Island of FTTC among FTTP - how can I petition OpenReach

Hi everyone,

The title says it all… my house and about five of my neighbours are stuck on 30Mbps FTTC connections when every house and street around us can receive FTTP. I’m in central Windsor. I’ve checked all the websites, maps, checkers etc. and there are currently no plans for our houses to get FTTP. However, to my albeit untrained eye, the fix looks relatively simple, so I’m looking for advice on how to raise a raise / complain to OpenReach, and avoid simply getting fobbed off. Indeed, a home networking engineer who was at my house and who was ex-OpenReach himself took a look at the existing setup (which I have described below) and said “they would have taken one look at that, decided it was too difficult, and gone home for the day".

The copper lines to our houses come from a carrier telegraph pole (let’s call that pole A) and the maximum cable run is about 20m. The pole is relatively new - it was replaced in late 2023.

In turn, pole A is fed by a copper line from a telegraph pole on the neighbouring street (let’s call that pole B). Pole B is set up for FTTP and any house connected to it directly can order FTTP, and has been able to for over a year.

The copper line between pole A and pole B is, I’m assuming, where the problem lies - it runs over two private gardens, and the distance is about 30m. Could that be the issue? Is it simply too difficult to run a fibre cable to our pole A over two gardens?

Any suggestions as to who I can contact would be gratefully received. I have tried the ‘I can’t get FTTP but my neighbours can’ option on the OpenReach website a few times, but never to any avail.

Many thanks in advance.

Adam

In reply to a post by adamgilbride:

Indeed, a home networking engineer who was at my house and who was ex-OpenReach himself took a look at the existing setup (which I have described below) and said “they would have taken one look at that, decided it was too difficult, and gone home for the day".

So what was his explanation as to why? That might be the really valuable information.

Are these carrier poles in private gardens?

Simply that the copper line went over two private gardens!

Pole A (the carrier pole) is on the driveway of my next door neighbour, but access is dead easy. OpenReach have been there in the past doing work on it.

Pole B (on the neighbouring street) is on the street, not on private ground.

Last week we had fibre taken to one of our houses, it followed the route of the copper line, it started from a pole on private land crossed the road to a pole on roadside, went to second pole on roadside, crosses back over road to pole on our boundary, then to the house. Total length approx 70m, this was actually a shorter length than I had thought as the pole on private land was hidden from sight and I didn't know it had CBT's on it.

At the house I'm sitting in ATM, the nabours fibre crosses part of our garden, just as the previous copper did, as far as I remember the only permission asked was to cut back some branches.

I have the fibre drop (previously copper) to my neigbours coming over my garden. And OR can normally do that. A pole in a private garden will usually have a wayleave so OR can access it.

OR will usually disconnect the copper at the poles and the house, attach fibre to it and then use a winch to pull it all the way back via the carrier. I have an install that goes via a carrier - total length is 80m or more and no problems with length either.

At our business premises, the line runs across our domestic neighbours garden to our yard, which is enclosed on the other three sides. We recently had FTTP installed on the same route as the previous copper.
There must be something more than wayleaves that is preventing OR putting fibre in.

Edited by Bushy2025 (Tue 30-Dec-25 08:00:54)

Some time ago you stated a neighbouring pole had 28 (12+12+4) CBT ports on it, did you manage to work out how many properties are served by that pole.