OpenReach fttp box serial number to Property Address link??

Background:
We recently moved to a new build with house number 5.
Next door is a mirror image of our property, with house number 5A.

The plot on which both houses now sit used to have a single dwelling on it, designated as number 5.

I am told that our property (number 5) is on the open reach national database ... but ...

Is there a way to check that the serial number on the open reach fttp box inside the house (the one with the PON, LAN, LOS etc lights on) is actually registered to our house & not to 5A?

I ask because we have already run into a similar problem with our gas supply .. the meter attached to the side of our house is on the gas national database as if located on the wall of 5A, so it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the openreach kit is similarly misallocated.

And ...we have so far had 5 orders through BT "fail" before broadband is activated (building up an impressive pile of brand new BT kit as it seems they cannot start a new order without despatching another Smart Hub) & i'm now wondering if the successive staff we're talking to are matching our address to a FTTP capability, but maybe not to *our* specific Openreach hub thing.

Sorry if i sound non techie ... i'm an accountant, not an IT expert.

Thank you (hopefully!)
Suz

Does the ONT have a solid PON light lit on it ?

More often than not , with newsites , the address is known by its plot number rather than the house number ( when Openreach install the FTTP equipment ) , but your suspicion that the two addresses No5 and No.5A may be mixed up is quite likely, it also begs the question why would the developer chose to do something this , presumably there are no numbers 1A , 2A , 3A etc.
If you register and post on the BT Community forum , there is a specific FTTP contact number available , I’ve seen posts where customers using the serial number of the ONT installed at their address, can use that info to locate the actual installation, useful when there is confusion with addresses or the incorrect ONT serial number was recorded against the address .

As already requested, what is the status of the ONT LEDs , if the PON light is solid green , then the ONT is authenticated, so it probably is some data error, and not a physical problem

Edited by Iniltous (Wed 20-Dec-23 21:33:16)

On the BT Wholesale checker https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/ if you select the Address Checker option and enter only the postcode does both 5 and 5A appear in the list of possible addresses? If so another check you can make is if the UPRN (the 12-digit number after the postcode, not the NAD key which begins with an A) matches your premises.

Aaah. My property, number 5 does appear, but 5A does not. This is great news, as that property is not yet finished & I suspect no openreach box will have been installed yet.
The featured product list umder my address says
WBC FTTP Available, FTTP Install process 1 Stage, so i'm guessing this is good news!

It does indeed!

I'm starting to think that the problem is with BT (the intended broadband provider) rather than OpenReach (in spite of being told it was a "technical issue" ... which wpuld be brilliant news as I can sign up with a different provider & hopefully get connected within a week or so.

What does it say at the bottom? You should see something like "ONT exists with no active service. A spare port is available. A new ONT may be ordered." if Openreach are aware that an ONT is already installed.

It may also be worth doing a UPRN check, you can find that number at https://www.findmyaddress.co.uk/

BUT
Following on my my prior "Happy Me" post ... your advice to check the UPRN CODE was sound.
The code given on number 5 on the BT address finder by postcode list, when entered on the Findmyaddress.co.uk website returns an error .... Historical Record not in use, which kinda makes sense if the original bungalow on the plot has been demolished.

Would this discrepancy be enough to throw an openreach order out?

I can get the correct UPRN from the Findmyaddress.co.uk website, but I dont know what I need to do to get the BT record updated (if thats what I need to do to stop these orders failing at the Install stage.

Any advice please?

P.s. this forum is awesome. I cant thank you all enough ... after several weeks of hitting my head against a brick wall I actually feel I might be getting some way aling the road to.understanding the issue.

If you have a UPRN (the developer should have handled this with the council) then your chosen ISP need to do an ORDI request to Openreach to get their records updated. They are possibly using the old UPRN for number 5 which doesn't match up with where they have put the ONT.

You can also put the UPRN into the BT Wholesale checker (it's at the bottom of the first screen) and see if those results differ from what you get with the address search.

Edited by jpm (Wed 20-Dec-23 23:40:21)

Suz two people have asked, "what colour is the pon light on the ont" ........this helps us to understand the what work has been done or needs to be done

Apologies missed the "what colour" query.
The PON light is on, fixed (not flashing) GREEN

I'll try that next (search on UPRN on the BT wholesale site)... watch this space

The UPRN checker for the NEW property at number 5 returns an error message of UPRN
xxxxxxx on exchange Unknown, then underneath FTTP is not available.

So yes, the broadband check says fttp is available at number 5, but only on address lookup & using the UPRN of the demolished property.
If I search on the NEW UPRN for the NEW property, there's no broadband record.

I guess my next query is whether this matters. ... if the latest bb order has been placed with my new provider (ive gone with plus net because at least you can speak to a real person, not a chat bot) using my postal address, & the BT wholesale site, looking up the address, not the UPRN, shows FTTP as available, is that good enough for an engineer to be able to switch the broadband service on?

I'm nervous about ringing PlusNet to ask them to contact BT to update the UPRN if this will just mess up everything again.

Yes, your wording, when searching on the ADDRESS for number 5 i.e. the OLD demolished property UPRN does have exactly the wording you have outlined above in the lower section.
Thank you.

