Fibre, when?!

Hi all,

Old user from years gone by just thinking about our connection, having recently moved to Plusnet.

Plusnet are good and no issues BUT for some reason we *still* don't have an option of true, high-speed fibre.

We apparently have some form of fibre but not to the premises so are limited to about 55Mbps down and about 12 up.

This would have been fast when i was active here in the early 2000's but now, given we have two of us working from home, i run a number of self-hosted services, we have umpteen connected devices (understated there i think) we're finding this a bit problematic at times.

Simply trying to find out, if i can, when we might expect an upgrade locally so we can move to a faster connection.

Used to be some resources showing planned upgrades but i have no idea these days, having really not kept up with developments in the market.

Anyone able to point me to something, concrete or even speculative that might give us an idea?

Thanks!

Try popping your postcode in here: https://bidb.uk/

It will show you any telecom related work being done locally, so you can see if any work is being done by Openreach or the various Altnets.

At the moment that site can't show details of what work is being done, but this site can (when it's working, which isn't always): https://mastdatabase.co.uk/maps/streetworks/

For Openreach, you can check their plans here: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when...

Cheers,
Andy

In reply to a post by AndyPandy:

Try popping your postcode in here: https://bidb.uk/

It will show you any telecom related work being done locally, so you can see if any work is being done by Openreach or the various Altnets.

At the moment that site can't show details of what work is being done, but this site can (when it's working, which isn't always): https://mastdatabase.co.uk/maps/streetworks/

For Openreach, you can check their plans here: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when...

Cheers,
Andy

Thanks Andy,

Really helpful. So the first link shows no providers live or planned and no current streeworks on the other site.

Openreach just confirms we have the best of what is available here at present.

Did read that openreach had planned to have everywhere on Fibre by end of 2026 but the cynic in me thinks they'd consider whatever variant they're offering us right now will probably meet their criteria.

I'm assuming its FTTC as it definitely isn't FTTP but given the cabinet is about 1km away i'm dubious as i'd expect better line speeds - although in the back of my mind, i think properties built around the time ours was were using aluminium lines rather than copper and that affects speeds - but we're going way into the recesses of my memory!

So i guess we're lumbered with sub-optimal provision for the foreseeable.

Still, good to be able to check and will keep an eye on those sites going forwards.

55Mbps over a 1Km loop length is pretty decent.

And no, the 2026 targets are FTTP, FTTC doesn't qualify.

In reply to a post by jpm:

55Mbps over a 1Km loop length is pretty decent.

And no, the 2026 targets are FTTP, FTTC doesn't qualify.

Pretty sure the 2026 target also doesn't say FTTP would be everywhere.

You can also see current and future works on this site.

https://one.network/public

You can also check this https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/broadband-coverage#
It would show lists of existing available networks Networks in your area -
Of-course it isn't always accurate as sometimes it might show networks as available when they are not and networks that are available may not show up.

You can also have a look at the ISPs like Hyperoptic to see if it shows as planned. Openreach for me doesn't show as planned yet even though my Bishopsgate Exchange may show as plan.

There's also a case of wayleave agreement where one provider may show wayleave agreed but not agreed for another. Like in my case wayleave agreed and we have Community Fibre live but Openreach FTTP is not as my management did not agree permission for them a few years ago.

However, last month I received a letter by post from SCCI Alphatrack saying a wayleave agreement has happened for Nexfibre and Virgin Media will soon come as my second FTTP overbuild after Community Fibre! That for me was a surprise but not enough information is shown anywhere. However, it looks like they did do some works in my area but I saw Vorboss vans installing Fibre night time at 12am a few weeks ago but usually Vorboss deal with Business installations but the road works for one.network and bidb.uk were both showing as Nexfibre for that particular date and time.

So, if you don't have existing Virgin Media DOCSIS service there's a strong possibility of you getting upgraded to Nexfibre, which will be Virgin Media FTTP currently with plans to offer more wholesale network providers for future.

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by jpm:

55Mbps over a 1Km loop length is pretty decent.

And no, the 2026 targets are FTTP, FTTC doesn't qualify.

Pretty sure the 2026 target also doesn't say FTTP would be everywhere.

Agreed, there's no 2026 target for 'FTTP everywhere'..

However, as jpm says, 55Mbp over an FTTC 1km copper loop seems pretty good..

The OP might want to consider a second FTTC service, given there are two people working from home and they're "finding this a bit problematic at times".

Edited by binary (Fri 26-Jul-24 03:18:11)