Flat Fibre Phenomenon... Help?

Good Morning All! It has been a long Time since I've Posted.

Now then, as always with me, nothing is ever simple when it comes to the internet installation world. I am, atleast will be moving into mine and my partners first holy abode at the end of this month and, I am trying to get the internet sorted.

We are going to be (as spoiled in the Subject) moving into a block of flats, or rather; a street of 2 blocks of flats either side.

evidently I automatically assumed, ahh! Brilliant! Fibre! *Eyes Lit Up*. Though this is where I had an instant kick to the teeth when This came up on BT's Wholesale Checker. As you can see, the second image on there is in the same block of flats, yet is connected to CAB 20 and has fibre. Ours However does not.

I've looked into how far the exchange is away from our block in case we was on a horrid EOL. But, no we are well over the 0.3Mi cut off for EO Lines. So, to put it simple, what the heck is going on here? All broadband providers are showing a max speed of 11Mbps and there is no way I can use that as I work from home on occasions and need speed for remote access etc.

Sadly, at present I don't even have a landline number to get a more accurate reading of possible speeds. Could it be that, from Flat 129 onward; Fibre hasn't been ported over to a cabinet for them? Am I just unlucky to not have the luck of being able to be ported over? It's the first time i've ever had this occur with a BT Line. I've heard of it happening with VM but not this.

I apologise I don't really have a TL;DR and it might be a little confusing. I will also be giving BT a ring today to see if they have any secrets into this wild ride.

Thanks all, any questions let me know.

CAB20 could be full so you would have to wait for someone to cease their service and hope to be the first to order a service to fill the gap. In the meantime all that can be offered is the slower ADSL service which is copper all the way from the exchange. Would a mobile internet connection meet your needs? A number of posters have ditched their overland connections and use the mobile signal paying the same or less than their landline connection.

PS If you are being served through a cabinet, you have what the publicity machine calls fibre but is actually the much cheaper halfway-house option of fibre for part of the connection but old-style copper for the link into your flat. Real fibre (FTTP) would be connected straight into your flat without the intervention of the cabinet and offer you download speeds up to 1Gbps (1000Mbps) - subject to the plans available from your provider.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

CAB20 could be full so you would have to wait for someone to cease their service

That's not it. If it were, the property would be shown as cab 20 and "wait list".

According to the database, it seems this is an EO line. There is no maximum or minimum distance for EO lines.

However, database errors are not unknown. Get your intended service provider to check with Openreach. Alternatively, fill in the Openreach enquiry form with reason "I cannot get fibre but my neighbours can" - although you might have to wait some weeks for a reply. ("Fibre" in this context means either FTTC or FTTP)

But if you are indeed on an EO line, then ADSL is all that's available to you, until such time as Openreach decide to upgrade you, or there's an altnet building in your area.

You have no cabinet listed, so you are on an exchange only line. Openreach were previously putting cabinets outside exchanges to deliver FTTC but that is unlikely to happen now that the focus is on FTTP.

From the looks of things your options are to see if a company like Hyperoptic is interested or to look at 4G/5G options.

Edit: The other option is the Openreach MDU desk, as you are surrounded by FTTP. Gather the details of the management company for the flat and submit them to https://openreach.co.uk/fibreformybuilding

Edited by jpm (Mon 22-Aug-22 13:24:23)

In reply to a post by jpm:

Edit: The other option is the Openreach MDU desk, as you are surrounded by FTTP.

The posted screenshot for the nearby property showed only FTTC, not FTTP.

However, there does seem to be wide coverage of Openreach FTTP in Dereham:
https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=...

It's possible that these MDUs were missed out due to the landlord refusing to provide wayleave.

But, no we are well over the 0.3Mi cut off for EO Lines.

What a bizarre statement, what I do did you base the we above on ?

I have known 7k EO lines, and heard of longer.

Thank you everyone for the information. Even BT was very surprised to see the situation in hand. I will also fill in the form for Openreach to look into. However, Candlerb Appreciate that, I did notice the amount of FTTP installations in Dereham. Thought when looking up the Exchange on SamKnows it states that it isn't available. I've got Mobile 5G Broadband coming for now until I figure this mess out.

SamKnows is very out of date for such data

Have you checked if the likes of Hyperoptic, or another AltNet fibre ISP have installed in the building?

For such a large number of flats there are multiple distribution points spread over 2 cabinets. At least one appears to directly fed (EO).

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by jpm:

Edit: The other option is the Openreach MDU desk, as you are surrounded by FTTP.

The posted screenshot for the nearby property showed only FTTC, not FTTP..

That wasn't a nearby property, that was the same block of flats. Checking single-dwelling residences nearby show high levels of Openreach FTTP availability.

So, again Thanks everyone for all the information given.

I have recently today received response back from Openreach, regarding why we are in a NotSpot for fibre.

Turns out as some of you have already told me, we are on in fact a Exchange Only Line. My worst nightmare.

However, to my surprise it WAS as well as others in my situation, part of the initial Fibre Rollout.
Only to be told it was cancelled. No reason to why; not even an incline.

I have attached the email Here where you can have a read. They also mentioned FTTP On Demand, which confuses me because they would still have to do work in the area, if that were the issue.

Also, a side note... I am not near any major roads neither do we have any hazards that i am aware of stopping openreach from installing and upgrading the rest of the area.

Very mindboggling indeed.

Only to be told it was cancelled. No reason to why;

Can you communicate with the freeholder of the flats? They may be able to confirm some further background, especially if they were approached for any wayleaves or other consents for Openreach to run FTTP into the building(s). Ditto the neighbours.

There may be other reasons why Openreach skipped the buildings that these folks may know of. This may help you to then move the matter forward if you know what is blocking or disinclining Openreach from installing there.

In reply to a post by IamFibremad:

They also mentioned FTTP On Demand, which confuses me because they would still have to do work in the area, if that were the issue.

FTTP On Demand isn't available to you anyway, because it's not available to MDUs. This must be a left-over paragraph from a standard form response, that they forgot to remove.

Interesting that they're still promoting it though, given that recently they were considering abandoning it (but since changed their mind)