Switching from Sky LLU to fibre

Hi,

A number of years ago we switched from our regular broadband provider (Tesco) to Sky as our service was very slow. Sky provide the service through LLU in our area and I noticed an increase in speed and reliability. Recently we have been informed that our area will soon be upgraded to fibre optic. As this is provided by Openreach, will I automatically be upgraded by Sky? Furthermore, will the service I receive be the same as that which would be provided by other providers such as BT? I assume that if I had to change back to BT from using a LLU provider then I would be charged.

Thanks

You will have to request and upgrade, but sky can provide FTTC in most cases, but they don't provide open reach FTTP if that is what open reach are providing

As witchunt says. (There are two types of Openreach fibre. Do you know which is being provided in your area and cabinet?)

Assuming it will be FTTC, then once the exchange is enabled it then requires your cabinet to be enabled. Normally only some of the cabinets of an exchange are enabled immediately, and the rest later. Some never are. Do you know which cabinet you are on?

ISPs using BT Wholesale can usually offer FTTC to enabled cabinets as soon as the user's exchange is enabled. Sky and TalkTalk users may have to wait a week or so after the exchange is enabled for those ISPs' kit to be linked to the Openreach FTTC panel in the exchange.

No ISP offers automatic upgrades to fibre, either FTTC or FTTP. It's a rather big step up in performance and price. At the moment it also appears that, (of consumer ISPs), only BT Retail offer FTTP.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure whether it'll be FTTC or FTTP, how would I find out this information? I had a look around the openreach site but to no avail.

I noticed that my landline number is not recognised when I type it into the search bar but if I enter my postcode then choose my home address it recognises the area and says we will be enabled within 6 months. Is there any possibility that we will be disadvantaged or excluded from this as we have transferred our services to a company using LLU?

Thanks

In reply to a post by thejinkazama:

I noticed that my landline number is not recognised when I type it into the search bar but if I enter my postcode then choose my home address it recognises the area and says we will be enabled within 6 months. Is there any possibility that we will be disadvantaged or excluded from this as we have transferred our services to a company using LLU?

No. MPF lines (e.g. Sky) cannot be looked up on the Openreach number checker, but that's normal. Just use the postcode.

Don't "just use the postcode". Even the checker site itself says it may not give the right answer. As well as the warning it gives, one of the reasons is that a postcode area can be served by several cabinets, and it only gives the result for one cabinet area.

Use the Address Option. That is very rarely different from what a phone number enquiry gives. (I tried to give you the direct link to the age, but they seem to have stopped that working. They must want you to go through the "Warning" page).

Being on LLU doesn't stop you having fibre if it's available to you. There is a very slight chance that you wouldn't be able to stay with Sky, but normally you will be able to if you want.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Don't "just use the postcode". Even the checker site itself says it may not give the right answer.

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway: http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I tried to give you the direct link to the age, but they seem to have stopped that working. They must want you to go through the 'Warning' page

This works: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.Addres... . Always go via this intermediate page as It is just as well not to 'Proceed' beyond this page in order to get a URL to paste here as it is that that has never worked.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway

Despite this denial?

Please note that the postcode checker is less accurate than the telephone number checker because it uses a best guess of where you live based on the centre point of the postcode area entered.

Several postcode areas extend over more than one telephone exchange area, therefore the checker data will only be correct if it has correctly assumed which telephone exchange provides service to your address.

In addition, the postcode checker may not give an accurate estimate of the routing of the telephone cable that is connected to your address, therefore the result given by the postcode checker must be treated with caution.

There is no such denials in the Address Checker.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It's ok, because using the postcode will force the user to pick an address anyway

Despite this denial?

I'm not sure why the BT Wholesale checker keeps being mentioned here, because thejinkazama was talking about fibre planing projections, which is a function of the Openreach checker, not the BT Wholesale checker. I specifically referenced the Openreach checker in my post, not the BT Wholesale checker.

Edited by Oliver341 (Thu 09-Apr-15 00:16:29)