It appears the ONT has been registered against the correct postal address, but at the UPRN of the bungalow that has been demolished, (previously known as number 5)

The new property, now using postal address of number 5, has no fibre connectivity IF that property is referred to by its correct, new UPRN.

SO, as queried above, the dilemma is whether to call Plus Net & get them to ask BT to update their matching of the ONT to the new property UPRN, or to leave well alone since the order has been placed using the correct property address, & on the BT Wholesale website, the old property address does have fibre (even if the property UPRN is incorrect!)

Arghhhhh. 😁

There may well be additional checks in the background that match the UPRN/NAD against the postal address, and that is causing your order to be cancelled, if you are effectively ordering against No5 ( the original building ) that no longer exists , your Plusnet order may well fail for the same reason .
The developer may not have completed the necessary registration for these two addresses , or there could be a lag between the information being registered and the and Openreach addressing systems being updated .

Your developer should be in contact with the Openreach ‘newsites representative’ called a FBC , field based coordinator, you could get the developer to check with the FBC what details OR have recorded for your property , the fact that the ONT is fitted and the PON light lit means the ‘newsites’ part has been successfully completed, , but perhaps the records are not upto date .
If the developer is something of a ‘one man band’ ’ perhaps the appropriate authority hasn’t yet been advised that there are now two addresses where there once was only one .

A possible short cut , on the BT Community Forum , there have been instances where customers, armed with the ONT serial number , contact a specific BT customer service number for the FTTP team , ( not the usual BT contact number ) who locate the already fitted ONT serial number within the FTTP systems ( the fact the PON is lit and steady signals that the ONT is ready to deliver service for the ISP ) and they ensure it is ‘matched’ against the BT account, ( the serial number is critical in identifying and providing service, irrespective of any address anomalies ) , obviously for this you would need a current BT order , and to register and post on the BT Community forum

https://www.geoplace.co.uk/street-naming-and-numberi...

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 21-Dec-23 08:43:41)

You don't *have* to order with BT of course, unless you're tied in with a BT contract at the old property and need to transfer it across.

I ordered FTTP with Aquiss, and their signup form asks you for the ONT serial number - which presumably they check in their back-end systems to confirm they are activating the correct location.

Long term though, whichever ISP you choose, you would ideally want to get them to update the OR database to have your new UPRN. Once 5A gets registered with *its* new UPRN, you don't want to be left with the old UPRN for 5. This is where having a clueful ISP helps, i.e. one where the helpdesk isn't staffed by people reading from scripts.

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

but your suspicion that the two addresses No5 and No.5A may be mixed up is quite likely, it also begs the question why would the developer chose to do something this ,

It's quite normal when properties are divided. What else would you expect?

Using all the really helpful responses on here, I called my new provider PlusNet this morning to talk through the previous installation fails via BT & to outline the mismatched Fttp / UPRN problem.
What a difference. The customer services lady actually knew what I was trying to say & didnt try to dismiss me with the standard BT line of "someone must have put the order into the system wrong, we'll start another order"... which naturally fails again some time later because no one has actually engaged brain & wondered why doing the same thing over & over again isnt leading to a different outcome!

Plusnet has run through their plan of action which sounds sensible ... request A key for property at correct UPRN, connect serial number of openreach box in my hallway to the correct UPRN & when it all lines up, we should be able to resubmit the activation request.

I know it will take longer to set up doing it all right, but better than waiting for another activation fail because all the data is on the wrong property in the back office admin databases.

Thanks again to everyone for your help & advice.
& i've learned so much along the way...bonus!

Happy christmas ... hopefully i'll have broadband i the New Year.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I ordered FTTP with Aquiss, and their signup form asks you for the ONT serial number - which presumably they check in their back-end systems to confirm they are activating the correct location.

Correct. We validate to make sure we are transferring or port restarting the same ONT as reported. Any issues, we then move to the correcting of data steps first.

In reply to a post by ParksidePeter:

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

but your suspicion that the two addresses No5 and No.5A may be mixed up is quite likely, it also begs the question why would the developer chose to do something this ,

It's quite normal when properties are divided. What else would you expect?

The property wasn’t divided though , it was demolished and replaced with 2 new ones.

I didn't initially appreciate the fact the this ‘new build’ was 2 properties built where one ( demolished) property once stood , I mistakenly assumed it to be a newsite , and part of a group of similar properties , rather than what it actually is , a pair of properties built on an existing plot, so although a ‘new build’ it’s not really a newsite ( well what Openreach considers a ‘newsite’ ), if this number scheme had been adopted on a ‘newsite’ , it would be pointlessly convoluted.

If the demolished property were known as No.5 and were replaced with 2 new properties ( as opposed to a new property simply being built in the grounds if the original property ) then calling the new properties 5A and 5B , and allowing No.5 to disappear as an address , rather than giving one of the new properties the address of the demolished property , namely No.5 , it would have been obvious that an address that didn’t exist was being selected at the point of ordering , but it’s all a little moot now and hopefully the OP is on route to getting service

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 21-Dec-23 21:07:27)

A building which is demolished and rebuilt can have its number re-used, so 5 and 5A is what I'd expect.

I did once have to find a house on a street where all the houses had names rather than numbers. Unfortunately they were not arranged in alphabetical order And this was before Google Maps and the like.