This topic

Full Fibre Broadband

Nigeldavies — Wed, 06 May 2026 09:01:08 GMT

We are a street of four houses

One house can get full fibre via overhead cables

When a survey was being carried out we were advised that if the four houses wanted full fibre it could be provided by underground cable (the other three houses could not have overhead connection)

A further survey was carried out. We were advise that some work would be needed on the existing manhole. This was carried out by BT contractors.

We met with the BT engineers and agreed a method for the cables to be installed

We were given a date for the work to be carried out

Just before installation we were told that is was not cost effective as only one house had applied for full fibre

We explained that all four houses wanted full fibre.

We were told that the other three houses could not register for full fibre because full fibre was not available!

and therefore it was not feasible for only one house

Where do we go to get someone to understand that all four houses want full fibre

Re: Full Fibre Broadband

36ULW — Wed, 06 May 2026 19:28:13 GMT

If the other 3 can’t be fed OH it’s possibly down to a Minimum Drop Wire Heigt Issue.

The minimum height across a road is 5.2m.

Or it’s potentially a Line of Sight Issue.

They’re houses, not bungalows right?

Re: Full Fibre Broadband

Ali_A — Thu, 07 May 2026 07:35:49 GMT

Hi @Nigeldavies

Do the other houses have any broadband services already?

It may be worth having a look at Openreach Can I express my interest in Full Fibre page on what steps you can take.

Ali

Re: Full Fibre Broadband

iniltous — Thu, 07 May 2026 08:57:02 GMT

The way Openreach surveys for FTTP are undertaken , and the way the work done on retro build FTTP doesn’t really align with the way the OP states

….if an area is surveyed for FTTP , the surveyor doesn’t ‘knock on doors’ to have discussion with the householders about potential uptake etc , at this point they have no idea if the survey (once returned to those that control the budget for the build phase ) will actually be an area upgraded or surveyed but remain outside the current build plan , if a surveyor was asked during the survey ‘what are you doing mate ? ‘ , no doubt they will engage with that person , but apart from general info , they can’t give any particular helpful information as far as dates etc , it may be years before the build is started after the survey is done .
Once the build phase is started it’s dynamic , and under control of the local build management , should an area (within the general area to be served ) hit unforeseen snags , ( a problem occurs that will be disproportionately expensive to resolve ) , that part of the scheme can be deferred , so basically you can get a small enclave that’s omitted from the rest of the build taking place around it , because the costs for those few properties are outside the budget allowed per dwelling.

Any scheme that is started is not influenced by potential take up of the service, you can’t order FTTP until the network is built , so how can any area have ‘not enough takers’ beforehand, when the build is taking place Openreach have no real idea how many takers there eventually will be .
FTTP is built without any orders existing for it , in simple terms it’s impossible for anyone to order FTTP from an ISP until availability is showing and that’s only after the build is done .

There must be more of a story behind this , perhaps the OP will give more detail.