Do people really not know what type of Fibre they have?

Most people on these forums already know if they have FTTC or FTTP, yet in the real world other people do not know or possibly do not even care as long as they can google something, do online banking and get their emails.

I’ve recently move into a rented property after the sale of my house (the property I was buying fell through). My previous property only had FTTC at around 37 Mbps but I knew that Quickline Alt Net were coming to the area within the next couple of years and was able to pass this info onto the new owners. I had previously checked that my rented property had full fibre, so currently enjoying 900 Mbps which is amazing and a game changer when working from home. However, trying to find my next property is difficult enough without constantly finding out the information published by Estate Agents and the likes of Rightmove are incorrect!

As for this rant, today I found a promising place that had just been put on Rightmove, scrolled down under Broadband Speeds Available and it shows Ultrafast 900Mb. Luckily this time I decided to check first the postcode and address first before making a viewing appointment but hey presto only FTTC available, no plans to build FTTP to this property yet. I phoned the Estate Agent, who then phoned the owners, apparently they didn’t know the difference, all they knew was they had fibre!

I know the terminology and abbreviations are not helping either, such as FTTC, FTTP, FTTH, Part Fibre, Full Fibre etc, but do you think the likes of Openreach, Project Gigabit (GOV) and the Alt Nets should be doing a better job of advertising the differences and for people to easily check what they have? Surely a simple website with enter your postcode, select your address and the results of: This is what you have and this is what you can get?

End of rant.

A good rant, that.

I think it only gets sorted when people take the EA at their word for rental and then kick up merry hell when they have moved in, or when people get their offer accepted for purchase and then pull out before contract - or even get the buyer to confirm FTTP on a TA6 and then kick up for misdescription.

You are right about the descriptors. FTTC was always over sold as Fibre and will cause problems for decades. It should have been called Very Local ADSL or something along those lines.

In reply to a post by BB4Tickton:

Surely a simple website with enter your postcode, select your address and the results of: This is what you have and this is what you can get?

End of rant.

https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/index.php?tab=...

It's not down to the broadband providers to pro actively advise on people's house moves.

The problem is the industry confused things with 'fibre' early on and the regulators were pretending not to see it.
One of the major websites which listed this data used to use our data.. interesting that some are using self declaration now

Most people don't have a clue. I frequently see posts on social media asking what the wi-fi is like in a particular area; either when house-hunting or when they are having problems. All they know is that there is a box in the corner of their room that connects them to the internet; and many don't even understand what the internet is.
If they are able to do what they want to; they aren't particularly bothered.
My son-in-law's father was still using a pstn modem until very recently.

While I understand most people don't really care as long as they can surf and watch something on demand, but what is annoying me most is the fact the Rightmove are advertising a property saying that they can get 900 Mbps speeds (FTTP) when the property cannot get full fibre, which is very misleading. Anyone who doesn't know where to look, check and confirm could be caught out in this way.

Looked at a few premises with no full fibre or Virgin Media options and Rightmove is suggesting 900Mb

Oddly they do seem to get speed estimate better in the one place I checked where full is available.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Looked at a few premises with no full fibre or Virgin Media options and Rightmove is suggesting 900Mb

May be you could do an article on it to raise awareness.

I've checked every property for sale or rent in a local large village which has no FTTP, they mostly show as 'ask agent', two show as FTTC,

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Looked at a few premises with no full fibre or Virgin Media options and Rightmove is suggesting 900Mb

Oddly they do seem to get speed estimate better in the one place I checked where full is available.

It reverts to a simple hard earned truth ….

Never trust an estate agent.

Try CO13 0QX

FTTC area and while lightspeed nearby they are not on the road or next door road

Ultrafast

900Mb

Average download speed of the fastest package at this postcode*

is what they say, but for Recommended Deals they show FTTC packages correctly.
My guess is they use a wider area than postcode let alone actual address

Buyer beware.

Many things are not checked by a surveyor when buying a property. Why should agents be any different.