BT spins off Openreach. Will it lead to more FTTH (fibre to the home) broadband?

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  • BT has bowed to demands by the telecoms regulator Ofcom to legally separate Openreach, which runs the UK's broadband infrastructure.

    Openreach controls the fibre connections, ducts and pipes behind the UK's broadband infrastructure and sells access to BT's rivals, such as TalkTalk and Sky.

    The regulator had threatened to force BT to legally separate Openreach.

    Well, this is what Sky, City Fibre et all wanted. Will it improve things?

    Will it really hasten the roll out of fast "proper" fibre to the home services?

  • Should improve things. I briefly changed to EE using BTs infrastructure - it was a total disaster thanks to the BT bit and the fact that EE were unable to do anything about it. That at least must change which will increase competition etc. etc.

  • We've been with BT for the past 7 years. I have to admit it is very slow in today's terms with speeds just under 6Mbps but the overall service is excellent now. We've had very few outages and those only very brief ones and if we have had a problem they've been very helpful. It wasn't that way to start with though. We have been put through to 'helplines, ' in India presumably, in the past and been advised to take the telephone socket off the wall and clean the contacts!

  • More bad ratings for TalkTalk and BT. Time to move to full Fibre?

    TalkTalk and BT have received the worst customer satisfaction scores in a survey of 12 broadband providers.

    They scored 38% and 45% respectively with their customers, while Sky (48%) and EE (49%) came close behind them in the Which? survey of 1,800 people.

    Most of our broadband network is still based off old telephone line technology. Is it now time to move to a full FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) system?

  • Just to recap if I hadn't mentioned it before. My beloved bought me an Amazon Echo for Christmas. We discovered that users had problems connecting it to a BT 4 router and so did we. So, to cut a long story short, we bought the latest BT router. The Echo connected immediately but a while later we began to get lot of outages whereas normally we get hardly any and those are only very brief.

    I rang them up and they said it was an outside fault. Later that day, an engineer rang and said he needed to visit. Knowing BT's charges for a home visit can be £100 plus I asked him if we would have to pay and he said we wouldn't. Anyway, he came, and put new socket on the wall and after a day or so, our connection was back to normal.

    But I'm still waiting to see if they are going to try and charge me for the visit. If they do try to charge me, they may well lose my custom when the present contract is due for renewal. If they don't, I'll stick with them.

  • I'm with Virgin. Never had any problems at all for the many years I've been with them. I briefly changed to EE on BT because they were cheaper but it was a disaster - just cut off after a couple of weeks thanks to some internal admin issue between EE and BT. I was told it would take a week to resolve so just dumped them and went back to Virgin. Never again.

  • Just to recap if I hadn't mentioned it before. My beloved bought me an Amazon Echo for Christmas. We discovered that users had problems connecting it to a BT 4 router and so did we. So, to cut a long story short, we bought the latest BT router. The Echo connected immediately but a while later we began to get lot of outages whereas normally we get hardly any and those are only very brief.

    I rang them up and they said it was an outside fault. Later that day, an engineer rang and said he needed to visit. Knowing BT's charges for a home visit can be £100 plus I asked him if we would have to pay and he said we wouldn't. Anyway, he came, and put new socket on the wall and after a day or so, our connection was back to normal.

    But I'm still waiting to see if they are going to try and charge me for the visit. If they do try to charge me, they may well lose my custom when the present contract is due for renewal. If they don't, I'll stick with them.

    The charge is only for situations where the fault is proved to be the user equipment or wiring....that is anything forward of the termination point, which is the socket inside the master socket (there's a faceplate that unscrews and it is there).

    it sounds like they found the master socket was faulty, if so that's their side and won't be charged.

    Note that extension sockets would class as your own equipment, but the engineer should warn you if there is to be any such charge and they wouldn't normally change an extension anyway, only a master.

    Mark

  • My BT bill arrived today. They had added a charge of £129.99 on for the repair. I've just rung them, stated by case and they said I had agreed to a possible charge even though the engineer said I wouldn't have to pay . It transpires that my beloved had reported the fault online during one of the brief periods it was working that morning. She said she couldn't get beyond that page without doing so. So, as usual they win because they hold all the aces. The socket incidentally is my property. I can take it with me if I move.:rolleyes:

    Anyway, my contract doesn't run out until February 2018 so I'm stuffed all round and will have to pay it. :(

  • My BT bill arrived today. They had added a charge of £129.99 on for the repair. I've just rung them, stated by case and they said I had agreed to a possible charge even though the engineer said I wouldn't have to pay . It transpires that my beloved had reported the fault online during one of the brief periods it was working that morning. She said she couldn't get beyond that page without doing so. So, as usual they win because they hold all the aces. The socket incidentally is my property. I can take it with me if I move.:rolleyes:

    Anyway, my contract doesn't run out until February 2018 so I'm stuffed all round and will have to pay it. :(

    You should ask them to specify exactly what the charge is for. They are known for imposing these charges incorrectly. Raise a formal complaint using their complaint process, this allows it to be referred to the regulator's dispute resolution scheme later if required.

    Mark

  • You should ask them to specify exactly what the charge is for. They are known for imposing these charges incorrectly. Raise a formal complaint using their complaint process, this allows it to be referred to the regulator's dispute resolution scheme later if required.

    Cheers, I'll give it a thought but sometimes the game isn't worth the candle with these sort of things, endless letters and phone calls, fobbed off here, told this and that which is later denied by someone else. It's sometimes worth the money not to have the trouble. Thanks anyway. ;)

  • BT must share Telegraph Poles. Fast internet on the way!

