This topic

Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:19:41 GMT

I received an email from BT over three years ago telling me Gfast broadband was available for me but was never able to order it and it never showed up in the BT Wholesale checker.

It has now appeared, and Openreach have confirmed that it is available to order, but BT, or any other provider, still don't offer it.

Is there any reason why this might be?

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

imjolly — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:16:29 GMT

dslchecker does not actually show GFAST available to you and it is updated by openreach

you can try phoning 08005874787 and see if they can help

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

NeilO — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 19:26:04 GMT

@DeVere the checker results are blank where it would say if G fast was available so I don't think you'll be able to order it. SOGEA means that broadband is available without a voice line.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 09:24:06 GMT

The Gfast lines on the checker are new though. They've only appeared some time in the last few months, as I check occasionally. I also have this communication from Openreach about it:

"Thanks for your recent enquiry via the Openreach website about getting faster broadband.

I apologies for the inconvenience caused to you. I really do appreciate your frustration that fibre broadband isn’t currently meeting your expectations.

I’ve looked into your enquiry and can confirm our systems are already showing that GFAST is available to order. All you need to do is place an order with your chosen service provider to enjoy the benefits of faster fibre broadband.

Openreach doesn’t provide phone, broadband or TV services directly to anyone. You can find a list of providers here

FTTC https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fttc-providers

If your provider has any issues placing an order, ask them to contact us directly.

I’m glad we’ve been able to resolve this case for you, the great news is you’ll now benefit from speedy broadband to your door which means faster downloads, lag-free gaming, and less buffering on music or video.

I will close your case as you can now place an order.

If you need to contact us further please use the following link, as the email account I’m writing to you from doesn’t accept replies. https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-availability---customer-form

Kind regards"

But when I contact BT on the number imjolly gave me they say Openreach is telling them it's not available.

I'm perfectly fine with not being able to get it, i'd just like some explanation as to why I'm being told 2 different things and why BT emailed me 3 years ago announcing it.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

imjolly — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:21:10 GMT

@DeVere

you initially said you had previously received a communication from openreach not BT Retail advising GFAST available. often openreach mail an area about availability of GFAST/FTTP but not everyone in the area mailed can actually get the connection change.

you need to wait until you see GFAST available on the dslchecker then phone FTTP Team It is openreach information that updates the dslchecker

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:36:43 GMT

@imjolly

The initial email 3 years ago was from BT Retail. The email I quoted in this thread was sent to me from openreach last week.

I've been waiting for over 3 years for gfast to show as avaliable. Now I just want to know if I should keep checking or if it's never going to show up.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

imjolly — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:44:01 GMT

@DeVere

only openreach know if your cabinet will be upgraded to GFAST but I think that unlikely as other posts suggested that it has been shelved in favour of FTTP

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:04:25 GMT

If I've got the right cab, have a look here for your road & see what it says for availability. G.Fast is normally limited to around 500m from the cab, so it may be available on the cab but your property is too far away.

If it looks like it should be available, it might be worth double checking your address on the Royal Mail website exactly matches your BT account.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:41:14 GMT

@Anonymous

What would I see if GFast was available?

My max data rate according to the BT router is 100244, what kind of distance would that suggest?

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:50:25 GMT

@imjolly

According to openreach my cabinet has already been upgraded to GFast, which is why I'm trying to work out why they're telling BT retail that it hasn't been.

Maybe I'm too far from the cabinet, but I think a max data rate of 100244 indicates I'm pretty close, doesn't it?

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

imjolly — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:58:32 GMT

with the results of the dslchecker and the max attainable from the router you are probably only 100/150m from your cabinet. go an look at your cab and see if just standard green cabinet or is there an additional box attached to the cabinet

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/06/bt-openreach-reveals-g-fast-broadband-cabinet-extension-pod.html

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:57:06 GMT

@imjolly

There was an additional box installed 3 years ago at the same time that I was sent the ultrafast upgrade email by BT retail.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 12:18:34 GMT

@DeVerewrote:
What would I see if GFast was available?

I'm not sure to be honest. I thought that maybe 100Mb but that seems to be the indication of Fibre 2 speeds. GFast is up to 350Mb so I'd expect to see that. I've tried to find someone on GFast to see what their cab says, but all I seem to see are posts similar to yours. If you know the location of the cab it may be worth running the DSL Checker again, using address mode for that street to see if it's available there.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 11:28:41 GMT

Thanks to @Anonymous for confirming that there does appear to be a gfast extension on our cabinet.

In an interesting twist, both sky and talktalk are now offering 150Mb/s (gfast I assume), which is strange if they're getting information from the same system that is telling BT retail that we can't have those speeds.

Could a mod have a look and try to determine what the actual situation is, as I don't want to have to switch providers only to find that what I've ordered doesn't actually exist?

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

JohnC2 — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 11:43:30 GMT

Hi @DeVere, I'm not sure what's going on here. Did you contact the team advised by @imjolly in message 2? They would be best placed to check this out for you.

cheers

John

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:43:11 GMT

@JohnC2

The team on the number @imjolly gave me could only really confirm that openreach is telling them that it's not avalible.

However, I just got this email from openreach about it:

"Apologies for any inconvenience caused, I can confirm that GFast broadband is showing as available but a managed install will be required.
Please let your service provider know that a managed install will be required and if there are any further issues, please ask them to contact us."

So why is openreach telling bt retail one thing and myself, sky and talktalk something else?

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

JohnC2 — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:53:51 GMT

Hi @DeVere, they would be the ones who should know so I'm not sure if we'll be able to get you a different result.

We'll be happy to see if there is anything we can do to help you. I've sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with us.

Cheers

John

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

RobbieMac — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 14:56:57 GMT

Hi @DeVere

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me this afternoon.

I'm sorry about the confusion around G.Fast availability. I'll investigate this as agreed and I will follow up with you with an outcome in the next 24-48 hours.

Thanks,

Robbie

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

DeVere — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:33:23 GMT

Thanks to @imjolly, @Anonymous and the mods for their help.

If anyone is interested in the outcome, it turns out Gfast was installed into our cabinet over 3 years ago but, for some reason, bt retail can't / won't offer it to us, so we've had to transfer to a different supplier.

It's a little annoying that it's taken this long for any supplier to work out that Gfast was installed and our options have become quite restricted if we want to keep the speeds we now have. Looks like it was a bit of a wasted investment by Openreach as well as, occurring to the Openreach engineer, we're only the 9th property connected to Gfast, and there are quite a lot closer to the cabinet than we are.

Re: Why Can't I order Gfast

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:03:30 GMT

Glad you got a resolution of sorts. But I guess it's not too surprising there's a low take-up if few know it exists!