Fibre had been laid in the street, my neighbour could order FTTH (also known as FTTP), but Openreach weren’t allowing orders for my address. This is how I contacted Openreach and resolved the issue and I now have Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) broadband – hopefully this blog might also help you get your FTTH connection sorted.
If you think your area has recently been enabled with Fibre Optic broadband, but you can’t order, it might be because Openreach have:
- cocked up their paper work and you aren’t updated on their system;
- made an arbitrary decision on their part about which homes will be able to order Fibre and which won’t (to prevent over-subscription of the service when it goes live in your area); or,
- a lot of other process problems (sorry, I’ll try and and stay positive here)
You can use the Openreach service checker to find out if your house, or other houses near you are enabled with FTTP (not FTTPoD – that is a different product aimed at business and costs many £££s). To use the Openreach checker, follow the link above and click ‘Address Checker’, ‘ok’ the disclaimer, and then when prompted for an address just type in your post code (or a nearby postcode) and click submit. You will then be offered a list of the addresses found in the postcode. Just select an address to check the list of available services (WBC ADSL, VDSL (which is FTTC), FTTPoD or WBC FTTP).
In my case I had witnessed the FTTP install team laying the fibre in my street, and on speaking to them they assured me they were making it available to the entire housing development.
Did you know that your FTTPHline doesn’t connect you to an exchange via the roadside cabinet? Unlike ADSL or ‘Fibre’-to-the-Cabinet FTTP connects you to your exchange via a series of nodes based on telegraph poles or under manhole covers. More info here.
3 months later, once the engineers had completed the installation in the ground, I found out my next door neighbour could order, as could 80% of the houses in my 3 year old housing development. A number of houses, on my street and others, couldn’t order. Now, after a bit of a long drawn out process, I now have FTTP installed (It’s awesome, you get the speed advertised and it’s much more reliable). You can read my install log here as well as a whinge about the process of rolling out fibre here.
So, here is what I did to get it – hopefully this information might help you if you are in the same boat:
I first tried twitter – but they sent me to the wrong form and I got no where. I managed to find the right contact form via a post on the BT customer forums. Openreach isn’t the easiest company to engage in a dialogue – you need to find the right form to report the right problem and get help – and they have a number of different forms online that are used for different purposes. If you use the wrong one they won’t pass you on to the right department (Openreach is a company where there seems to be a big silo-working mentality) – so you must use the right form… this one:
Fibre Broadband – report an issue with availability (Open Reach Website)
Put in as much detail in as you can and be as accurate as you can. If your neighbours can order FTTH, then mention this. If you have seen or talked to the Engineers laying fibre in your area then mention this and any information they gave you too. Do not assume that any part of Openreach knows what any other part of it is doing or has done.
Also, DO NOT EXPECT A FAST RESPONSE! The first attempt didn’t go well – one month for them to respond and tell me that there were no plans to roll Fibre Optic Broadband out in my area.. which was sort of true as the Openreach engineers had already finished installing fibre long before this! On the second attempt, after two weeks, I received an email saying that they would need to investigate further.
You could also try their online chat, but this can be a drawn out process and it’s hit and miss regarding the knowledge of the person that you get on the other end.
In the end it took ~10 weeks(!) for them to run their investigation and provide me with an update. But, this time, it was good news – I was now able to order. The Openreach service checker confirmed this:
As soon as that was in place, I was able to order from BT straight away. Other specialist FTTP broadband providers are available too, but they are not cheap. At the time of writing most major ISPs I contacted (Sky, Plusnet, EE etc) only offered FTTC (VDSL) broadband products and wouldn’t take an order for FTTP.
IMPORTANT – cash back on orders
You can usually get at least £100 extra cash back via Quidco if you are a new customer – and that’s on top of any of the rewards offered from BT for new customers.
Direct Number for BT FTTH sales:
If you have a query with your order, or you want to order over the phone it’s worth calling the BT FTTH team direct on 0800 587 4787. They will accept orders and respond to questions about existing orders. If you call the standard frontline support you will likely have a very frustrating experience as they don’t have the knowledge or information that the FTTH team have
You can read my FTTP home broadband install log here so you know what to expect, as well as a very long big whine about the UK’s process or rolling out fibre here.
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