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BT/BTOpenreach reneging on subsidised fibre broadband rollout?

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This is my first post (hurrah!) but could think of nowhere better to put this query to, so here goes...

In 2012, BT/BTOpenreach (apologies if I use these two interchangeably) in partnership with a local governmental organisation called Onlincolnshire rolled out fibre broadband to the town I live in, in rural Lincolnshire. Onlincolnshire's role as far as I can tell is to help fund broadband rollout via taxpayer money which is/was used to encourage BT to rollout fibre broadband to rural areas by means of subsidies to BT. In Lincolnshire, the funding is derived thus:

£48m of public and private sector money is being invested in improving the county’s broadband infrastructure. The cash includes £11.2m from the county council, £4m from the district authorities, £14.3m from national government and £18.8m from BT.

How this relates to me is that I live in a house on a street that wholly had fibre broadband in 2012 but now, in 2018 (...but from 2016) can only get fibre broadband if I live on one side of the street and not the other. This is because half the street was knocked down and replaced with new houses between roughly 2014-2016. The new houses were connected to a new BT cabinet that paradoxically could only provide the older service that was standard pre-2012 in my town.

Now to me, it seems absurd that BT/BTOpenreach having received taxpayers' money in the form of subsidies, rollout fibre broadband and then literally remove that service a few years later, even if just from one half of the street (roughly a dozen or so households).

Would this constitue a breach of their original agreement with Onlincolnshire, I guess is my query?

The kicker in all this is that as far as the Onlincolnshire organisation is concerned, they'd done their bit, my town had been ticked off their list, job done (and it was) and they wouldn't have looked this way again had I not been in touch with them myself. They had no idea that BT, in essence have reneged on the agreement they originally had with Onlincolnshire and have rolled back the broadband service.

Anway, I hope that makes sense and would be interested in anyone's thoughts. As it stands, BTOpenreach can only suggest some co-funded solution (ie, they're not paying to upgrade the new houses without further subsidy - the cheek!).

M.

Comments

  • unforeseen
    unforeseen Posts: 7,380 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    The purpose was to bring broadband to existing households that didn't have it. This was a one off job and not an ongoing commitment. They have completed it so their responsibility ends. the

    You need to talk to the developer of the houses. It is them that normally arrange for their development to get BB/phone services. In fact there is a subsidised scheme that developers can use to achieve this.
  • Sounds like it wasn't removed from any households as the households ceased to exist due to being demolished.

    Why the builder of the replacement dwellings didn't get Openreach to install FTTP when they were being built is down to them.
    Proud member of the wokerati, though I don't eat tofu.Home is where my books are.Solar PV 5.2kWp system, SE facing, >1% shading, installed March 2019.Mortgage free July 2023
  • As others have said, your beef should be with the housebuilder, not Openreach. The housebuilder saved £££s by requesting only bog standard copper from Openreach, not FTTC or FTTP. Anyway, why did you not check the broadband speeds before handing over the cash to the developer/seller?

    If the developer is still selling houses on the estate then a notice in your front lawn displaying "poor broadband speeds here" might get the housebuilder to fund a FTTC cabinet once they see it affecting sales.
    Money talks!!
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