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Hi All
I placed an order for FTTP on 10 Dec 2019. It was supposed to be installed before the end of the year. First OpenReach engineer said the conduit was blocked and would have to be cleared before install. Fine. I called BT, order still in progress, but install dates being moved. Second engineer comes out and asks if it has been installed (?). He took some details and left. Called BT again and got a date for the dig team. This now mid Jan 2020. Another engineer comes out and tell me the conduit is blocked and will need to be cleared. I said, I know that because the previous engineer had already marked an 'X' or where to dig. Another call to BT. A dig team comes out. My name & address on their worksheet, but wrong photos and as it turns out wrong area and wrong person. Another call to BT. I now also have a OpenReach case worker. New dig supposed come out by end of Feb, then they realised it was the wrong exchange. So now new order is created and linked to original order and dig team will be out mid march, just before lock down.
Guess what. No dig team. I stop calling BT, as I'm not an urgent case or key worker. Now lockdowns are being lifted, call BT to see what is going on. I get a £300 compensation (nice), but still no word on when I'll get connected. Call again a week later, they OpenReach tell them dig team will be here 28 May, outside work to be completed on 1 June and indoor work 10 June (conditions allowing).
Called BT this morning. A new note on my account. Now dig team will be here on 15 June and that note was placed minutes after I had last spoken to them.
I understand the current situation with Covid-19, but all of this should have been done before the lock down and I would have thought a priority after the lockdown.
Any ideas on what I could do next. I do not want to leave BT, as it's not their fault and I have had great service from them. OpenReach like wasting money and sending engineers out to do nothing.
Thanks,
Shrey
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Can prod Openreach for you, need address and some details of the blocked duct/conduit
Is the block in the street or in your property? If without any risk to yourself you can get a picture of where the block is suspected that will help to marry things up on the Openreach side.
Andrew at thinkbroadband dot com
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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It's almost like there's a global pandemic going on.....
Obviously things are delayed, it will get done when it's done. There are more important things to consider other than getting faster broadband, and as you already get FTTC you are not a priority.
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Hi
Thank you.
I've sent you an email with the details you require.
Thanks again.
Shrey
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True. Hence I am not in a hurry to be upgraded. I did not call BT from start of the lockdown until now when the lock down is slowly being lifted. The Government did say contractors/builders etc could return to work.
It would just be nice to get a date and for the OpenReach to stick to it. And all this started long before the pandemic was a thing.
I'm not angry, just a little frustrated that it has taken almost 7 months to get nowhere (aside for the £300 compensation, which I didn't know about). 4 months of which were before the lockdown.
And yes there more important things to consider, like open heart surgery for a bacterial infection. Christmas 2016 was a fun time. Thankfully, all fully repaired and heart valve replaced. No meds apart from anti-coagulants. No bypass, stents or pacemakers. Just a ticking heart and a Fantastic NHS.
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It's almost like there's a global pandemic going on.....
Obviously things are delayed, it will get done when it's done. There are more important things to consider other than getting faster broadband, and as you already get FTTC you are not a priority.
Errrm what part of this order was placed in 2019 did you not get!
4 months to get this thing sorted is bad enough, pandemic has only extended it.
Also I remember telecommunications works where marked as key so where still ongoing during the pandemic, like it or not Openreach where out in full force in my area doing external works and some even visiting properties so lets not make this about a pandemic eh.
This is about Openreach being incapable or communications as a communications company.
Matt - Virgin Media M350 with Hub 4 in South Birmingham.
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Conduit has been unblocked - or would have been if there was a conduit!
After much digging by the contractors, the put in an unblocked conduit! I would like to add the contractors very very professional and friendly. Left the pavement and my front better than when they arrived.
I now have a blue rope in front of my door ready for OpenReach to come and pull through the Fibre. That's scheduled for Monday.
Thank you Mr Saffron for your help.
Shrey
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Just to add believe this was work that was already in the pipeline, rather than any prodding from my side in this case.
Either way look forward to hearing about another live connection.
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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Well, Monday is almost finished and no OpenReach.
Called BT who contacted OpenReach who said they had escalated the work to be done by the contractors (the dig team)! I had called BT on Friday and Saturday telling them it has been done and that I have the blue rope by my front door.
