Fibre Issues - New Home

Hi all,

My wife and I have recently had an offer accepted for a new home, and currently going through the motions re mortgage and solicitors etc. Whilst that has been going through, I have been looking at internet options and have hit a bit of a stumbling block - the new house is in a relatively rural area, a small village a few miles outside of Oxford, and the internet options aren't great.

I had a look on the Openreach website and it shows fibre isn't available yet, but is starting to be rolled out. In a panic, we then contacted the sellers through the estate agent to see what they do internet wise, and they have told us (with a speed test for evidence) that they get fibre through BT at about 70mbps.

I did a search on the BT Wholesale search and it shows the local cabinet is FTTC enabled, though there is a waiting list. I assume therefore that the Openreach site is incorrect, and that the cabinet is full? I have called BT too who have said this property does currently have fibre available, but the houses either side don't, again leading me to believe the cabinet is full.

My question is, if we move into this address and order through BT, as there is already a fibre line, will we be ok? Is there any way someone else could hijack that and we end up with ADSL at 2mbps? The guy at BT described it as a parking space, which makes sense but also does worry me - how many times have you had your indicator on but someone else has jumped in to the spot! I have asked BT this exact question, and they got very cagey.

Is there anything we can do to ensure we get fibre? Is the fact there is an open line there enough, and if we order before the sellers cancel enough to secure the line? Probably all sounds quite petty but what with working from home nowadays (and my many smart home products!) fibre is a must.

All seems very odd what with the Openreach website showing as not available in general - perhaps fibre is new to the area, I don't know - but any helps or tips would be greatly appreciated (to note, I do have an outstanding call open with Openreach to see if the cabinet - which is cabinet 9 in Cumnor - will be upgraded, so time will tell on that).

Thanks!

Not much that you can do - if they are moving the contreact will be ceased and FTTC passed to next on the wait list.

You could get inventive and would depend on where the others are moving to. If they do not want their existing number, then no reason why they cannot continue service at that house even after moving out - but you would need to have an agreement with them to pay the charges &c. And port your old number to VOIP ...

Then when the cabinet upgrade happens - they cancel and you install.

Thanks for your reply MHC - that is what I feared the response would be!

How would someone go about getting on the wait list? I've seen other places that some providers do a wait list and some don't - all sounds very confusing. Annoying to me if this is the case, BT were more than happy to take my money and sign me up when I spoke to them - signing me up to a product they may not be able to supply?

Get your firm/ s who you work for to pay for FTTP/OD or Leased line if they want you to work from home.

Down to the retailer you order, no-one seems to particularly use it, or at least no-one talks about it.

On the Fibre messaging, suspect you may be confusing FTTP (full fibre) with partial fibre (FTTC/VDSL2), since sounds like you are talking about VDSL2

In reply to a post by TJM87:

Thanks for your reply MHC - that is what I feared the response would be!

How would someone go about getting on the wait list? I've seen other places that some providers do a wait list and some don't - all sounds very confusing. Annoying to me if this is the case, BT were more than happy to take my money and sign me up when I spoke to them - signing me up to a product they may not be able to supply?

You place an order.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Not much that you can do - if they are moving the contreact will be ceased and FTTC passed to next on the wait list.

You could get inventive and would depend on where the others are moving to.

If they're moving out of area and/or don't want their number, best option is a working line take over. It'll retain the port and can be re-numbered at the same time.

Matt

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In reply to a post by TJM87:

Thanks for your reply MHC - that is what I feared the response would be!

How would someone go about getting on the wait list? I've seen other places that some providers do a wait list and some don't - all sounds very confusing. Annoying to me if this is the case, BT were more than happy to take my money and sign me up when I spoke to them - signing me up to a product they may not be able to supply?

You place an order.

The waiting list isn't automated in anyway.

Do you know many people who have multi-thousand pound FTTPoD or leased line installations paid for by their employer? In my experience people are given the opportunity to work from home and if their home environment isn't up to the task then they are given the option of going into the office.

Gigaclear have a presence in the rural areas around Oxford - have you checked whether they are anywhere near your property?

Thank you all for your replies.

Sadly working in Local Government there's not a chance my employer would pay for anything, let alone anything expensive!

I have never heard of Gigaclear before, just done a search and unfortunately not available in the area, though I have registered interest - thank you for the suggestion.

Interestingly, Vodafone and TalkTalk are both showing on their website that I can get fibre with them (at the moment - though too early in our purchase to actually order) - is it possible that they have open ports not being used? I don't understand why some can offer it and some can't? Or would that be another case of put an order in then all of a sudden they can't offer the product?

All of this is so frustrating - the price you pay for rural living I guess. I am exploring other options too, 4g routers etc., which whilst not ideal, may have to suffice!

I suspect Voda and TalkTalk haven't done the onward check of capacity and that they would probably end up putting you on ADSL until a fibre port became available.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Do you know many people who have multi-thousand pound FTTPoD or leased line installations paid for by their employer?

Yes thank you I do, and they all work for very good firms.

And how long did all these people have to wait from start of process to having FTTP up and running?

Couldn't you just have the current owners change the name on the bill and swap over the direct debit details with the ISP? I'm sure the vendors would be willing to play along if they thought it was going to affect the sale.

