Fibre availability confirmed by Openreach but suppliers say fibre NOT available

[IainCurrie11]

First post. We moved into a house 10 days ago. The house is 4 years old, end of terrace. There is an Openreach box outside, and an Openreach modem inside (which is powered “on”, showing a red light and a green light). I unplugged it and switched it back on, but still the same red light, and same response from suppliers. The Openreach availability checker consistently says  (I paraphrase ) “full fibre is available to the property, contact suppliers for deals available” . I have contacted 6 suppliers, all say “fibre is not available to the property”. The previous owners had a full fibre contract with Sky, but cancelled it some time before we bought the house. All the neighbouring/attached houses are shown as having full fibre available. We are in a catch 22 - the suppliers can’t help, or give us a contract, as they say fibre is not available to the property. Openreach seem unable to engage with us or them, unless we have a contract. I’ve now tried the Openreach “Availability checker Enquiry” form, and am awaiting a response, but one supplier (Plusnet) tried this on our behalf and after 10 days appear not to have had any response. I feel that what is maybe needed is an engineer to check the installation, or someone to check if something went wrong when the previous owners cancelled their contract, but don’t know how to break out of the vicious circle. Any ideas and suggestions very welcome! TIA

[imjolly]

When you have tried to place an order previously did you quote the serial number from the ONT?   If not then try quoting the serial number and that should enable openreach to trace your fibre availability 

[IainCurrie11]

Thank you, but what is an ONT? Excuse my almost complete ignorance, I’ve lived abroad for the last 28 years and have no experience of how this all works in the Uk. Openreach say I have fibre available, there seems to be a disconnect between this and what the commercial vendors see. None of the commercial suppliers have asked for an/the ONT.

[licquorice]

It's the Openreach modem.

[IainCurrie11]

Thank you! I’ll give Openreach a few days then try again couple of suppliers armed with that info. My understanding is that once there has been a fibre connection to the house it should be there “for life” (Openreach’s own words)…have you or anyone else any thoughts as to why this disconnect (in any sense of the word) between Openreach and the suppliers may have happened? TIA

[iniltous]

Put your address in here and post the results, does it show WBC  FTTP as available ?

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

A new build around 4 years old generally will have had Openreach FTTP from the outset (as part of an arrangement between OR and the developer ) , unlike retro build FTTP areas where FTTP is fitted after the copper network, the existence of a CSP (grey block on the outside wall ) and ONT (mains powered white box on the inside of the property) in new build doesn’t necessarily mean there has ever been a working service , whereas in retro build areas it does , so do you know for certain that a previous occupant had a working service (from Sky according to you ) and not just an order that potentially was never completed .

The existing evidence of FTTP may simply mean the devolper had some interaction with OR , not necessarily an occupant with an ISP .

A definite problem (as well as your inability to order service ) is if the LOS light is lit (red) then there is another issue as the ONT is not receiving ‘light’ from the headend and even if you could order this issue needs addressing.

You don’t seem to mention BT at all , is it BT you intend to use as if it isn’t this forum isn’t really an appropriate place for your queries.

[IainCurrie11]

Thanks. The vendor insists they had a working Sky service ( and is getting slightly annoyed at being asked more than once what they consider a straightforward answer to a straightforward question).

The response from the BT broadband checker is not encouraging …

“We cannot determine broadband availability at this location. This may be a new address to which connectivity is not yet complete.”

…but gives no suggestion as to what action I could then take.

…the Openreach checker however is still giving the following response

“Available to order now…Full fibre broadband…up to 1600 mbps etc etc”.

I forgot to mention (and don’t know if it’s relevant) that when I bought a tv last week from Curry’s they tried to cross-sell me fibre - their initial process showed Sky offering full fibre to the house, so we started to set up a contract…but then their second level enquiry (line check?) said “fibre products NOT available”

[IainCurrie11]

Sorry I didn’t answer your question about using BT ( befuddled after days of feels like bashing my head against a brick wall) - in a nutshell, we would use anyone who would give us a clear answer about how to proceed…this forum has already helped quite a bit, and we certainly need handholding - that is why I reached out to what appears to be a serious and helpful community.

[iniltous]

The reason why providers are not able to proceed in effect is the same reason you got an ambiguous return from the DSL checker , the back end systems that all providers use can’t confirm FTTP availability so can’t raise an order  , even though the evidence is pretty strong that FTTP is available ( the fact that Sky once were able to raise an order is unfathomable as that would suggest the address once did show availability otherwise how did Sky ever complete an order , but clearly it no longer does show availability ) 
You can get (very occasionally) issues where the plot number used by the builder (and the initial purchaser ) for the first ISP connection to FTTP is mismatched to the eventual postal address , ( the house number/street name the Royal Mail keep  ) but after several years this shouldn’t really be an issue as the plot number now is irrelevant but the initial Sky order may have used the plot number to identify the particular property if the roads etc were not ‘registered’ at the time of first occupancy.
If your ONT had a steady green PON light instead of the red LOS (loss of signal) light , some providers could use the serial number of the ONT (normally on a printed label on the ONT ) to locate the service address , regardless of the address being matched (or not matched) , but I suspect this won’t be available to you , the ONT probably can’t be searched for if it’s not actually currently communicating with the headend equipment , it’s also something the majority of ISP customer service reps would have no idea how to do.
Have you enquired with BT ? , in my opinion you would stand a better chance of ordering with a sliver/bronze status address (which yours effectively is ) but failing that fill in this formwize in particular the section ‘my neighbours can get FTTP but I can’t ‘
https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-availability---customer-form

Ignore the new build statement as that’s a different thing , for brand new builds for the first occupant.

[licquorice]

Is it conceivable that there are no ports available on the CBT and the reason for the red LOS light is that the port that it was originally connected to has now been allocated to a different customer.