I have had the same problem part of my post code is served by FTTC but not my part it seems and you see this in my London County Councillor reply that Virgin drag their feet in giving up a monopoly they have in high speed service and BT where they do..
reply sent to me from BT and then my Councillors' reply:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your enquiry about fibre broadband, properties within the indicated postcode are connected directly to the exchange and not via a telephony cabinet located in the street, this is referred to as an E/O line.
Our deployment is based on the commercial criteria for each exchange and in turn, how broadband is delivered from the exchange. Unfortunately, as your line is fed directly from the exchange it fails to meet the commercial criteria. This is because the solution to deploy Fibre Broadband to lines connected this way would not provide a return on the investment based on the costs for the construction and on-going running costs.
Where E/O lines are not in our footprint, or are not commercially viable, it is worth contacting your London Assembly Member or local council to register your interest in case any government funding becomes available to help fund deployment.
You may also wish to lobby your Assembly Member or local councillor on progress gaining funding for such deployment from the Government. You can also register your interest on the Openreach website at;
http://www.openreachfibrebroadband.co.uk/expression-...
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Dear Paul,
You have probably picked up from my blog and my column in Southwark news that I have started working on this issue. A few weeks ago I wrote in Southwark News about the problems the community have in SE16 - Rotherhithe - because of uselessly slow internet access and BT's refusal to upgrade the area's cabling to allow 'Superfast broadband'. I met with BT's London Director and they argued that it would cost too much due to local technical problems. (The type of existing local 'exchange only ' lines and the lack on street 'booster' boxes)
I was overwhelmed by the reaction in the area and the sheer number of people who got in touch to say what a real difficulty 'rubbish' broadband causes to their daily lives and work.
Just to let you know what else I have discovered so far.
I have just met with Sara Kelly from the Mayor's Infrastructure plan team - she is in charge of the GLA IT infrastructure programme area. The government funding for Broadband is basically being used as grant aid to small companies to pay for Super-fast Broadband installation. However rolling out infrastructure to domestic customers has some special legal problems which prevent and constrain the use of any 'Public' aid.
Sara has met with both Virgin and BT about London's Broadband needs, and as part of her conversation, asked specifically about Rotherhithe for me. She shares my understanding of the background problem of 'exchange only ' lines in the area. However, she feels that the advice I was given about applying to the EU for the lifting of EU anti-competitiveness regulations is slightly misleading. Certification is a long slow process and is usually met with objections by either BT or Virgin who try to protect their own interests. Previous attempts at this elsewhere have met with fairly aggressive legal action by competing infrastructure providers. Birmingham were taken through the courts for beginning the installation of their own cabling after some 'dark' infrastructure which was owned by Virgin was found when digging began (even though Virgin didn't know about it until the Council found it) The GLA fears that getting EU permission could take 4 years or so - most of that time spent in expensive legal wrangling. But at this stage they are willing to look at all options.
City Hall is hoping to write action on developing IT and communications infrastructure into its Infrastructure Plan to be published in the Spring and are interested in our problem in Rotherhithe as a case example - can we together find solutions that would be useful across other problem areas in London? One of the GLA's thoughts is that if they could get reliable mapping of existing infrastructure they could try to begin a process of getting permission for and developing a GLA dark fibre network. Essentially seek to build infrastructure in areas where there is an absence of provision and no argument can be made that they are interfering with the market share of either Virgin or BT. However the two infrastructure companies BT and Virgin generally do not want to share their existing mapping (which may anyway be incomplete) they consider it commercially confidential. If the GLA has a map it would give a basis for safely planning a proposal for installing a dark fibre network. The GLA are keen therefore to have a Rotherhithe infrastructure map put together this could prove to be crucial therefore in one possible solution. A very helpful local volunteer in Rotherhithe (with an appropriate background) has offered to help me with this mapping exercise using a mixture of published sources and on street survey techniques and he is beginning that work for us.
Sara and I are going to meet Cllr Fiona Colley (Cabinet Member Regeneration Southwark Council) to discuss what options the Council could help with. It may be that there are useful options to extend cabling because of the major developments underway in Canada Water. And/ or there may be funding possibilities using the Planning rules and legislation (Section 106 for example) . I know from my contact so far with the Council that they see the Broadband issue as a key concern and want to do what they can to get it resolved.
The GLA are also meeting with OFCOM about the GLA's work generally and will raise our specific problem in Rotherhithe.
I will be meeting with Virgin to explore their thoughts on what they/ we could do.