FTTP On Demand?

We're moving house to a semi rural location, well we were until my husband found out the broadband speed at the new house and now he's not so sure !

We currently get about 17mbs upload and 33mbs download which he isn't thrilled with but the new house is only about 10mbs.

I don't know much about broadband speed but apparently 10mbs is not good enough.

There is FTTC but not FTTP and no plans for it to come to the house. We looked into a lease line but that was £500 a month ! And that didn't even include installation and we would need a server room!

A friend said we should look at FTTP on demand. I don't even know where to start or who to contact to find out if it's possible. Is there anything else I could consider?

Any advice gratefully received.

Thank you.

These guys would be your best bet .....

https://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobCh...

Also take a look at this thread, and the earlier ones linked to.

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4620016-ft...

Be prepared for a rather large price, quotes have been from a few thousand up to about £30k, but one way to look at it is the house worth that much more?

Other options include 4G if you have good reception - see https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/mobilebroadband.html




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Edited by R0NSKI (Tue 10-Sep-19 20:48:57)

Keep in mind that FTTPoD isn't an instant solution as the installation can sometimes take 18 months or so.

1) Get a desktop quote from a FTTPoD provider (to be honest this is more of a guesstimate).
2) If your still interested pay the £250+VAT for a full survey that will give you a more accurate quote.
3) Accept the quote and wait for the installation to occur.

In reply to a post by dect:

Keep in mind that FTTPoD isn't an instant solution as the installation can sometimes take 18 months or so.

1) Get a desktop quote from a FTTPoD provider (to be honest this is more of a guesstimate).
2) If your still interested pay the £250+VAT for a full survey that will give you a more accurate quote.
3) Accept the quote and wait for the installation to occur.

A few other bits of info.

There are pretty much only two choices to buy FTTPoD through: Cerberus and FluidOne. There's also Amvia who just resell Cerberus, and Syscomm who only cover parts of the Midlands.

With a bit of luck, the final price after survey may be lower than the original guesstimate. See results reported in this forum tabulated here. If you run a small business from home, you may qualify for a £2500 gigabit voucher grant towards installation.

With FTTPoD, you pay a slightly higher rate than normal for the first year of service - with Cerberus it's £100+VAT per month for 330/30. After that, you're free to take any standard FTTP package at any speed, from the same provider or a different one.

As for the leased line option: there's normally no installation charge if you take a 2-3 year contract, and you don't need a server room - but the charges will quickly mount up after a few years.

4G is certainly worth looking at in rural areas. Most of the major providers have Unlimited data on offer now. EE is at £34/m and Three/SMARTY is from £18.75.

Who you pick depends on the coverage in your area. For example Three are very poor in my rural area and all they could deliver was a few Mbps up and down but EE had much better coverage. I am currently getting 30-40 down and 10-15 up with a modem indoors on EE. An outdoor antenna would probably improve your reception vs an indoors one.

You could always check with a small data PAYG SIM on the major providers. Ask around at work if anyone has a 4G modem you could borrow or see if you could pick up a Huawei B525 off eBay.

There are many of us on these forums now on Three 4G unlimited, either phone SIM or Three HomeFi which is modem plus data SIM. (I have both),

I haven't seen any significant complaints about performance.

However there have been a fair few from those using Smarty SIMs, that run on the Three network. I have a strong suspicion that Smarty are not renting adequate bandwidth from Three, so I don't recommend it.

Thank you all for that information. I will look at Cerberus.

I have this morning been told about Boundless Networks
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/

Fibre to the mast. Is this something any of you have heard of? Is it worth looking into also?

Many thanks

C

In reply to a post by Cazo:

I have this morning been told about Boundless Networks
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/

Fibre to the mast. Is this something any of you have heard of? Is it worth looking into also?

Many thanks

C

Are you in their coverage area?
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/home-broadband/c...

If so, worth getting in touch with them. I think they use a Wi-Max type solution where a rooftop antenna is installed which communicates with their local mast - a line of sight is req'd. In my previous home in Kent, i used to be with such an ISP (Telabria) and the Wi-Max setup worked pretty well. However Telabria went bust later on & Orbital/Vfast hoovered up its remains
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/home-broadband/h...

In reply to a post by Cazo:

I have this morning been told about Boundless Networks
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/

Fibre to the mast. Is this something any of you have heard of? Is it worth looking into also?

There are a whole load of niche fixed-wireless providers out there. Certainly worth checking if there are any that cover you. Try the thinkbroadband broadband maps.

