Am I forever locked to the same Openreach cabinet?

I live in an area (Richmond, West London) where fibre broadband is relatively widely available (FTTC). I live about 1/4 mile from the local telephone exchange. Unfortunately fibre broadband has never been available to me because the local council has refused planning permission for the upgrade of my nearest OpenReach cabinet in the street to fibre. Many/most other cabinets in the area have already been upgraded, so most of my neighbours have FTTC connections.
At the end of last year I switched to Virgin Media broadband as it was the only way to get a faster connection, but the reliability has been appalling (on average, I have had drops in my connection on at least 50% of the days since the service was connected 10 months ago).
I'm now looking at going back to ADSL2, but was wondering whether there was any way that my line could be moved to one of the other OpenReach cabinets in the area which have been upgraded to fibre? Would this be technically or financially unfeasible for the supplier?

Technically it is of course possible. However, ducts may not be available between them so the cost of doing it could be very high. On a practical level Openreach do not allow this as an option to buy so it is pretty much impossible to actually even ask for a quote.

The fact you have Virgin Media means you won't be covered by any USO or other work and Openreach have no enforced driver to do anything - you already have a connection that is (on paper) "better" than is available to most people who can't get VM.

Do you know why planning permission was refused? If not, find out. Then contact as many people as you can who are on the same cabinet and complain.

Conservation area/ heritage site I'd bet

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Conservation area/ heritage site I'd bet

Or the council trying to limit the amount of roadworks.

In reply to a post by micksharpe:

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Conservation area/ heritage site I'd bet

Or the council trying to limit the amount of roadworks.

You can't refuse the street works (roadworks) for cabinets as such. If the area is a Conservation area then the local planning authority can refuse planning permission.

The majority of the time, cabinets do not need planning permission to be placed on the public highway. If the local highway authority have an issue with a proposed cabinet location then they can still refuse a location due to safety issues (blocks sight lines at a road junction or similar safety issue). If this happens then generally Openreach/Virgin Media can find an alternative location or move the proposed cabinet so it no longer poses a safety concern.


Take a look at the Electronics Communications Code which covers the companies rolling out fibre networks:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-interne...

In reply to a post by micksharpe:

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Conservation area/ heritage site I'd bet

Or the council trying to limit the amount of roadworks.

A cabinet doesn't need planning permission unless in a specially designated area, like conservation/heritage area.

Council planning departments also have strict guidelines they need to follow.