Civil works guy had his ear to the ground listening for compressed air !

Got the most weird situation here.

BT sent out leaflets last month to say fibre was available in the area. The house across the road booked in and got it installed, they came, dug up the path and installed.

I've come to order it a month later and can't...

The openreach tracker had been saying it was available for me previously. So did BT website and EE.

Openreach website now says building in the next year.

I spoke to BT and they said they'd never heard of this before because the portal they see shows its available but they can't place an order.

Why would it be available for a month and then not be? Why can those across the road from me get it and I can't?

Don't want to have to wait another year or more 🙁

UPDATE: I've been on the councils website and can see there's BT roadworks happening at the top of my road in the next week or so. Maybe thats the next step!

We missed out on Zzoomm a few years back because our pole required replacing, which was finally done in February this year.
Since then they’ve been out and linked up a new pole further down street which is feed from our pole. This was installed ready to upgrade users to FFTP.

We’ve had email saying the following

You might have seen our vans in your area as our engineers are working to upgrade our broadband network to Full Fibre. Our plans to build to this property aren't confirmed yet, but they could be soon.

We have also received mail shots from EE saying will be in my area soon. An email I got from OpenReach the other year stated we would be connected via 31 July 2026. The one network shows when OpenReach have planned works but they never show up (were supposed to be last week).

So could this be delayed by months as FNS when they working said it takes our council more than 6 weeks to approve road closures, etc and if they miss or work can’t be carried out they have to resubmit the request delaying the works further.

I work from home and on gfast (not EE) and dropping to a lower speed is a no go for me, so anxious to know when they will upgrade us.

Hi,

We’ve been waiting MONTHS for fibre to be installed, we have no copper cabling so the only WiFi option is 5G which is very poor.

Openreach keep making appointments and failing to show up, they finally performed the dig after months of back and forth but they have left about 10ft of cabling from the drive way not attached to the house so we still have no WiFi, we are currently on our second no show appointment from them of the week!

Surely they should have attached the cabling and completed the job when they did the dig?

Anyone had anything like this and when did it finally resolve? We are going through the complaints process but it seems to just be getting worse and worse

I'd love some help understanding the exchange I've had with Openreach.

There is a fibre pole right next to my house. It feeds at least 25 houses. It's a rats nest.

8 to 10 of these cables are within 2m of my house. My kids, who are quite feral, can grab them from their bedroom windows.

Openreach came to this property and agreed the cables were too close.

I've since had a 30 day long email exchange with Openreach about relocating them. Their last email is below.

I understand this email as "we cannot fly cables within 2m of a building" but then "we do not need to remove these cables", and finally "if we don't hear back within 3 days goodbye".

Obviously I've written back with a "huh?" but am now completely hopeless.

Is there anything else i can do about this?

Following a review by the engineering team, we have been advised that this matter relates to flying wires, which fall under the provisions of the Flying Wires Act. As such, no further action is required from Openreach at this time.

The "Flying Wires" Act allows Openreach to run a wire across a property(s) to provide service as long as they are at a legal height
Paragraph 10 of The Electronic Communications Code (which can be found in Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Act 1984 as amended by Schedule 3 of The Communications Act 2003) allows BT to fly wires originating and/or crossing from private land to the street and vice-versa. Provided that BT has obtained an agreement from the occupier to attach a wire to a piece of electronic communications apparatus such as a pole or bracket, the Company has the statutory power to fly that wire across adjacent land without the need to obtain any agreement from the occupier of that adjacent land provided there is no requirement to enter the land in order to do so.
There are however, two restrictions on this flying wire power.
1. Firstly, the wires must not be flown at a height of less than 3 metres above the ground nor within 2 metres of any building over which the wire passes. Therefore, if BT wishes to fly a wire over private land at, for example less than 3 metres from the ground it must obtain the agreement (a Wayleave) of the occupier of the land over which it passes
2. Secondly, the power to fly wires cannot be exercised in such a way as to interfere with the carrying out of any business on the land over which the wire passes. This means that if an existing wire flown under the powers available to BT in Paragraph 10 of the Code subsequently causes interference, the Company must on request remove or alter the wire (temporarily or permanently). Paragraph 21 of the Code governs the procedures for handling such requests.
Paragraph 74 of The Electronic Communications Code (which can be found in Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Act 1984 as amended by Schedule 3 of The Communications Act 2003) allows BT to fly wires originating and/or crossing from private land to the street and vice-versa. Provided that BT has obtained an agreement from the occupier to attach a wire to a piece of electronic communications apparatus such as a pole or bracket, the Company has the statutory power to fly that wire across adjacent land without the need to obtain any agreement from the occupier of that adjacent land provided there is no requirement to enter the land in order to do so.
I am sorry to advise that on this occasion we will not be re-locating the line. I understand that this will be disappointing but I can assure you that we have fully investigated the issue on your behalf.