(Aside: is there a quicker way than just selecting every single provider box? Entering a postcode in the availability checker seems to show only fixed line services, even for a postcode that I know is covered by V.fast)

Fixed wireless should show up in the search, so if there is definitely a dot on the map for a fixed wireless service at a postcode and the search is not showing it up then let me know and will look at why its so.

Main www site does not show all the of the possible permutations of services, the full list is available by https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/postcode-search

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

In reply to a post by Cazo:

I have this morning been told about Boundless Networks
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/

Fibre to the mast. Is this something any of you have heard of? Is it worth looking into also?

Many thanks

C

Are you in their coverage area?
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/home-broadband/c...

If so, worth getting in touch with them. I think they use a Wi-Max type solution where a rooftop antenna is installed which communicates with their local mast - a line of sight is req'd. In my previous home in Kent, i used to be with such an ISP (Telabria) and the Wi-Max setup worked pretty well. However Telabria went bust later on & Orbital/Vfast hoovered up its remains
https://www.boundlessnetworks.co.uk/home-broadband/h...

Some lucky folks in my village are with Boundless Networks and the reports are pretty good.

England soccer manager (and close neighbour of mine) Gareth Southgate uses them and reported to me it works fine until Fibre gets to him in the not too distant future.

We can actually see the red beacon (Mast) from my house but sadly tree's are a problem in the line of sight.

The red beacon is situated at the end of Leeds Bradford Airport (Otley Chevin end) and can be seen easily come night fall.

Others in my village are lucky and have no objects obstructing the LOS.

Most who I have asked say the service is reliable although not quite getting the speeds they pay for.... BUT certainly better than the 1Mbps we now get through copper.

Definitely worth a shot if you can see the product will work via their website.

Ring them because communications is very good the times I have rung.

Edited by busterboy (Wed 11-Sep-19 12:06:39)

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

Be prepared for a rather large price, quotes have been from a few thousand up to about £30k, but one way to look at it is the house worth that much more?

Alternatively your offer needs to take into account what fixing the broadband so it is at a decent speed would cost.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Main www site does not show all the of the possible permutations of services, the full list is available by https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/postcode-search

Thanks. It was user error: I had followed a menu from the front page to the "availability checker", which didn't show it.

For reference, the coverage information is available by following Information & Data > UK Broadband Map > Search by Postcode.

Good point, but I suspect your average house buyer doesn't give broadband a thought, so you may under value what someone else is willing to pay. But its certainly a good bargaining point.

Well that would depend on the property and who the potential buyers are likely to be.

If you have a four bedroomed detached for example then you are appealing to families, and I doubt that many potential buyers of are going to be happy with 10Mbps broadband. The seller might luck out and get someone who does not care or does not check till after they have purchased but you are limiting your potential buyers and so is likely to take longer, probably much longer for a sale.

On the other hand a two bedroomed bungalow appealing to a retired person with no kids may be more willing to accept 10Mbps broadband and it makes no difference to selling the house.

That would be been true a few years ago, not so much now.

Rightmove have had a "Show average broadband speed at this postcode" link on their property details for a least 5 years now:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/proper...

Believe based on a few checks around my local area that if you are on the FTTC cabinet it simply says 67 Mb from someone like TalkTalk or EE (the EE showed up in a FTTP address)

It looks to be saying the same figure irrespective of distance, including a property so far from the VDSL2 cabinet BT does not quote a VDSL2 speed.

They are just using CompareTheMarket which explains it all.

Lol, just checked my neighbor's house as is up for sale, like Andrew says, rightmove lists 67mbs by talk talk. We live too far from the FTTC cabinet to get anything like that (more like 10mbs) however openreach have upgraded the neighborhood to fttp and I'm quite happy with my 330/50 connection. So I wouldn't trust anything rightmove has to say on broadband speed!

We're going to have to disagree, so many people are still oblivious to broadband speed, yes more people are wising up to get but the majority aren't.

I wasn't claiming they were providing a useful service via the link

I was just highlighting that it suggested that people nowadays are far more aware that the quality of Internet options when buying a house can be important in a way the general public wouldn't have known or cared about a few years ago.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

There are many of us on these forums now on Three 4G unlimited, either phone SIM or Three HomeFi which is modem plus data SIM. (I have both),

I haven't seen any significant complaints about performance.

However there have been a fair few from those using Smarty SIMs, that run on the Three network. I have a strong suspicion that Smarty are not renting adequate bandwidth from Three, so I don't recommend it.

Smarty are Three. Smarty are even advertised on the three.co.uk (there is a link on the front page). They are not like Virgin Media is to EE. Capacity isn�t being rented, nor is prioritisation happening.