What is the 4G signal like in the area from the different providers? If it is over 10/1 then you would probably be provided via 4G with USO anyway (and you could get 4G now relatively cheaply, the only question is whether BT would pay anything towards it, like possibly the router, if you wait another 6 weeks.

In reply to a post by chris_owen:

I'm new to the forum so I hope i'm in the right place.
We are a village of over 400 houses without FTTC although we are only 1.2 miles from the exchange. Openreach say we are in an Open Market Review location, meaning they have to allow other providers in to our area. I have contacted all the other providers who say they have no plans. Stalemate.
So I want to do a USO application. Does anyone know how to do this, what is needed, and who it is sent to ? Regarding the £3,400 cost limit, how do we find out what the total cost is ?

Given you're only 1.2 miles from the exchange, what speed do you get on ADSL? If it's 10Mbps or higher then you won't be eligible for USO.

Do you have a decent 4G signal from any of the operators? If so, USO will tell you to use 4G. They may contribute £99 for installation of an external antenna if necessary to get a 10Mbps+ speed.

If neither of those is true, then you can apply to BT for USO. They will decide the most suitable technology and will determine the total cost, and if it exceeds the threshold, they will tell you how much extra you would have to pay. There is "assumed demand aggregation", so if a cluster of 10 properties could be served from the same distribution point they'll assume that 7 of them will order service at some point, meaning 7 x £3,400 is available from the USO fund.

As far as ADSL is concerned the original USO would mean ADSL wouldn't normally support the upstream requirements but I do remember an article from MrS I think last week that suggested they seem to be ignoring the upload requirement and basing USO on only the download.

ADSL is always sub 10 Mbps

ADSL2+ is where it gets all funky and the old Ofcom presumption that a 11 or 12 Mbps ADSL2+ line will sync at 1.1 or 1.2 Mbps upload is impacting the USO. Original hope had been that there would be a bit of leeway but that hope is gone.

My ADSL2+ line syncs higher a day or two after it has been raining (it is underground, so I guess the capacitance changes or something), and I have a max observed speed of 1.1Mbps upload which rules out USO, even though most of the time it is well under that.
I also notice that the predicted downstream range has been revised upwards, from 4.5-12.5 to 6.5-13.5, although the downstream line rate is still given as up to 8Mbps.
I'd only been keeping the line in the vain hope USO would help, but as it won't I'll be cancelling the line altogether and I'll rely on 4G instead.

I'm investigating USO at the moment for a village with general download speeds in the 1 - 2 mbps range (Cudham in Kent). BT only refer me to a 4G router - EE - with 30gb download monthly limit, BUT they cannot tell me whether the EE signal will even work (other than looking at a mobile coverage map). So how do I know it would be any good ?

I also will be prompting several hundred residents to apply to BT - surely it would be in BT's interests to put up a temporary service which will serve the whole community - rather than a house by house approach ?

What temporary service do you propose?

There are other 4G services out there and some with unlimited allowances for less money. Which is best is experimentation.

The BT packages mean that if speeds are sub 10 Mbps they will try adding an external area for you.

There should be some aggregation going on with the USO, but the desk of staff is somewhat limited at present and looking at area, best solutions are

1. Roll out FTTP
or
2. Enable cabinet 9 for VDSL2

Both will have lead times of around a year.

Thanks for that. Most of the area is served by two exchanges which are on Openreach's plans for FTTP - however, as they serve urban areas as well as our rural area, we will be last on the list and "only if it costs in" (Openreach quote). FTTC out of the question due to cost (unless you can aggregate the £3,400 s !!). Re temporary service, I would have thought BT could put in some sort of mobile signal booster for the area = lots more custom for them as it would attract residents away from other ISPs ?

PS - I have already managed (via various means) to bring faster broadband to the general area over the last 4 years - but I ran out of money for Cudham !!!!

Temporary 4G exists only as emergency replacement of an existing mast.

Cost of deploying a mast for these premises is probably not unlike FTTP or FTTC depending on topography etc

If both exchanges are on the Fibre First/Fibre VIllage roll-out list then there is your answer i.e. wait for that to happen

Due to sad twists of life, I am going to move back to a house that I was in 20 years ago. I was one of the first to campaign for ADSL and managed to get BT to install it in the town just as I moved out.

However, much to my surprise the house never did get ‘proper’ broadband and the checkers now show just 5.5mbps. As the USO is 10mbps how do I go about applying?

Thanks,

Steve