This topic

No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 19:56:06 GMT

Hello,

No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

Perhaps someone can give me some advice or otherwise here, I'd very much appreciate it. I have bought a flat in a block of many flats. I am in a vertical set of 4 that is separated by the common stairs to another set of 8, then there's another common stair etc. etc.

I have found out that there is no provider who can provide me with a broadband connection. I have been through every provider that is available on all the comparison sites, and directly to the likes of BT, Vodafone, EE etc and not one says they can give me broadband. Not has one of them been polite enough to tell me why. Open Reach tell me there is no connection and there are no future plans to make a connection.

The flats on the other side of the stair however, have broadband. By inputting various addresses from the block into various providers search bit for deals, I have established that it is only these 4 flats that can not get broadband. The flat I have bought used to be connected to BT. I've established that. When the owners left to go aboard, two years ago, they had the service disconnected.

As much as anything, I feel quite frustrated and a bit anxious at losing broadband when I move; and at being ignored and nobody with any courtesy willing to explain things to me. On a work level, I complete quite a lot of work at home and have conference calls at home - I'm not sure how I can now do this.

I have been in touch with my MP who has today taken it up, and with OFCOM. At a minimum this has at least helped me feel I am being listened to.

Can anyone give me any advice? How can it possibly be so difficult to get a broadband - or any - connection when flats less than 10 feet away from me have it?

Thank you in advance,

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:08:08 GMT

Is this a new build block of flats, if so, did the developer register the site with Openreach when the construction work was started?

Did you check to see whether broadband was available before you bought the flat?

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

iniltous — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:12:55 GMT

Openreach and BT are not interchangeable terms, so any issue with Openreach , if you are not already a BT customer, has nothing to do with BT .
In general Openreach look to provide services to every address in the UK , although than may not be FTTP, but copper pairs , when there are instances where there is no Openreach availability of any kind , especially in new build type situations, it’s invariably because the developer/ builder / owner of the area deliberately excluded Openreach from the build ….whilst building sites etc are private property Openreach have no right of access , they can’t just turn up and provide cabling etc , with regular housing , once the road and footpaths are adopted by the local authority, OR have rights under the NRSWA , to retrospectively fit infrastructure, but obviously with MDU ( multiple dwelling units ) they are not covered by this , remaining private property , so if there is no OR service , it’s because they were not ‘invited’ to provide services during the build or they were told their services were not required because the freeholder intended to use someone else for connectivity , there are no occasions where developers say to Openreach , ‘ please put your services in our building’ and OR say ‘ no thanks , we’ll take a pass ‘ but there are many occasions where the developer does a sweetheart deal with someone other that Openreach and deliberately excludes Openreach .

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:10:08 GMT

Hello,

It was built in 1986 and there are flats elsewhere in the block that have broadband. I've been in touch with the factors and they have no problem with having broadband in the block - two flats had broadband installed last year. I contacted the company who installed it, they say they can't install in my flat. No reason given.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

iniltous — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:25:22 GMT

Ok , the terminology you use puts your location as Scotland , where the rules are not the same as in England , but the date of the construction suggests OR should be available as the 1980’s there wasn’t much in the way of an alternative , but that date could mean potentially only copper service , and speeds commensurate with copper pairs ( unless a relatively recent arrangement was made with the legal owners of the MDU to provide FTTP ) , is your search for fibre type speeds as it entirely possible that only ASDL speeds are available , or is your search for any OR service including relatively low speeds offered by ADSL , so sub 8Mb ?

…if you say some ‘flats’ show availability but neighbours show no availability , show the method you used to establish this …. FWIW , the BTw checker is the arbiter not some random ISP site , so use this URL and post the results for a flat that has access and a very near neighbour that doesn’t ,
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

gg30340 — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 21:22:39 GMT

You have stated "The flat I have bought used to be connected to BT. I've established that. When the owners left to go aboard, two years ago, they had the service disconnected."

What could be the problem is that the area you are in may now be FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) and a copper connection is no longer available to the ISPs.

That however should not prevent you getting FTTP unless for some reason Openreach have not considered it financially viable at this time.

There is a "Universal Broadband Service" where you have the right to a connection of at least 10Mbps. This includes a mobile connection so if you have that you would not be eligible.

See link

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/access-to-decent-broadband/broadband-uso-need-to-know/

If you are not eligible and get no where with the ISPs and assuming you do have a good mobile connection you could consider getting a Mobile Broadband package. Most of the Mobile Phone companies do them. For example you can get unlimited packages of 5g data for £20 per month.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:18:10 GMT

Hello, thank you...

This is the flat on the same floor as me with a front door 15 feet from mine.

Mine shows up as...

