The problem being that in blocks of flats the comms feeds are likely to be in a room not accessible except by the freeholder of the property. You can't have direct fibre feeds up the wall of a tower block., or even a relatively low-rise building. You couldn't even get enough fibres to them.

In London the AltNets have had the MDU market to themselves. Hyperoptic, G.Network and Community Fibre seem to have the lions share.

Openreach are barely on the scene.

I guess it depends if you have a block with common services. Small blocks of up to 3 floors don’t seem to around here. Maybe those built since 2010 might?

Openreach and Virgin have no problems running wires up the side of buildings here.

Edited by jchamier (Sat 26-Jun-21 13:39:16)

It is very common for the cupboards holding services, electricity, telephony, etc to be accessed via a commonly held key. The cabling often goes up through risers .. the main issue being getting from these riser cupboards to the individual properties.

Regulations have changed a lot also, fireproof fixings, firestopping of holes between floors etc, it all costs extra.

‘Invisible-light’ fibre cables are a nice idea, thin enough to be glued unobtrusively on the skirting lines, nice idea, but in two blocks I visited where it had retrospectively fitted, there were faults aplenty. Often meaning many hours to rerun a new feed into the flat, using more robust eezee bend cables.

It’s a ball ache

Speaking to my brother about this and there is a "comms" coubord.

He sent a picture and it looks like it all SKY/TV coax into amps/splitters.

So there is somewhere for the kit to go for FTTP if needed.

That's good news .

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Renters & Leaseholders will be campaigning on their MPs to fix this mess. I had hoped this recent legislation would solve.

Looks like the actual mechanics of the ‘regulations’ that make the act enforceable, i.e. tribunal processes etc. are still in the consultation phase until August….

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consulta...

In reply to a post by candlerb:

MDUs are a pain to install, because they need the landlord's permission. I would guess that the landlord outright refused permission to install, or (almost as bad) simply did not respond to requests from Openreach.

There are potential legal avenues that Openreach can pursue, but they probably don't want to waste time fighting when they can move onto more productive projects.

Does seem the FTTP companies treat rentals different to normal telco companies.

There seems to be an assumption on cityfibre's checker for instance that a flat is rented (people can own flats), and that any flat is a HMO.

I did manage to get cityfibre to change their checker for my address, they said they would still roll their service out to these addresses (street works) even without the checker been changed, just they wouldnt do an install without a letter from the LL.

Are openreach been harsher then and not even doing the street works?

Just reread posts its as much about ground ownership as the building so leasehold flat owners also affected, yeah this is a mess, but I think cityfibre are at least still doing the streetworks, installing the little boxes outside of each property. on the pavement.

I wonder if this is why openreach skipped Leicester, the city is largely a mixture of social rented properties and terraced housing much of which is rented.

Edited by Chrysalis (Thu 01-Jul-21 17:15:06)

MDU's are complex. Irrespective of the ownership status of the individual dwelling, the common and communal areas will either be owned by a freeholder or perhaps in some sort of shared ownership.

So for the communications companies, there is a need to get permission (wayleave) from the body authorised on behalf of the "owner" of these shared/common/communal areas to install cabling etc. This is where matters typically come unstuck.

The new legislation which was passed earlier this year is an attempt by government to unblock this (pardon the pun) situation for the service providers, where the engagement with the 'landlord' is stalled or they are unresponsive. my understanding, is that presently the lower level processes and procedures (as noted in my post above) are yet to be agreed and properly formulated - like the tribunal process for non-responsive landlords. So although the act itself is law, its not really yet effective as there are no real mechanisms in place with industry and land owners (yet) for it to work.

Watched BNI building a splitter node this morning outside a long row of MDUs near Penarth Marina ( 4 -6 stories. high). They have been doing most of the FTTP work in and around Cardiff. There are no single dwellings around there so I assume some places they are succeeding in getting permission.