London exchange only lines

Another exchange only line question...

I�m in a flat in central London SE1 (built 2016, part flats/part offices). There is FTTC on the other side of the road and next door, but my building is all EOLs. I get about 17mbit, which is insufficient for my needs.

How can I eat some information on whether/when I�m going to be upgraded to either FTTC or FTTP? The checker on openreach�s website just says �EO line - technology pending� and exploring solutions. I�m on the Columbo exchange, which is fibre enabled.

I might be willing to pay to have something installed, but not the thousands that FTTPod looks like it costs. Hyper optic are not interested sadly as we only have 9 flats.

Any ideas?

Thanks

James

If no FTTP is mentioned at https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/fibre-br... then not in the current roll-out of FTTP to areas of London.

Plans change, but given when future plans have been shared in the past and changed and people complain getting vague info on future plans is impossible usually.

The option is Openreach https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/fibre-br... i.e. residents/landlord get together to fund an upgrade.

You could bond two lines in theory:
https://www.aaisp.net.uk/kb-broadband-bonding.html

As far as I know AAISP offer it, you are likely looking at a few hundred pounds per month for a decent setup, or purchasing some equipment at a cost.

I work in SE1, we have 1Gbps download and upload, but ultimately the office has a leased line and hence pays for that luxury. There is no way to force BT to provide you FTTC/FTTP.

How recently did you contact HyperOptic - they recently started offering to smaller blocks with around 10 flats - worth asking them again? Get your neighbours to register interest on their website.

You won't. You can write to Openreach but they will respond with a standard answer that does not answer anything.

There has been very little work going on in London in terms of exchange only lines rearrangement. OR claims it costs too much and there has not been public gap funding available. OR has done some rearrangements in SE16 area but that was some time ago. They have not started any new rearrangement projects to my best knowledge. There is now a promise of gap funding in the air as government will commit some money to USO projects. You can safely assume absolutely nothing will happen until this money becomes available.

This leaves either community projects, where you pay Openreach for an upgrade. Or you can try to persuade Hyperoptic or another altnet to install your building. I managed to get Hyperoptic to our building of 8 flats (< 3Mbps EO lines) as they did the larger building next door at the same time.

I am not sure if there are still some council, GLA or government "better business broadband" schemes the business properties could apply. If this is the case, you might be able to fund a community project with these.

EO in parts of North London are just starting to get GEA-FTTP.

Do you have any more information on exactly where this is happening? I still get "Technology: Pending - EO Line" and "We are exploring solutions"...

Various bits of exchanges like Monument, Mayfair, Pimilico, Westminster off top of my head and some of it is going live too

This is why i hjave put up the petition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/258240

A totally pointless petition driven by what appears to be ignorance and one that ignores what is happening such as the upcoming USO.

In the large village / town that I live in the BDUK project has tackled all EO lines and has moved, or is in the process of moving to an FTTC cabinet so action is obviously working. I'd estimate around 20% of properties are very close to the exchange, and the other 80% are very far away.

Properties near to the exchange got re-routed to a cabinet just outside the exchange's entrance. I'd estimate about 75+ properties

Properties far away from the exchange either got either
1) 75ish properties re-routed (cured) to an existing (but presumably enlarged) PCP. Speed still quite low however increasing from 2-12mb/sec to 18-45mb/sec
2) 70ish properties (the lucky ones) got an AIO cabinet and all should get close to maximum speed
3) 70ish properties got a new FTTC cabinet to their exsiting PCP

So all in all, over 300 lines have been shifted.

*Sorry this was supposed to be in the other whinging thread*

Edited by gary333 (Mon 10-Jun-19 16:54:08)