TJM87

please can you confirm if this a new home for you or a new home as in a new developement - if this is a new development it is liley that anumber of your fellow buyers of neigbouring properties migth be in the same scenario is the developer still on site

Typically you would place an order, some ISPs will be upfront and not allow you to place a fibre order. Talktalk often will place the fibre order and check availability after, retry a few times before offering you ADSL until a port becomes available.

This has been a challenge in the past with talktalk where they won’t allow an upgrade in your first 3 months of service so people end up stuck on ADSL despite a port becoming free. I’m not sure if this has changed. I’d be cautious of taking an order with them for this reason.

The waitlist isn’t really used, it’s a case of seeing it’s available, and placing your order ASAP.

Original post answers your question:

I had a look on the Openreach website and it shows fibre isn't available yet, but is starting to be rolled out. In a panic, we then contacted the sellers through the estate agent to see what they do internet wise, and they have told us (with a speed test for evidence) that they get fibre through BT at about 70mbps.

Re...And how long did all these people have to wait from start of process to having FTTP up and running?


Think they are on least lines though one maybe FTTP/od, but will ask when I see them, I am 'Shielding' so not sure when that will be.

Edited by APTMAN (Wed 02-Dec-20 10:05:16)

In reply to a post by chrisdev:

Couldn't you just have the current owners change the name on the bill and swap over the direct debit details with the ISP? I'm sure the vendors would be willing to play along if they thought it was going to affect the sale.

I think this is probably the safest option. You would have to be a pretty small minded seller not to cooperate. You might not be on your preferred ISP but unless you want a static IP address or IPv6 they are all much of a muchness in terms of performance.

One thing is to post the exchange and cabinet number that you would be on and someone on the forum might be able to tell you if/when any cabinet upgrades are scheduled.

Thank you all for your help - I will try going down the route of asking the sellers to transfer to us - though thinking about it, the property they are moving to is in the same village, so they may well come under the same cabinet!

Failing that I guess it's a matter of wait and see.. hopefully we will catch something.

If anyone can tell if there are any upgrades planned then that would be great, the exchange is Cumnor - cabinet 9.

Unlikely to be successful as they may well want to retain their number!

UNO mentioned "Working Line TakeOver" - might be worth exploring to see if it will work.

I cant see being at capacity so any availability issue is going to be temporary

You might be shielding but surely you can use your ultra fast FTTPoD/ Leased Line to contact them and ask them - I don't think Covid-19 travels over optical fibre

In reply to a post by Squirrel:

You might be shielding but surely you can use your ultra fast FTTPoD/ Leased Line to contact them and ask them - I don't think Covid-19 travels over optical fibre

I am on ADSL2

Wondering if you ever resolved this?

We have just had an offer accepted and are in exactly the same boat, albeit with Sky instead of BT. The current owners are moving within the village, but I THINK their new place is served by a different cabinet so really hoping there turns out to be an easy solution!

Thanks!

In reply to a post by TJM87:

Hi all,

My wife and I have recently had an offer accepted for a new home, and currently going through the motions re mortgage and solicitors etc. Whilst that has been going through, I have been looking at internet options and have hit a bit of a stumbling block - the new house is in a relatively rural area, a small village a few miles outside of Oxford, and the internet options aren't great.

I had a look on the Openreach website and it shows fibre isn't available yet, but is starting to be rolled out. In a panic, we then contacted the sellers through the estate agent to see what they do internet wise, and they have told us (with a speed test for evidence) that they get fibre through BT at about 70mbps.

I did a search on the BT Wholesale search and it shows the local cabinet is FTTC enabled, though there is a waiting list. I assume therefore that the Openreach site is incorrect, and that the cabinet is full? I have called BT too who have said this property does currently have fibre available, but the houses either side don't, again leading me to believe the cabinet is full.

My question is, if we move into this address and order through BT, as there is already a fibre line, will we be ok? Is there any way someone else could hijack that and we end up with ADSL at 2mbps? The guy at BT described it as a parking space, which makes sense but also does worry me - how many times have you had your indicator on but someone else has jumped in to the spot! I have asked BT this exact question, and they got very cagey.

Is there anything we can do to ensure we get fibre? Is the fact there is an open line there enough, and if we order before the sellers cancel enough to secure the line? Probably all sounds quite petty but what with working from home nowadays (and my many smart home products!) fibre is a must.

All seems very odd what with the Openreach website showing as not available in general - perhaps fibre is new to the area, I don't know - but any helps or tips would be greatly appreciated (to note, I do have an outstanding call open with Openreach to see if the cabinet - which is cabinet 9 in Cumnor - will be upgraded, so time will tell on that).

Thanks!

Post deleted by kitcat

bananna

See UNO's post, Take over the working line, this will keep everything as is ( the line can be renumbered if required then or later) except the person being billed.

Just make it a condition of the sale that the seller does not cease the line!.

What happens if the previous owner does a house move of the line - usually house moves can be done at no cost so when moving home it would be pretty common to initiate a house move which would automatically cancel the old service.

You would have to include this, as said above, in the conditions of sale.

Essentially it’s a negotiable aspect of the sale and the existing owner may want to be reimbursed for this.