Upgrading a cabinet which prevents all residents from a faster broadband service

[village1]

I represent a Residents' Association; we did a survey which showed many residents are on BT broadband with a poor service below 10mbps and often just dropping off.  This has worsened since lockdown with many working from home.  We are surrounded by a faster service in our area, within 50 metres of most of us, on different roads, the Ofcom map shows this clearly, and we have been told informally by Openreach technicians that  the cabinet that serves us is the only one in the area that has not been upgraded. How do you speak to ANYONE about this?  We are not after fibre, just a better speed and value for the very expensive contract we are all paying.  

Anyone any ideas about how to get anywhere with BT to Openreach to service improvements?

[iniltous]

The ‘network’ is no more the responsibility of BT Consumer , than Sky or Talk Talk or any other retail company, presumably the residents you represent are not all BT Consumer customers but are served by other company’s as well, have you posted similar questions on there other company’s sites ?
BT isn’t a proxy for Openreach, you should , if concerned that you live in an area that isn’t currently well served for faster broadband speeds , contact OR directly and see if there are any plans to address this.
Your statement is a little confusing, you say your cabinet is the only one in the area that hasn’t been upgraded , but you are not after ‘fibre’ , then what upgrade are you after ?
Upgrading to FTTC is a commercial decision, if it’s not commercially viable to upgrade , then there may be a BDUK type route to share some of the costs, or you could explore a community funded project, where the difference between what OR would consider spending , and the overall cost is met by the CFP agreeing to make up the difference.

[village1]

Yes there are other companies providing the service to their customers, and those people generally are not complaining - it is the BT group of residents who are pretty appalled.

I haven't been able to speak to anyone concerned with this problem,  from Openreach.  In fact the recorded message tells you to call a number which no longer exists.

We are simply wanting to have the speeds of our service at least in the super fast category.  Anyone who has a speed of below 10 download and below 1 upload is entitled to an improvement.

[village1]

Sorry I forgot to add:  the other cabinets in the area are upgraded for fibre.  The one serving our street is not.  Additionally, the BT speed check tell me for my address I should get a download speed of 16 - would that ever have been the case.  And some of our members have a download speed of 5 download and .5 upload.  Which is why we are complaining as a group.

[imjolly]

enter your phone number and post results  delete number but leave exchange and cab

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

do you get a good signal on your mobile phone?

[village1]

My personal broadband speed is good (12/1) after much work by Openreach, I am speaking on behalf of Residents' Assn. members.

[iniltous]

Seems odd that it’s only BT customers that are appalled , but customers of other company’s who will no doubt will be receiving the pretty much the same speeds are not, but anyway, as already stated BT don’t operate or maintain the network, OR do, but are not normally customer facing, but do have avenues to contact them within certain parameters, enquiring about any plans for the area fall within them.

If  you have the wrong contact number, you could always try email or failing that obtain the correct number , but here is a good place to start 

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/community-fibre-partnerships

[village1]

Thanks.
We are exploring this.

[village1]

But!!!! We are not asking necessarily for fibre but just a better quality fast broadband service.

[imjolly]

from what you have posted your cabinet already delivers adsl2+ up to 24mb depending on distance from the exchange so only way to get faster is move nearer the exchange or cab gets upgraded for fibre or you are lucky enough to get FTTP in the future