Creating competition on OFNL (Open Fiber networks) broadband

the_branflake

Hi Money Saving Experts,

I'm wondering what can be done to create some competition in the market of the current providers on the OFNL network. We're on a new build estate and 7 years ago when we moved here, the speed and service was good, inline or better than many others. 7 years later, no speed increases or cost reductions and its starting to become a rip-off. I'm on 80mb and its £31 per month

The other issue is that all the providers are just offering very similar packages at the same price, there is zero competition. 

I don't really want to go down the Starlink route and our 4/5g server is poor due to our location so we need broadband and at the end of my street some 100m's away we've got fibre broadband and also access to Openreach. 

How do we try and move this forward? What can be done? Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

littleboo

Do you mean competition from another network? OFNL typically had exclusive rights on a new builds with certain developers so other providers were  locked out, and it may not be very attractive for them to build there now. 

iniltous

Unfortunately without Government intervention nothing will happen, unlike Openreach that has to provide access to their ducts , joinboxes and poles (although poles are irrelevant in your situation) , Networks like OFNL basically have a local monopoly, you’ll probably find the majority of ISPs on ONFL are similar because they are tied to the ONFL network, some are only on ONFL, no where else …so unless the Government open Alt Nets infrastructure, like ONFL where they are the monopoly provider, allowing access to their infrastructure in the same way Openreach have to provide access to others , the economics for other network providers are unlikely to every stack up , too expensive to start from scratch given the Alt Net will have every ‘landline’ user , the only ones they don’t have will have no landline type service , effectively 100% of the users .

….if the roads and footpaths are now adopted , and after 7 years that’s likely, other networks can build  , but they are unlikely to do so , Alt Nets that have a ‘built it cheap’ ethos may think about using poles as that is much cheaper that ducts , but in a modern housing estate that’s not likely to get the residents approval, not that they ask anyway .