Will I ever get FTTC?

I live in Welwyn Garden City and can only get a 3Mbps ADSL connection. I would love to get FTTC but Openreach have told me it is not economically viable to make it available to my cabinet (50) despite most other cabinets in the area having been converted. BDUK tell me my cabinet is outside their area as it is considered to be in a BT commercial area. What chance is there of Openreach considering this as a fill in? My street is served by Virgin Media bur they are very expensive if you are not prepared to have their phone service and the upload speeds are poor compared to FTTC.

If virgin cable is available in most of the area then there is pretty much no chance of getting the cab upgraded using BDUK funds, and the commercial program is almost done and dusted. I don't think its likely for the foreseeable future

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-May-14 19:50:27)

Highly unlikely if there is cable already available. We have a few cabinets here that haven't been upgraded prceisely because of that reason. There's money money to be generated by supplying FTTC to those areas that don't already have access to any form of high speed broadband.

You mentioned that Virgin Media is very expensive....

You can get a 50mb connection from virgin for £25 a month on its own.. a landline is not required and if you take more services like telephone and TV with them you will find you can get a nice deal with them...

The cheapest I think I've seen FTTC for is £30-£35 per month as you will require a landline.

So Virgin will either be the same price if not cheaper.

If you get referred to Virgin media you will also get free installation and a friend will get £50 off there bill..

I would be more than happy to refer you if you don't know anyone already

For various reasons I prefer to keep my phone line with BT. If I could get FTTC it would cost me £18.49 a month from Plusnet against £25 for Virgin. I know the packages are not directly comparable but are the cheapest available and sufficient for my needs. I don't have my phone line with Plusnet so the price comparison is valid.

I live in an area where I get less than 3mb ADSL and no access to cable... its not a remote village, it is in Warrington.

Hate to say it but you are very lucky to have access to Virgin. The are competitively priced and offer a really fast connection, I can't understand why you would care so much about keeping your BT line?

I can only agree with kingbiscit. If I had access to Virgin I'd bite their hand off. I live near the centre of a small town where most cabinets are upgraded. No plans for my cabinet and no access to Virgin. Gutted.

You're unlikely to find sympathy here. Too many of us (me included) are in your shoes and have no Virgin option.

If you want faster internet and must have a phone line I would switch to Virgin in a heartbeat.

£23.50 for the first 6 months and then £31.50 thereafter (this includes phone line).

Yes their upload speed may look pale in comparison to fibre but it doesn't look pale when you cannot get it.

In reply to a post by HughA:

For various reasons I prefer to keep my phone line with BT. If I could get FTTC it would cost me £18.49 a month from Plusnet against £25 for Virgin. I know the packages are not directly comparable but are the cheapest available and sufficient for my needs. I don't have my phone line with Plusnet so the price comparison is valid.

But....BT line rental are very expensive. I had ditch BT as they are far greedy. I had migrate line rental over to plusnet to reduced fibre and line rental cost

Edited by adslmax (Fri 23-May-14 19:47:16)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

But....BT line rental are very expensive. I had ditch BT as they are far greedy. I had migrate line rental over to plusnet to reduced fibre and line rental cost

Is English not your first language mate?

Edited by deleted (Fri 23-May-14 19:53:33)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Is English not your first language mate?

I bet your pardon? I am disability. So shut up.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I bet your pardon? I am disability. So shut up.

I apologise What kind of disability are you?

Edited by deleted (Fri 23-May-14 19:59:43)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

I apologise What kind of disability are you?

He's got a bad leg

Grammar and learning difficult

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Grammar and learning difficult

No worries

Eh DJMax what ever happened to that girl you brought back from Singapore? Did you marry her?

In reply to a post by Kimi:

Eh DJMax what ever happened to that girl you brought back from Singapore? Did you marry her?

No! She only after money!

ithe community could look at fnding the cab thjrough private funding -if there was enough interest see openeach Faq' Rural Broadband -

If you pay line rental for the year in advance, the monthly cost works out at £26.16

If you were to pay the line rental in advance with Virgin it works out at about £18 a month for 6 months and then £26 thereafter. So similar costings.

Regardless the point I'm making is Virgin isn't horrifically more expensive than BT Infinity.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

If you were to pay the line rental in advance with Virgin it works out at about £18 a month for 6 months and then £26 thereafter. So similar costings.

Regardless the point I'm making is Virgin isn't horrifically more expensive than BT Infinity.

For some the 'slow' up speed is a factor to consider and its a whole different ball game if you require a fixed IP.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

Regardless the point I'm making is Virgin isn't horrifically more expensive than BT Infinity.

The contention effects are different though.

Would be very strange indeed for a community that has access to Virgin Media to put cash down for access to slower and more expensive (when considering Openreach have made sure full line rental is compulsory) FTTC services.

Has it ever happened do you know?

What they said. I pay for two sets of line rental, two sets of FTTC, and people on a single Virgin Media cable service, no line rental required, can pay half as much and download faster.

I win on upload obviously but download wise come in 15% slower, that with a cabinet less than 150m radial distance away.

One of each would be ideal for me but I am better off than some with regards to what I have access to, my FTTC is in the higher end performance wise.

Yes but it's still going to be quicker than what's available now as it's already been established FTTC isn't and likely won't be.

Of course, but FTTC isn't available and likely never will be. Access to high speed internet is available though at a comparative price to FTTC technologies.

Holy [censored] sticks, you have access to VM fibre, whilst not perfect it is easily 10 times faster than your current connection and you're still moaning at the lack of FTTC? Think of all the poor people who can't get anything other than low speed ADSL!

Sorry? I'm not moaning.

Broadband Choices deal is the best Virgin offer.
50Mb for £4 per month for 12 months with line rental.
You could pay 12 months line rental @ £128
Then if you paid monthly for final 6 months you would average £20.28 over 18 months.

No way Openreach FTTC is cheaper on any provider.

Edited by bubblegun (Sat 24-May-14 21:30:44)

Thanks for all the input guys. The consensus seems to be that I won't have FTTC available to me in the foreseeable future and that Virgin is my only option at present. I have 9 months left to run on my BT phone rental (12 months paid upfront) so any immediate move to Virgin will be broadband only at £25 per month. I assume I could transfer my phone at a later date. I'll probably wait until my BT phone contract expires and decide then.

Once the 9 months is up it would be very easy to add phone line to your existing plan. You'd potentially be able to renegotiate your current contract as well to get a better deal.

Can you transfer a BT phone number to VM cable, and back again?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Can you transfer a BT phone number to VM cable, and back again?

I know people who have done this - but I also know people whom have lost their phone number in the transfer.

I believe Ofcom requires all fixed line telcos to offer the ability to port numbers.

Certainly can. My dad was a longtime BT customer then got Virgin several years ago for the better broadband speeds. He moved last year to an area Virgin couldn't serve and went back to BT. Kept the same number throughout.

Fine . Just checking!

Yes of course

Think it's probably worth noting what James said as well. Though I've never experienced this I have no doubt this has happened to many people. Virgin and BT aren't known for their brilliant customer service and I could easily imagine Virgin losing the phone number to the ether.