relative, but does suggest the general area has FTTC available , and that individual postcode has very good FTTC speeds , in the order of 80Mb , the resource the OP used to check what’s available is known to be many years out if date .

Put your relatives postcode into an accurate and up-to date checker like this one , not the one you used .

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

FYI , even if Sky and Talk Talk haven’t ’unbundled’ the exchange ( that’s their choice ) and there are no LLU providers , there are still dozens of alternatives to BT , some like Plusnet and EE , that are the same family or group of companies as BT , or for example , Zen , A&A etc that don’t use ‘BT’ , apart from the Openreach FTTC equipment , it’s nonsense for anyone to say they are limited to BT , I’d accept any challenge to disprove it , simply provide the postcode of the supposed address limited to ‘just BT’ , there is a difference between not having one or two ISP’s available that you want to use , and only having BT available, there will be many others available as well as BT , 

Thank you for that, here is the information from that link. I think you are right as I feel sure she told me she was getting a speed of over 10Mbps some years ago.

She was subjected to a high pressure sales call from BT and sold unnecessary equipment totalling £65 a month, I got all this cancelled but now need to sort something out. Either way she will end up on a 2 year contract now from what I gather will be at least £45 a month.

The sales call knocked her for 6 and we just want to be done with them now but it looks like she is stuck with them.

I tried every provider I can think of but they all say they can't supply the property including PlusNet.

This all started when her router blew up in a thunder storm, they insisted to get a new router she needed a contract, they have replaced it twice in the last few years due to faults but this time they insisted they couldn't even though the router was less than a year old.

She cant leave the house and does not drive, she is completely isolated and dependant on broadband for shopping etc, but she was left with nothing for 5 days. She pays extra for what they call Halo, this is supposed to get her an EE mini hub within 24hrs is the broadband is down but that was not offered nor was she told she can pay for a router. The unscrupulous salesman just took advantage and sold everything possible.