Rant: My ISP's own fibre cabinet is being decommissioned

So, I need advice. My ISP (Glide) contacted me to say as my local council is developing new houses, their own fibre cabinet is being decommissioned because it's situated where the building will take place.

A bit of background. I waited years for decent internet, and in 2018 I learned fibre was coming to my area for 2019....... Now I'm gutted that this is being taken away from me, limiting what I do with my connection. I was unable to get fibre from OpenReach as my cabinet only serves a handful of premises - OpenReach, the tight-fisted wads, will not install a fibre cabinet. Fast-forward to 2018, I found that Glide (aka WarwickNet) were installing their own fibre cabinets where OpenReach won't and my road was one of those. I went live with them in November 2019, had 2 years of trouble-free 80/20, but now it is being taken away, and I need to go back to [censored] ADSL.

I am disabled and use the internet for everything. I also DJ. During these tough years, I started to stream every few days on Reddit to help with my anxiety. This news has made it worse.

In essence, unless I can get a decent connection from alternative ways offered by my ISP, who say UP TO 80/20, I will have to go back to ADSL speeds - ~8Mbit/0.65Mbit - yes, those were my speeds when I had ADSL, no joke...... If I do, I won't be able to stream, etc.

I'm not sure what to do - it's like giving away a Porsche and getting a Skoda in return...... I'm now depressed and heartbroken.. How can a council tell someone to decommission their equipment just willy-nilly affecting people's lives?!

Have you put in a formal objection to the plans? If not, DO IT NOW.


If they tell you it is too late, get onto your local councillors and ask them why you were not informed as you are an affected resident.

+1 as MHC says. You should suggest that developer pays to have the Glide cabinet relocated as a condition of any approvals or as a community investment fund - or indeed the lobby the local council to get funding to have FTTP installed as they are disadvantaging you as a disabled citizen in lieu of a developer that stands to make a healthy profit from their venture. I’m sure the local newspapers would have a field day.

How do I know who the developer is? I think it's my council. As I have had nothing to say what is being built.

Can't they move it?

It does NOT matter who te developer is, your council should consult with local residents and those affected by it.

Also, any developer would normally be responsible for rerouting and services that te developemnt interferes with. Can yiou imagine the uproar if they said "sorry, we are cutting te water main as it is in the way"

And what service level will be provided to te new properties? People will not be happy it they find they only get slow ADSL.

You should approach the planning department in council. Any development whether private or by council themselves will need to be logged on their publicly accessible planning portal before it gets decided. Typically a max of 8 weeks from lodgement/ verification before a planning decision is made I believe. There will be a public consultation period included within the development consideration period.

I've only got the notice today saying they're giving me 30 days to move away.

What do they mean by "move away"? You move house, or migrate your broadband?

What is mobile reception where you are? Check out this page. I'm now using their current ZTE MF286D 4G+ router (as of last week) and a speedtest.net test just now gave 113/19.6Mbps.

(Sig update needed).

In reply to a post by pluralist:

What do they mean by "move away"? You move house, or migrate your broadband?

Migrate.

I'm not using "mobile" internet if this is what sort of thing I'll get https://imgur.com/KiQ2Pku

I checked the link and got "We're busy expanding our network to connect more homes"