Moving to Central London - in mobile blackspot and no fibre

I'm moving to central london with EC1 postcode to live in a flat. This building has no fibre but next building has open reach FTTP.

The only internet connection I can get is ADSL and it's approximately 10mbps. BT guarantees 3mbps.

Also it's mobile signal blackspot - my phone gets reasonable signal but no connection. I think it's signal congestion or something but this even happens at nights when it's quiet, so probably blackspot.

Is there anything I can do to get a company to connect us via fibre?

If it were me, I’d not move to those flats.

Tend to agree. Less agro all round, especially if broadband is reasonably important to the OP (which presumably bit is otherwise the post would be redundant)

In reply to a post by rtcw:

Also it's mobile signal blackspot - my phone gets reasonable signal but no connection. I think it's signal congestion or something but this even happens at nights when it's quiet, so probably blackspot.

If that is on 4G then congestion. Given there are four (currently) national mobile companies, you would have to check the other three. Forget the virtual brands until you find a working physical network. (Vodafone, EE, Three, O2).

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

If it were me, I’d not move to those flats.

Neither me too.

Ask Community Fibre for a business connection, they seem to do these on a really ad-hoc basis where someone looks at the Openreach ducting in the area and says yes/no based on what comes back. Unfortunately this does mean you're paying at least £80 a month for two years.

Have you checked with the building owner/management company to see if they have refused wayleaves for FTTP installation. If they have refused wayleave then you are never going to get a decent connection as no FTTP supplier would be able to install. If the building next door is flats with OpenReach then my guess is your building rejected wayleave - if the case then, as others say, steer clear if you want more than ADSL.

Type your postcode in Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, etc checkers and see if these are on a plan. Normally their checkers will show if wayleave has been agreed.

If it does not show permission granted then it means this postcode for that building is not in plan yet or is awaiting a wayleave agreement.

The building next to it may have Openreach FTTP because it is under a different authority or because it is newly built.

I'd also out of curiosity look at all the other MDUs of that particular management company to see if all those residential buildings also don't have FTTP. If some of them have it, it means a wayleave is agreed and the installation will commence shortly. But if all of the buildings have no FTTP then it means this management company is a culprit for denying wayleave for all of them.

Any chance you could make friends with someone in the neighbouring block that has FTTP then get them to run a wire across to you into a switch?

As ridiculous and improbable as that sounds, it's probably more likely than you getting your own connection any time soon.

Avoid!

Edited by Cheule (Fri 21-Jul-23 06:03:07)

Let’s keep that one in the ridiculous and improbable bucket where it belongs 😅