Now I'm waiting for the dig team to update their status, so OpenReach can come lay the fibre and then do the inside work. At the speed that this is going I might get FTTP by Christmas! It's only 6 months away and it's taken 7 months to get to here!
Kind of getting fed up of waiting.
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I might get FTTP by Christmas! It's only 6 months away and it's taken 7 months to get to here!
PMSL I'll trade you my 2 year wait for your 7 months. 
Still not finished here too. 
BTBroadband
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I have been humbled!
I'll quit complaining now!
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The saga continues....
Called BT Tuesday evening. They confirmed with OpenReach that they will be out on Monday 8th June to lay the cable and then 10 June to do the internal work.
Great!
I call them on Wednesday morning to confirm for Monday 8th, as order tracker still said they would be coming today. BT confirmed with OpenReach that they will be out on Monday 8th.
Just logged into BT Order Tracking. External work now pushed back to estimated 19 June and Internal work confirmed (with whom, I don't know) on 30th June.
Me: [censored]?
I called BT at 8pm. OpenReach closed at 7:30pm so no further info from them, but note on my account from 7:45pm stating dig work needed to be completed. Again [censored]? It's done. Blue rope outside my house ready to pull the fibre through!!! The note said an engineer had come out (no they didn't) to inspect. Well if they did I would have seen them. I was home all day (like we're supposed to) and he would have seen the blue rope.
And OpenReach have been to wrong address a couple of times before, so they may have gone to wrong house in. another part of the country!
I will have to call in the morning to get BT to shout at OpenReach. So tempted to cancel the order and reorder, but could loose out on goodwill payment.
Arrrhhhhgg!
Edited by shrey (Wed 03-Jun-20 21:50:10)
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I called BT Wednesday morning. OpenReach said they did not enough engineers to complete the work, therefore appointment pushed back to 19 June!
Me: Why didn't they just say that?
BT: Dunno
Called BT again this morning (8 June). Openreach still waiting on confirmation of the dig work has been done (which it has almost 2 weeks ago).
Now waiting for a callback from my case handler on 10 June. While on the call the call, I received an email from BT stating my appointment had been pushed back another month!
I am thinking they may not want me to have Fibre.
Anything you can do Mr Saffron?
Not happy.
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Exterior work done!
I have a coil of fibre siting outside my house!!
I am now waiting for indoor install which should be early next week.
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Yay, congrats and not long left...
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Finally installed!
The OpenReach engineers did a very neat and professional job. Almost looks like they were never here...
They said speed should settle down in a few days. I am currently getting 220 down, 50 up. Should be 300/50
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Congratulations!
The engineers were wrong: speed doesn't "settle" with FTTP. What you get now is what you will get - unless you were on the wrong profile, but there's no 220/50 profile, so we know you are correctly provisioned.
When you say you're getting 220, you need to clarify that with what speedtest site(s) you are testing against. Preferably include a link to the thinkbroadband.com speedtest which has a graph of how the speed varies by second over the test.
There are many possible bottlenecks - speed of your PC NIC, anti-virus software, router, and of course you need to be using wired ethernet not wifi for highest speeds (and *not* a USB2 ethernet adapter). Also try very late at night or very early in the morning, in case it's congestion at your ISP.
Still, it beats 4Mbps any day
Cheers,
Brian.
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This is what I'm getting now. Wired 1GB ethernet. Using an Apple Airport extreme (the tower).
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...
Edited by shrey (Mon 15-Jun-20 12:36:00)
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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The AirPort AC seems to have a maximum throughput of 325Mbps
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-re...
Once you add in PPPoE then you're probably seeing the limits of your router rather than a service fault.
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Brilliant. Thank you.
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Good to know. Thanks.
Any advice on a router that can handle the performance? (not that's I'm planning to upgrade, but will do at some point)
The AirPort AC seems to have a maximum throughput of 325Mbps
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-re...
Once you add in PPPoE then you're probably seeing the limits of your router rather than a service fault.
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Have you tried using the included Smart Hub 2?
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Not yet. I'll give that a try tomorrow
I didn't think the smart hub was any good.
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Should be better than any of the old Apple products.
Apple gave up making home routers, and most commentators believe because there wasn’t anything special about them. The ISP provided ones are good now.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Thanks. I will give it try tomorrow.
But, doing speed tests just now, I'm getting the full 300/50 now.
