A long journey to fibre

I live in York, inside the city walls (YO19UE) and the houses around me can get speeds in the hundreds of Mb, I get a lovely 12 - because I live in a block of flats I am told.

This morning I went to the shop and noticed a telent(?) engineer doing something right next to my block, asked him what he was doing and I was told "installing fibre", they had opened up another manhole inside the car park for the block.

I logged into BT and had a chat with their online chat who tell me there are no current plans to install fibre. What gives? Does the engineer not know what he was there to do, or do BT not know who they have sent out to install fibre?

It's not 'BT' who install this stuff, you were most likely talking to BT Retail, who are most unlikely to know whats being installed until after its ready for service.

Also what sort of fibre was the Telent guy installing .... lots of 'private' point to point stuff gets installed which is of no use to the general public.

This is good news for a start (that they wouldn't know). I'm not sure exactly what he was installing but I can say (because of where the work was being carried out) that it was only for my block of flats.

Does this mean I am likely to see a speed increase on the wholesale checker over the next few days?

Does this mean I am likely to see a speed increase on the wholesale checker over the next few days?

In all honesty, I don't know, some of the others who post here have diving rods for such things though , sit tight, someone will peer into their crystal ball for you soon I expect.

It is most likely the joint venture TalkTalk-CityFibre FTTP/H network because when doing a postcode check on Cityfibre's website with your postcode:

Great news!

It looks like you�re very close to our network.

Please register your details and one of our partners will be in touch with more information on products, pricing and timescales.

However CityFibre don't sell residential services so your best/only chance would be to go with TalkTalk if it is indeed the TT/CF JV network being brought to your home - the TT checker should show availability for FTTH once you can order it. I think Sky have abandoned their York FTTH pilot/trial.

https://www.cityfibre.com/gigabit-cities/york/#

https://www.talktalk.co.uk/shop/broadband/ultra

Btw the BT/Openreach dsl checker won't show availability for any non-BT wholesale or Openreach based services, so just keep checking the CityFibre and/or TT websites above.

Edited by deleted (Sat 08-Jul-17 21:16:40)

Are you sure? Would Telent be installing Cityfibre's network?

When I saw some guys working up near Rawcliffe, they were in "Future Network Solutions" vans.

In addition, the OP's postcode looks to be in the South-East of the inner city, while CityFibre's network (for TT and Sky) doesn't get as far south as the Northern edges of the inner city.

I guess a giveaway would be to look at the chambers (and any small terminating pots) the Telent guys were working on. They ought to be labelled with the network owner ... and the ones in Rawcliffe were clearly marked "CityFibre".

You've found one of the problems with real fibre: Installers are reticent to get involved with existing blocks of flats, because

a) it needs co-ordination with the freeholder, and not just the individual leaseholders
b) access problems getting the cables in place, especially where this is contra to Openreach rules to perform splicing in an accessible, ground-floor, location
c) annoying health & safety rules - in particular the fire safety rules that require services to be sealed from one floor to the next

BT might prefer that such blocks be given their own FTTC or G.Fast node in the basement (or comms room), leaving the copper intact. However, they haven't really been very good in organising this manner of connection (unlike Australia).

If there's *anything* happening at all, then it ought to be being coordinated with your freeholder or management company.

On the other hand, sometimes you might see a flat on the ground floor getting access, with cables being fitted externally, and drilled straight through the wall. This might, of course, be done unofficially, without the knowledge of the management company.

I agree, it may not be Cityfibre fibre however the Openreach Superfast checker shows "we are exploring solutions" wrt FTTC/P plans so it seems it's not for Openreach FTTC/P. Its possible Cityfibre (or any other telco) have contracted Openreach to lay the fibre with Telent being the sub-contractor. For example, Hyperoptic actually use Openreach fibre to apartment blocks in London but which Hyperoptic have complete control over so Openreach may be involved in some way in the OPs area.

I suggest the OP give Cityfibre a call, they should clarify what (if any) their plans are for the OPs postcode.

Hi Wombat, in light of recent sad events, your description of c) as 'annoying' might be deemed in poor taste. Maybe an edit is in order ?

What are these terminating posts you speak of?

Everything they were working on, that I could see, were things they pulled up from underground.

I am indeed in the South-East of the inner city and sadly all providers I have been able to check don't seem to think I can get fibre yet, I might ring my building management company to see if they have any idea what is going on?