Why can't I get fibre?

This is probably a really silly question. I'm trying to sign up for fibre broadband at my new address, which I was told was available, and all the main ISPs (BT, Sky, TalkTalk etc etc) are only offering me standard "basic broadband" packages with very "old school" speeds - normally around 5-10Mbps, rather than the 40-50Mbps you might expect from fibre.

I originally wanted to sign up with Zen and thought it was their issue when their availability checker came back with basic broadband only, but I've tried several different checkers and all of them come back with the same result. What's the deal here? Apologies for what is probably a stupid question, but I'm baffled...!

It may be there is a waiting list, try this link and see what options you get.

Broadband Availability Checker

I typically only populate the post code and captcha and select the property on the next page.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Sep-21 14:38:07)

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

It may be possible to get better speeds using the mobile telephone signal. Lots of advice in this Forum about that.

In reply to a post by Grimers:

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

Gordon Bennett! You'd think this would be a solved problem in 2021. The cabinet is some distance away from what I understand, so if it's serving my new address it's probably serving an awful lot of people in a large radius.

In reply to a post by Grimers:

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

My understanding is that the few ISP's, like for example Aquiss, that previously supported the "Waiting List" process have basically suspended it now, due to the incredibly high number of cabinets (in excess of 25%) that are now full.

I wonder why it's become full? There haven't been a lot of new houses built in the area as far as I'm aware - my new house is of 1970s vintage, and that's one of the newer properties in the vicinity. Did they not anticipate that everyone in an area would want broadband when they built out the network?

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

I wonder why it's become full?

Working from Home during lockdown accounted for a massive percentage getting full.

Surprisingly, during lockdown, nearly 40% of our orders were from customers who reportedly never had a fixed line connection before, with employers insisting that they needed something fixed, rather than mobile. If this was playing out industry wide (and I suspect it was) then cabinets simply used up all available predicted capacity.

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

Did they not anticipate that everyone in an area would want broadband when they built out the network?

Quite simply no. They would never provision VDSL ports on a 1:1 basis with property connections. “Special circumstances” the last 18 months or so, and et voila!

So basically you're stuck on ADSL or hope that FTTP comes along? Madness!

Blimey, you'd think the majority of people would have a fixed line connection, now!

Or a port becomes available

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

In reply to a post by Grimers:

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

Gordon Bennett! You'd think this would be a solved problem in 2021. The cabinet is some distance away from what I understand, so if it's serving my new address it's probably serving an awful lot of people in a large radius.

More like a problem caused in 2021. Quite a lot of cabinets around the country c. 90,000 odd. Focus for Openreach now is rolling out fibre to the premises as fast as possible. They’re apparently not showing any inclination to divert resources onto mass scale FTTC upgrades.

A report from 2019 that came up on google stated that 95% of people had access to "superfast broadband" but only 45% had signed up. Roll on Covid and working from home and that 45% most likely increased rapidly. Prior to Covid putting in the equipment to support 100% of people when only 45% had signed up would have been a waste of money.

As far as FTTC specifically there are people who find ADSL adequate and therefore have not signed up for FTTC and then there are areas that have FTTP, Virgin, etc where people may choose those instead of FTTC. All of this means you provision based on prediction. They didn't predict a massive hike in home working (neither did anyone else). And the effect of Covid would have reduced the number of engineers available to go out and do cabinet upgrades further increasing the problem.

autumn you mention a new house (is this a new property for you or a new house period ) if its a new house period and its a recent development i would seriously be asking you developer who you bought your house from when they had a copper offer (free of charge (vdsl if avaialbe) or an FTTP{ funded offer (which they they decided not to fund) -and see what his answer was -- your situation is becoming increasingly common especially with what a call sub 20 plot (developments where there are less than 20 homes on it) these are getting to be a huge issue right across the country

Cab might have only recently (in last 8 - 10 months been filled -- i would not expect new FTTC cabs to be now installed (cards might get shifted ariound to increase capacity (ie from normal to High Density) but i understand that hard and challenging to do

Fastman you have replied to my post, but I think you ought to have replied to the OPs post above….

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

I wonder why it's become full? There haven't been a lot of new houses built in the area as far as I'm aware - my new house is of 1970s vintage, and that's one of the newer properties in the vicinity. Did they not anticipate that everyone in an area would want broadband when they built out the network?

I think that answers clearly your first question / assertion - if the OP intends to challenge the ‘developers’ that built his house roughly 50 years ago - for something which hadn’t been invented until 30 years later…good luck with that 😎

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

On the page that it said Waiting list", the line above the table will have your exchange and cabinet number. If you post those details (without your address) you may find someone can give more information about the cabinet.

In particular if it is scheduled to get extra capacity.

Re the waiting list itself, there is no way you can put yourself on it, and as far as I know these days only one provider (BT) puts potential customers on it. That's if they still do.

The only other way is to check at least twice a day on that site and get an order in within minutes to your chosen provider. Even then you may not be quick enough.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

The only other way is to check at least twice a day on that site and get an order in within minutes to your chosen provider. Even then you may not be quick enough.

Probably even more often ...