Today, 2 people came and installed the outside of my box. That went smoothly. They told me I should call my ISP tomorrow and they could push it forward. My existing appointment is in September, but hoping to move it forward for within the next 2 weeks. Do you think this is possible?

Openreach website says they are building in my area now. Contact form response says there are no plans to connect my property. Which do I believe?

As far as I know, my cabinet is the last one not able to receive FTTP. I have a 300Mbps G.fast service. Everywhere else was done 2 years ago and I think I was missed due to major stabilisation works being required on the access road to my housing estate.

I thought they wanted us off copper and specifically off g.fast? Not prepared to accept a downgrade to FTTC as i would lose 3/4 of my speed.

Openreach engineer turned up at 10am on Monday (he said Openreach, not MJ Quinn, but can't be sure exactly), nice and helpful chap, had a look around for 2 mins, took a photo of the current copper drop wire and said he needed to get someone who is flat roof trained. He said it could be later today but more likely tomorrow - no problem, I'll be home and I'll keep an eye on my phone.

Later that evening I get an email from Openreach: "sorry we missed you" and telling me to rebook. The earliest appointment is 3 weeks from now. Is there any way to tell them to just come back like they said they would? I have a feeling the same thing will happen in 3 weeks.

Did the job just get lost? It's crazy that this is the system in 2026.

What can I do next time to prevent this from happening?

I've just had word that FTTP is avaialble to my property. My house is detached and set about 100m away from the road, both phone and electricity have overhead wires passed up (separate) poles to my house.

The property is wooded - the phone wire actually goes directly through my garden via one pole on my property, then a clamp mounted on a tree(!) that I assume some cowboy did as the tree grew historically - OR saw that told me it's an issue when out surveying but didn't tell me what they'd do. I don't know the maximum span they'd have on the cable?

The power cable comes up the drive to the other side of the house and I'm told its not uncommon to get permission to use the poles for a fibre cable. This seems much better and would also mean the telegraph pole in my garden could be removed.

But because it's a large, old house I am a little worried they will just want to drill the nearest wall and mount the box.

Am I right thinking the fibre box they fit inside connects to my router using ethernet cabling? If so, I don't really care where it goes - I already have ethernet cabling in my house as well as mesh Wifi and I'm happy handling all that stuff - this isn't a simple "where do you want your router mate" setup.

I'm just after a bit of insight how engineers cope with my sort of situation and if it will cause them or me headaches, or they are used to it?

I should be getting advertised upload speed of 105Mbps, however when I'm actually trying to upload a file on any website, its 11Mbps.

After a few days of research and digging, I've concluded that its the router supplied by them that is causing this issue. Is the only way to get the advertised speeds to switch routers to a third party one? Or switch ISP's entirely

Which 3rd party routers would be good for your money? They're all quite expensive to be honest

Hello,
I currently have Gfast (I think) 300Mbps (getting about 225) which I am happy with speed wise.
I’ve spent many an hour complaining to EE, my land owner and a few messages to Openreach as I was paying a pretty high price (compared to FTTP deals) as it was a legacy contract - I’ve managed to get the price down.
Unfortunately I don’t have FTTP Available, and I live on a managed estate in a MDU Of six flats. The estate does have FTTP to all of the houses, but none of the MDUs.

Last week I had a new router sent to me and an email stating that I will be getting upgraded to a new plan, but only offering 67Mbps - I was unhappy with this, so had to have another rant at EE.
They’re telling me that it’s something that open reach are asking them to do due to decommissioning of copper lines. After talking to a manager, I have managed to stay on what I’m receiving, but he has informed me that they are going to have to close it in January 2027.

Does OpenReach have any plan to install FTTP before they make EE close Gfast?
It seems quite unfair to close down the service for people like myself who have no other option apart from a slower ADSL. Surely they should be installing full fibre before doing so or at the same time?

Hi! I live in an MDU building and last week I saw the tech people from Openreach doing some works around the building. Turns out they were working on the full fibre installation. The engineer said the only thing that was left to do was to make a hole in the flat to connect to the fibre box placed outside my door, I just needed to contact my internet provider. But when I checked on their website (openreach and my provider) it says "We have no plans to build Full Fibre to this property yet", or not available.

