This topic

Connecting my home to the openreach network

Frankiea82 — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:20:43 GMT

I have moved to a new flat and it does not seem to be connected to the openreach network.

There is an openreach 5C box on the wall so it must have been at some point but now when we search our address it comes up with an error.

We called the BT helpline and the poor guy helping us has been chasing openreach for 2 weeks and getting nowhere.

We both work from home (my partner actually works for BT believe it or not) so need this sorted ASAP so we can do our jobs.

Any advise on moving this forward would be greatly appreciated as I currently have a starlink mini hanging out of my window until all hours of the night.

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

iniltous — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:37:23 GMT

When you say a new flat , new to you , or a brand new build flat ( or not more than a few years old ) what type of flat, a purpose built ‘apartment complex’ flat or something like a converted house ?,

is there anything at all unusual about the address , a prefix or suffix with the flat number , the building having a name as well as a road number (Flat 1 , Hastings House , 99 Madeup Street that type of thing ) ?, does your address show on the Royal Mail website exactly you know it ?

Use this checker site ,

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

Does your address (as you know it) appear exactly , if not an exact match is there something similar or could be confused for your address (like you are Flat 1a which doesn’t appear but A1 does ) ?

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

Frankiea82 — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:50:01 GMT

Its a flat in an old converted hotel. If I put my neighbours addresses into the search bar they all come up recognised and can apply for BT broadband but when I enter my own address I get an error.

Using the broadband checker I get this - We cannot determine broadband availability at this location. This may be a new address to which connectivity is not yet complete.

I enter my neighbours either sides addresses and get a page saying the services available.

My address appears exactly as theirs does and yet the results are totally different.

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

imjolly — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:02:01 GMT

the contact openreach using this enquiry for and make sure you say neighbours can get broadband connection

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

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

iniltous — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:18:34 GMT

These kind of problems are invariably address related , and flats/apartments especially so if converted from other building types, does your individual flat have exactly the same address format as the other flats that do appear on the BTw site , and have you checked if your individual flat is also missing on the Royal Mail ( postcode checker ) site …if your individual flat is also missing on the RM site you need that omission corrected (presumably by the developer who converted the hotel if this conversion was done recently or by you contacting them yourself if the developer is long gone ) ….the address data most business use is effectively the same data set supplied by RM so an error on the RM site affects many other organisations.

If your flat does appear on the RM (in exactly the correct format as the neighbours that do show availability) then some data error exists on the BTw version of that data set, the link provided may offer a way to get that error corrected, but is more normally used for when neighbouring houses have differing FTTP availability, ( basically someone asking Openreach why they can’t get FTTP when the ‘next door neighbours’ can ) , presumably it’s not FTTP you are after , but simply FTTC .

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

Frankiea82 — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:38:09 GMT

Yes its FTTC as FTTP is not available in these flats yet.

My address is on the royal mail postcode finder and it appears exactly the same as everyone else.

The building has been flats for over 20 years and there is an openreach 5C box on the wall so I would presume someone has had a connection to this flat in the last ten years or so.

Re: Connecting my home to the openreach network

iniltous — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:19:43 GMT

If sufficiently interested google ‘ what’s the difference between gold , silver and bronze addresses with BT’ , it sounds as though your address is a silver address (which is odd as the NTE5c is the latest NTE type which suggests a relatively recent service was in your flat ) , a Silver address is ‘BT’ has no existing record of a previous service to the address but the Royal Mail PAF entry exists , a Gold address is best , a perfect match all round , a Bronze address being worse no entry on the Royal Mail PAF .

It should still be possible to order using a silver address , it just means a longer order journey as the address (and therefore its previous physical connection appearance / network routing etc ) can’t be automatically reallocated , and some manual intervention is needed , this address status is a problem with FTTC as the correct ‘cabinet’ needs to be selected to build your connection and currently they don’t know which cabinet to allocate.

If you are having a dialogue with BT did they ever mention this ? , if not and you speak to BT again you could bring it up .