After being promised waitlist by Plusnet, and seeing slots come and go, they admitted they don't support it. So, for a family member, I have been checking about 5, 6 or more times a day. And sitting here, idle, short while back, I decided to do one last check even though I had done one less than 30 minutes previous. AVAILABLE! So, logged on, thought whether they needed 76-78 or could make do with 36-38 and relaised the price was identical. I grabbed it.
.
SO, I suggest, bookmark the page and then wheneve you have a couople of minutes, maybe once an hour or so, run a check. It does seem to be a random time when slots appear - suggesting the site is updated in real time, whenever a service is guven up/surrendered.

In reply to a post by MHC:

SO, I suggest, bookmark the page and then wheneve you have a couople of minutes, maybe once an hour or so, run a check. It does seem to be a random time when slots appear - suggesting the site is updated in real time, whenever a service is guven up/surrendered.

Your browser may support an add-on that checks a page at regular intervals and alerts you when the page is changed. I use "Update Scanner" on Firefox but there are others.

I've a feeling the BTW checker blocks auto-checks.

And it need the Captcha solving ...

you'd think the majority of people would have a fixed line connection

There are still quite a few of us with no superfast fixed line options at all. Add those to people who choose to use 4G out of preference and there is a reasonable percentage without a fixed line.

Indeed you could say it is somewhat of a self-selecting demographic on a broadband forum such as TBB 😎. Not really quite representative of the wider community.

There’s plenty of folks especially those younger or who have grown up only knowing / having mobiles and smartphones that never would have wanted / saw the need for a fixed line or broadband. Up until lockdown and enforced home working these folks would have presumably carried on that way.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Up until lockdown and enforced home working these folks would have presumably carried on that way.

The first lockdown hit the performance of the mobile networks in my town quite significantly, so to me it felt as if a lot of people did not have a home fixed line broadband, or they had an elderly (ADSL) or slow (FTTC) connection rather than a fast VM one. Perhaps because before lockdown these people didn't spend as much time at home. (No FTTP in this town yet).

By "hit" I mean my local EE mast (visible from my window) went from 60 to 80 Mbps in Feb 2020, down to 4 Mbps after. Vodafone went from 15 Mbps to 3 Mbps.

The networks have deployed more capacity now, but it took a year. Similar capacity deployments to those previously used only in shopping / town centres.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

On the page that it said Waiting list", the line above the table will have your exchange and cabinet number. If you post those details (without your address) you may find someone can give more information about the cabinet.

In particular if it is scheduled to get extra capacity.

Re the waiting list itself, there is no way you can put yourself on it, and as far as I know these days only one provider (BT) puts potential customers on it. That's if they still do.

The only other way is to check at least twice a day on that site and get an order in within minutes to your chosen provider. Even then you may not be quick enough.

It says (with my full address removed):

Address [removed], on Exchange HECKMONDWIKE is served by Cabinet 28

I hope this is enough information!

Yes it is, for those who can check it. I can't, but such people do turn up now and then.

Fingers crossed.

I believe there is a DSLAM sidepod planned in few months time to add capacity

I didn't specifically mean superfast, but yes for some reason I didn't think of that!

Yes, it's highly unreliable these days. Seems to block you after a few times...

In reply to a post by witchunt:

I believe there is a DSLAM sidepod planned in few months time to add capacity

Thanks! I was able to locate Cabinet 28 earlier today, and it appears to already have a smaller cabinet (about half the size of the main cabinet) attached to the side. It looks brand new, and there are telltale offcuts of wire on the ground next to the cabinet, a probable sign of recent work. (No pictures, because the cabinet was immediately adjacent to a busy children's play park, and I didn't want to get my camera out around kids.) On the most recent Street View imagery (2018), Cabinet 28 is a rusty, ancient-looking thing - this has been completely replaced at some point since: https://goo.gl/maps/YBHixArSgGMZoTNk7

I'll have to keep an eye on the availability checker, to see if this extra side cabinet goes live at some point soon, given that to my untrained eye it appears that it's been built.

Edited by autumnbreeze (Fri 17-Sep-21 13:36:19)

Does it? I was doing maybe 10 per day for one specific number for over a week plus some others, no issues with it, from a static IP.

Yeah. Checking different postcodes/addresses, after a while you either have to wait or open another tab...

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

In reply to a post by witchunt:

I believe there is a DSLAM sidepod planned in few months time to add capacity

Thanks! I was able to locate Cabinet 28 earlier today, and it appears to already have a smaller cabinet (about half the size of the main cabinet) attached to the side. It looks brand new, and there are telltale offcuts of wire on the ground next to the cabinet, a probable sign of recent work. (No pictures, because the cabinet was immediately adjacent to a busy children's play park, and I didn't want to get my camera out around kids.) On the most recent Street View imagery (2018), Cabinet 28 is a rusty, ancient-looking thing - this has been completely replaced at some point since: https://goo.gl/maps/YBHixArSgGMZoTNk7

I'll have to keep an eye on the availability checker, to see if this extra side cabinet goes live at some point soon, given that to my untrained eye it appears that it's been built.

Looks like this was correct, as Waiting List has now changed to Available and I've been able to place an order. All's well that ends well!

Enjoy.