You can call me an Apple Fan Boy. Been using Apple products since 1986. The Airport Extremes are the only routers I've had that have been rock solid. I've through loads of them over the years. Never needed rebooting unless I'm messing about with configs and screw something up. They just keep going.
They aren't anything special now, but were ahead of the curve when they came out many moons ago. It's a shame Apple are not making routers anymore.
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They aren't anything special now, but were ahead of the curve when they came out many moons ago.
I beg to differ. They may have been good in the US, but I found with my Extreme (the one before the tower) and a couple of Express units used at work, that they were physically well made, but the software was so limited. Every competitor was ahead. A Draytek router in 2010 was ahead of the Extreme, in wireless coverage, and in features. Today I would buy an Asus WiFi 5 or 6 router instead of an Apple limited box. The wireless range in a room was about half the competition (on 5 GHz) which was very surprising. The lack of web interface, and poor logging were just the final straw for me.
They got out of the market at the right time in my opinion.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Thank you for the info.
Admittedly, the drawbacks that you had with them, lack of web and logs, is the reason I got them. In their way, plug in and go (with a bit of configuring). I've have used Draytek's, Netgears's Belkins and many other's over he years and I've always been tinkering with them to get their best. Apple's - none of that - which is what I liked.
I know things have moved on and they are now showing their age, but they are still going strong. Great Wifi thought our 3 floor house. Xbox and my son's MacBook Pro get almost maximum throughput two floors up from the router. In fact every device on wifi gets almost maximum signal and connection.
I've been in IT since punched cards to program a computer was new, so not having to maintain everything and it just works (most if the time) is perfect for me. I have almost 40 years of experience in IT.
I'll have a look at the Asus when I need to replace the Extreme's. Thank for the recommendation.
Just want to add, when the Extreme's came out, no other router had USB ports (in the UK or USA). Printer sharing was not a thing in the home until these. Audio port on the express for multiroom speakers. Extended wifi coverage before it was thing. Network shares on the router via the Usb port for easy network drives. All new in the consumer side. And the first manufacturer (as far as I'm aware) to use 802.11n and 802.11ac on the consumer routers. Apple is not generally known for firsts, but for pushing the envelopes (USB only hardware, no floppy disk drives to name a few.)
Don't want to create a flame war. So let's just leave it at that.
Thanks again everyone.
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Don't want to create a flame war. So let's just leave it at that.
Good plan. Thanks for your reply.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Plugged in the configured the Smart Hub 2.
Also was upgraded to 500/70
I am now getting for the full 500/70. As with everyone was saying on this forum, the Apple Airports were'n't fast enough. I was only getting 350-400 down on them.
I'm using the Smart Hub 2 for the routing and airports for Wifi and everything else. Works brilliantly. I did test it using just the Smart Hub, but it didn't make difference, so I stuck with the Airports for that.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
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I am now getting for the full 500/70. As with everyone was saying on this forum, the Apple Airports were'n't fast enough. I was only getting 350-400 down on them.
Great news!
Many routers (especially those designed in the USA) can't achieve full performance on systems in the UK that use PPPoE for the logon. Cable in the USA, and Virgin Media in the UK, don't use a logon. This logon adds additional overhead for the router to do, which causes the maximum speed to drop.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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Good to know. I didn't click when you said that previously.
So I'm guessing the Smart Hub doesn't do that.
Thanks
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Good to know. I didn't click when you said that previously.
So I'm guessing the Smart Hub doesn't do that.
It has a much faster CPU so it can handle the PPPoE and also the line speed.
My old Draytek I used on ADSL (22 Mbps) didn't cope with my FTTC speeds of 60 Mbps for similar reasons. As you go faster and faster, the CPU in the router needs to be able to cope.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
Edited by jchamier (Thu 18-Jun-20 12:54:13)
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My old Draytek I used on ADSL (22 Mbps) didn't cope with my FTTC speeds of 60 Mbps for similar reasons. As you go faster and faster, the CPU in the router needs to be able to cope.
Also the amount of devices and features like wifi can bring down older or cheaper wifi routers.
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Also the amount of devices and features like wifi can bring down older or cheaper wifi routers. It can, but that is really poor engineering. Some of the original ISP devices had these issues, which is why some ISP support staff say "wow, you have 30 devices" and panic. When in a home with 4 people 30 devices is not very much at all.
20 years of broadband connectivity since 1999 trial - Live BQM
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