Expertise help request for Flat & Fibre Installation issue

Firstly, thanks to anyone that takes the time to read this and provides help.

Last year I moved into a flat in a converted house. This conversion was completed circa 15 years ago and converted a large house into 6 flats. Therefore what would of been No 12 on the street is now 12A, 12B, 12C etc.

Unfortunately, FTTC is not available at the cabinet my flat is served by. FTTP has been rolled out amongst the town I live in. However, I am unable to order FTTP as it is showing as unavailable to my flat. Subsequently I've had to order basic broadband which I have been using for the past 4months or so and it is driving me up the wall, while making it a real struggle to work from home effectively.

With the pain this is causing me I’ve been trying to do some digging to understand why I can’t get FTTP. I know it is available to my full street and when manually using the BT DSL/address checker I discovered FTTP is available to order to only one of the six flats, 12A. I did note the address checker shows the service information as "Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG partial Direct In Ground" Putting in any of the other flats into BT address checker show FTTP as unavailable.

This leads me to believe this is an administrative error, where the building is not properly recognised as six flats and therefore is not available to order. This belief is further backed up from speaking to an openreach engineer who was onsite at the flats completing some fibre installation works. He assured me that it would be straightforward to connect my flat and couldn’t see any physical limitations.

I submitted a request to openreach directly about this in November but have received no response, even when chasing up on twitter. I've also contacted the BT FTTP team directly about the issue and have received little to no help. Often getting passed around the houses before eventually getting hung up on as no one really seems to know what to do with me.

There's also a thread open on BTs forum about this: https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/Flat-... This thread has images of the address checker results for my flat and the flat that can order FTTP with personal information blanked out.

If anyone has any suggestions on alternative approaches to take in resolving this matter it would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if it's just a case of trying to "prod" the right person and it can be an easy fix or if there is a physical issue needing addressed to enable me to order FTTP.

Thanks in advance

Have your tried completing the Openreach Availability Checker Enquiry customer form - with the reason"I cannot get fibre but my neighbours can" from the dropdown menu?

Also ensure that you have the freeholders consent (as appropriate) as Openreach will require consent of the "land owner" in the case of wayleaves etc. This could be an underlying blocker, you just need to be aware of what could be needed in your particular situation in respect of common areas, external building fabric, drilling holes, ductings etc, etc.

Yes that’s the exact form I completed and submitted at the start of November detailing this issue. Unfortunately I’ve not received any response from openreach other than to say they are looking into it. I was told to open a new case by their Twitter adviser but this isn’t possible as it automatically closes any duplicate enquiries for the same address.

Take on board what you say about the drilling etc. However I’m sure from speaking to other residents we could easily sort a wayleave out, just need to get that far.

Thanks for the response .

Have you written to the Openreach senior escalations team, via the CEO?

How would I do that? Is there an email address, I can’t see anything immediately obvious.

Send a factual, polite email to [removed by tbb] clearly stating all the details etc

The senior escalations teams will pick it up and your ought to have correspnnce from them = in the next few days. Hopefully with a path to resolution!

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:39:04)

[removed by tbb] should get the team, they intercept any customer emails and divert to the team.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:39:10)

Thank you both. I’ll try and pursue that avenue hopefully I can get some response from openreach.

Complete this form which goes to the MDU helpdesk

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-for-...

If one out of 6 flats can get it but the others can't your best going down the CEO escalation path as suggested by others, I can't believe its a wayleave issue by the fact that one can get it. Don't let them fob you off as something is clearly wrong with this. A possible blocker that they may need to be overcome is infrastructure capacity for the extra flats as it may not have been factored in during planning and the build phases.

Perhaps the thinking is that if flat A takes a service, a single drop cable can be taken from underground CBT to the front of the building and installed as it would be in a single dwelling.

If other flats want service then would Openreach want to install a CBT on the wall of the building? I presume a wayleave would be sought in this case.

No, because this new CBT would still need to be linked all the way back to the splitter node. e.g. an 8-port CBT needs a cable carrying 8 fibre strands.

In reply to a post by ft247:

If other flats want service then would Openreach want to install a CBT on the wall of the building? I presume a wayleave would be sought in this case.

But other flats can't order so not sure how above would work. The building is also UG and partly DIG so this needs to be resolved even for the flat that can order FTTP

But that information is out of date anyway, given that it still says it's an SDU. I suspect at FTTP planning time they were unaware that it had been converted into an MDU.

A friend has the same issue, he lives in a large building which is 4 flats, A can get FTTP via OH - rest B, C and D show no FTTP,. I've told him if one can get it they all can, but he's happy on Virgin for now.

Edited by BuckleZ (Fri 21-Jan-22 16:30:44)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

But that information is out of date anyway, given that it still says it's an SDU. I suspect at FTTP planning time they were unaware that it had been converted into an MDU.

True

I'm not sure how helpful this info is but a Openreach engineer was on site sometime in November pulling cable for a fibre install. (I can only assume 12A has ordered FTTP with it being available to only them). Knowing the issues I have getting FTTP I took the opportunity to speak to him, asking what would be involved if I was to get FTTP and if there was anything stopping me. He said it would be very straightforward.

For the installation he was working on he pulled the fibre cable through the main phone line ducting which goes from the pavement to the main building entrance. He then left a spool of this for another engineer to come back and complete the works. He said it would be easy to do the same to my flat and final connection would be simple due to being ground floor very close to where the ducting comes out the ground.

Finally for information I live in Scotland and have absolute ownership of my property, no leasehold, should this make a difference with wayleaves etc.

In reply to a post by mafd:

I'm not sure how helpful this info is but a Openreach engineer was on site sometime in November pulling cable for a fibre install. (I can only assume 12A has ordered FTTP with it being available to only them).

Check 12A on the address checker. It should say "ONT exists with active service" if FTTP is live.

All, thanks for your help.

After emailing Openreach CEO I have received a call from Openreach customer service. The person was an ex engineer and was equally perplexed about this issue. They have emailed the local fibre manager for the area with a plan to get an engineer on the ground and confirm what’s what. Hopefully this will be a big step forward.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

No, because this new CBT would still need to be linked all the way back to the splitter node. e.g. an 8-port CBT needs a cable carrying 8 fibre strands.

Of course - but in some areas I have seen this method in use on MDUs made from subdivided large houses. I'm not suggesting they'd be connected to the same place.

I wonder what the threshold is between 'several UG drop cables through duct from CBT in footway chamber' and 'CBT pulled all the way to MDU wall'.

I've never seen a CBT mounted that way - have you? Normally they are underground or on top of a pole, to avoid tampering.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I've never seen a CBT mounted that way - have you? Normally they are underground or on top of a pole, to avoid tampering.

Many, and at different ends of the UK too - from council-built flats, to terraced commercial street, to large houses subdivided into flats. In most cases near an old copper DP - which may be my answer in this case, if the DP remains underground which is likely. I can see individual cables to footway box CBT making sense for a 2-3 flat conversion, but 6 is a large number and I'm pretty sure I've seen 4 port CBTs on commercial terraces.

I hope Openreach have something in the works to stop them looking horrific. They're fine up a pole but CBTs look awful on buildings once the ports start filling up.

Here is an example of a CBT on a building. A Grade II Listed Building to be exact! https://ancient-mariner.co.uk/public/Record%20Office...

It was not there when this photo was taken, https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300000019-count... - just above the green bin.

Cheers!

How lovely - not

Thanks Clive, I'll have to remember to insist they put mine on the front wall, maybe I could make a feature of it with some flashing lights

Oh my, listed building or not thats a shambles.

Not exclusive to the telco industry mind you


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