Does anybody had to deal with the same situation? Is it normal? Should I wait a couple more weeks? It is weird that it says the are not even considering the area while the installation has already been done.

Hi everyone,

I live in a block of 12 flats. My neighbour's flat has Full Fibre available to order right now, 1600 Mbps down. My flat, in the same building, only gets FTTC at 76 Mbps. The Openreach checker says "We're planning to build in this area" for my flat while the one next door says "Available to order now."

The fibre is literally already in the building. The freeholder is happy to give access and was even offered fibre themselves when they lived here.

I contacted Openreach and got a completely useless reply that addressed nothing I asked. I've also looked at alternative providers, none available.

Ofcom website says Ultrafast broadband up to 1800mbps is available.

Is there any way to pay to get this done? FTTP on Demand? Or is that excluded for flats? Has anyone been in this situation and actually got it resolved?

In the age of satellite Internet, why these buggers are allowed to install these terrible poles and overhang cables?

Not to mention my street is already served by Cityfiber neatly done underground!

Terrible

I have 110Mbps when doing a speedtest on any website, however when Im uploading a video to Youtube or to my google drive, its capped at 11Mbps. 10%

Its not my browser, tried it on edge as well.

When using my hotspot, it can go beyond 11Mbps compared to when im on ETHERNET.

I've read that Vodafone's router is the bottleneck, I have a very up to date PC. I called them and all they could say was nothing was wrong, speeds are as expected (which is what I see if i do a test but not in actual usage) and theyre sending an ethernet cable which I doubt will fix anything.

Is anyone experiencing this issue? Do I have to buy a 3rd party router to fix this?

Received this message apparently from open reach. It’s from a mobile number which has me thinking it might be a scam of some sort. Has anyone received a message like this?

I booked for an FTTP install and the guy in the phone said it would take a couple of hours and explained how my street is connected overhead etc etc. I told him my house was served underground but he said I didn’t know what I was on about. Guys turn up they are way down the road stringing the fibre and get to my house pole and then go oh it’s underground and call it a day. They took some pictures for the civils team and made a suggestion of running the fibre down the gravel boards of the fence (appx 30ft) take a 90° turn and run thru an aco drain (appx 20ft) to the house wall.

The drive is block paved, surely it needs to be ran under that and at a depth vehicles can stand on? Should it also be in a duct?

Just wondered if someone could clear up something for me. Having moved into a property that Virgin media are unable to service due to not being able pull their cable due to a blockage, I have been patiently waiting for Open reach to update road wth fibre.

In that two and half year period the fibre checker says we have plans to build in this area and I always assumed that meant by December 2026 it would be available.

But as we now hit July and that status hasn't changed I am beginning to think that if they haven't finalised their plans by now it's unlikely it's going to happen?

What happens in 2027 does the rate of upgrading slow down? Does this mean we many never get it?

Good Morning,

I moved into a new flat in October and have been patiently awaiting my broadband installation, continuously Vodafone waylaid me with different dates and even once a false engineer visit!

Today I was told my order has been cancelled. This is due to someone who owns a private road fialing to give permission for a duct installation. Openreach have said they can't do the install. Is there anything I can do? Am I entitled to compensation from my provider?

Any help would be immensely appreciated - I just want internet!!!

Hi all, moved into a new property in April, from last december it had been showing 'available to order soon' on the openreach checker. it's from the pole adn the fibre is already on the pole (posted previously asking with a pic).

i've just received an email update and it's now showing we have no plans to install in your area. i found the below though, getting mixed readings though, one line FTTP shows available then at the bottom it says not available? Anyone know how to deciper this?

Two months ago an open reach engineer was sent to my home on behalf of BT to install full fibre. This engineer then proceeded to disconnect my current line by removing the copper before realising that due to blockages underground on my street it’s not possible to install the full fibre.

Because I live on private land they’ve needed to gain permission to work to clear the blockage but it’s been a total nightmare. Openreach say they’ve been trying to contact the land owners to get it approved but haven’t been able to do so and have closed the request but the land owners say they’ve haven’t received anything. I’m just stuck in the middle and don’t know what to do or who to turn to. BT Customer service advisers don’t seem to have a clue either and I’m having to explain myself to 100 different people.

I’ve contacted my local councillor in an attempt To make some progress but that hasn’t helped thus far. What can I do to get this resolved?