    BT must make it easier for rival internet providers to use its telegraph poles, telecoms regulator Ofcom says.

    Ofcom has published a list of new measures to make it cheaper for companies to install ultrafast full fibre broadband infrastructure.

    Connecting homes directly to the fibre network delivers much faster internet speeds than copper cables.

    A significant story this one for the future of fast internet access in this country.

    When BT's network (still part of the GPO at the time) was originally built, it was the monopoly provider of telephone services, so all those telegraph poles in most areas and ducts in new build areas and the copper wires that were slung from the poles or out down the ducts, were all paid out of the public purse.

    To encourage competition, the government created new rules which allowed other companies to gain access to this network, this is called LLU, local loop unbundling. This has been hugely successful and allowed other companies such as Sky and TalkTalk to offer consumers broadband at low cost, but there has been a double edged sword to this though.

    There has been no inventive for companies to invest in their own infrastructure to allow for faster broadband speeds. BT's copper wires will simply not be good enough for the consumer requirements of the future.

    Some companies have built their own infrastructure, namely Virgin Media's cable network and a few smaller companies such as CItyFibre and B4N have built some infrastructure in cities or the countryside to allow for fast broadband over fibre optic wires which go striaght into consumer homes. This is called FTTP, fibre to the premise. The problem is this is hugely expensive and all the while BT has an inherent advantage over competitors because while other companies have been allowed by law, access to BT's poles and copper wires, they have not been allowed to put their own fibre cables between the poles or through the ducts. This should now change with this announcement.

    This could be the start of multiple companies offering very high speed internet access to consumers and as television is gradually going all IPTV (tv over the internet) this can only be good news for all of us.

    If I want really fast internet, I currently have one choice: Virgin Media. BT can only offer me speeds around 40-50mb, which isn't enough, so I welcome this announcement today, do you?

  • Yes. If it helps competition then I am all for it. I hate monopolies! Competition (so long as there is a real choice and not just a choice of two) is best for everyone.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • It all depends how "helpful" BT is.

    If BT via their Openreach arm, cause problems for other companies, so it prevents them putting their own cables over the poles and down the ducts, then the regulator is going to need to step in again here.

  • This was meant to be a thread to track all the news and events in the world of FTTP build outs, but as they, "events, dear boy..."

    Anyway....

    My area seems to be going FTTP nuts. Literally.

    During the summer, VM was making upgrades and causing chaos everywhere, but that was just the start...

    Last month, a company called Community Fibre (no, I have never heard of them either, not to be confused with CityFibre) arrived in my area en masse. Literally dozens of vans everywhere. They did some digging, but they mainly fed the cables underground and then connected them to certain poles. But the interesting thing is, despite the company using BT's poles, they are using their own cables, which means I now have another telco network other than BT and VM in my area.

    Not to be outdone, BT (Openreach) arrived on Monday doing exactly the same thing and once they're finished I'll have the chance of getting FTTP services from BT, SKY, Talktalk etc.

    Three networks and very soon, I will have at least half a dozen choices to get fast internet. Quite happy with that.

    Is your area getting the fibre treatment?

  • Amazingly as I live in a village we've had FTTP for 3 years now. We don't need the bonkers 377.18 download speed I just measured but it was a vanity thing so I upgraded.

    It is much much more reliable than FTTC was. Only downside is because we had it they forced onto the dubious Digital Voice which is excellent when things are working and rubbish if you have a power cut - which of course is one of those times you're most likely to need a landline.

  • Only downside is because we had it they forced onto the dubious Digital Voice which is excellent when things are working and rubbish if you have a power cut - which of course is one of those times you're most likely to need a landline.

    So, your phone is down the same line, i.e. the copper cable has been taken away??

    I know BT are shutting down their old PTSN (copper) network, but as you say, what happen when power cuts happen and people either haven't charged their mobile, or never had one to begin with?

  • Yes the copper line has been disconnected. It's still there to the house but goes no further.

    So I bought a UPS but that only keeps up the Fibre modem for about an hour so when we had a 48 hour power cut we had nothing (the local mobile mast only held up for 2 hours). Ofcom have dropped off badly here letting Openreach leave people so vulnerable. Once this digital voice change is complete then next time there is a storm and power cut every burglar and arsonist in the area is going to think 'opportunity'

    An interesting snippet BT told me is that many new build houses have had fiber points of access preinstalled in the most daft place. Seems builders don't want a white box on the wall spoiling the elegance so they've told Openreach to place them in cupboard or even toilets. Which is rubbish if you have any analog phone line based gear you need to still work - the adapter BT will sell you just does not work properly.

    So if your phone provider contacts you about Digital Voice either resist it for as long as you can or spend £££ on UPS back up.

  • We have had weeks of vans turning and and men running cables under the pavement every other day then two of them knocked on my door asking if I was on line and said we are installing Fibre Optics I said I am with BT have been for some time , they then looked at the For Sale sigh on the garden , and said sorry you won't be changing over to Fibre then

    No said I as soon as the house sells we are off, a few days later I get a text from my sister up north telling me she has been trying to ring my house phone, she tried again and she said I can hear it ringing , I said not this end its not , in fact its been some times since it has rung,

    I rang BT to check our landline , no problem with the line then person asked me had I changed over to Fibre , no says I we are with BT but engineers have been working on our street for ages putting in cables

    Ah came the reply , have you plugged your phone into your BT router , no says I why ? because you are now on Fibre , why did nobody tell me the two men who called never said anything , you have been changed over to fibre three weeks ago, well it might have been a good idea to tell me.

    Spoke to my neighbours they has not been told either :cursing::D

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