Thank you for any help/suggestions you can offer.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:21:06 GMT

Thank you for that. I will call that number next week and that's reassuring that there is some solution - mobile broadband, I hadn't heard of that. I will go and speak to some mobile shops tomorrow about that and see what I can find out.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

pippincp — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:41:20 GMT

Where's the result for your flat?

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 23:22:56 GMT

It's that wee red line of text. That's all there is.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 09:08:34 GMT

Could the issue here be that the OP's block of flats are currently still only served by copper, but over the years, all of the "spare" pairs in the cable between the DP in the flats and the cabinet have gone faulty and there are none left now to provide new service?

ie, a 20 pair cable was initially provided in the build in 1986 to service 12 flats, but for whatever reason, there has been a significant number of faults in the intervening 38 years .

Alternatively, could the cabinet have no spare FTTC ports available? An Openreach engineer once said to me that they don't fully load a cabinet with customers, but always ensure that they keep a certain percentage of unallocated ports back as spares in case of future faults?

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

iniltous — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 09:30:06 GMT

When you use the DSL checker for your address using the postcode , and then the dropdown list to select your individual property, is there an entry that exactly matches the Royal Mail entry , or are there a couple of addresses that ‘could’ be your flat ? .

what you probably have , as the line line of text suggests , is your address cannot be matched , in a new build that could simply be the official address notification hasn’t worked its way through to being ‘visible’ but as your address was created in the 1980’s obviously it’s not going to be that m but it is an error no the less.

https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-availability---customer-form

Use thus formwize, there is a section , that effectively asks why can my neighbour get FTTP and I can’t , that should get Openreach to check for any addressing errors and correct them , after that you may find you can order FTTP in the same way some of your neighbours can.

FWIW , flats/apartments that don’t have a structured address format can be a nightmare for matching addresses , flats known as ‘top floor flat’ , ‘basement flat ‘ or where they are known by several variations on the same theme , for example , No.1 Nelson Mandela House , South Africa Drive AB1 2YZ , and No.1 South Africa Drive AB1 2YZ two entry’s for the same address but only one will match the Royal Mail entry

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 18:31:21 GMT

The significant faults point you make, pings with my gut instinct for some reason.

There is one strange thing, the flat below me, doesn't show up on the BT checker. Could that be the issue I wonder? The two flats below it - there are 4 flats, vertically - also have the same 'red line of text' entry in the BT checker.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 18:33:31 GMT

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, the address is properly entered. Although as I have posted above, I've now noticed the flat immediately below me isn't; although the two below it are - so three out of the four that form the vertical line are listed. All have the red line of text error.

I shall fill in the form! Thank you!

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 18:45:25 GMT

A general thank you to all of you that have replied. What I was finding the worst about this situation was the difficulty in getting anyone at a provider to give me an explanation. I felt absolutely ignored. I'd give every provider 0 in a customer rating.

Not a single one replied to my follow up emails asking for a wee bit more information. On the few that I gave it a go phoning, once I got through to the right department, I got no answer beyond wishy washy 'we don't have a connection a and don't plan to have one'. None of the providers made any of the suggestions that have been made here.

I now feel I have had some really constructive help and I am following all the suggested routes.

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 22:35:06 GMT

There's been a development. I think you have solved my problem! I think I may actually be able to get broadband but for some reason, all the providers are not using the address on the BT thing.

On the BT checker my address is listed in two different ways. The first one gets the red text, the second one gets this...

There is no difference between how the addresses are listed in the BT list, but after the addresses there is different information...

What I don't know how, is how to get through to someone who will listen to me that there is something amiss with all the providers' drop downs. This is something from a Kafka novel...

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

cnkcnk — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 22:59:54 GMT

I've managed to get a deal to show on BT 🙂 They are the only provider that I can find that list my address twice. But that'll do. It shows it can be done. I've also filled in the form and pointed out the mistake. On Open Reach itself, both listings for my address are right next to each other.

If I could give you a hug, I would. I have tears of joy just now. Thank you so much!!!!

Re: No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

iniltous — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 09:44:33 GMT

There are various ways property in the UK can be identified, some are more common than others , most consumers would simply use their postcode to identify themselves for package delivery , getting utilities connected etc, hence the Royal Mail entry is considered the one to use , ISP’s etc may use more than just the postcode , and a network operator like Openreach ,( even though the address checker is BTw product ) has various ways to enter data , if sufficiently interested you could look up your UPRN ( unique property reference number ) , a 12 digit numeric identifier, plenty of resources that can provide you with your UPRN , you can then use that instead of the postcode to see if that entry returns a result, that appears to be one of the differences between your address entry that worked and the address entry that didn’t return a match , but as you have now got a positive outcome , it’s obviously not necessary.