Long-term options, if any, for fibre

[Kimberlin]

Well you're not going to get 2g or 3g anyway as it's being taken out of service. Therefore, if you have no other phone signal, Starlink is probably one of the only options left because you clearly from your own explanation, are not going to get fibre any time soon due to your location and the exorbitant costs involved.

[gg30340]

---

@jrgbwrote:

 Even AirWave the emergency service uses struggles and that has 99% coverage of UK land mass.

---

Just for information, Airwave, which is supplied by O2 is only contracted to give coverage in rural areas up to a certain distance from the road when using the O2 Airwave handset.

Police vehicles normally have a vehicle radio which has a repeater capability which if used acts as a base station for the handsets and increases the coverage to a greater distance from the road.

[jrgb]

I wonder what the plan is if there's just a handful of copper services left on an exchange? Presumably, there's an obligation either to maintain it going forward (which is going to be painful and costly) or offer those customers a fibre service at elevated cost to someone? Is there a third option where Openreach can just declare that the service is going to be ceased at some future point?

[pddco]

While fibre may be out of the solution, I take it that you’ve spoken to BT and there’s no option to speed up your copper service then? Someone may post a link that’ll take you to the broadband service checker. 

[gg30340]

---

@jrgbwrote:

I wonder what the plan is if there's just a handful of copper services left on an exchange? Presumably, there's an obligation either to maintain it going forward (which is going to be painful and costly) or offer those customers a fibre service at elevated cost to someone? Is there a third option where Openreach can just declare that the service is going to be ceased at some future point?

---

It is the exchanges that are being closed down not the copper landline cables.

Very basically, If a customer wants a landline phone service only or they are at present unable to have Full Fibre broadband and want a landline phone service, in this case Digital Voice (DV), it will be offered to anyone who wants it.

They will be given a scaled down broadband service using the existing copper cables if required with a BT hub that can only be used for DV.  The DV phone will work in the same way as it does at present where Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC)  broadband users can have DV.  

DV does not require much bandwidth so if you have a copper landline you will be able to get DV in the future.

[jrgb]

OK - so DV over DSL for the foreseeable, then.  More speed (than 3-4 Mbit/sec) would be nice, but that's not essential. A working landline phone is, given the lack of any mobile service at the site.

I've put in a 14Ah backup battery for the router which lasted over 11 hours when I last tested it. So, that's probably all that can be done for now.

I can still see a day coming when someone will want to pull the plug on the copper service because of the disproportionate costs of maintaining it for a handful of customers, but we'll see.

I have wondered about shelling out the 50 quid or so to get cable route maps out of BT - (a) to see exactly where it runs and (b) to confirm it's laid direct and not ducted. The service runs under agricultural land, so I can't see it being ducted with pulling pits in the middle of fields of sheep. But maybe I should find out.

[gg30340]

The main costs are the exchanges and its equipment. That is why they are doing away with them.

The landline copper wire will be here for many years to come as it is only the means to get the DV signal to the property if FTTP or FTTC can not be fitted. The actual calls are all Internet based regardless of whether it is by FTTP,  FTTC or a stand alone no broadband DV only package.

As regards getting maps, to what end. Openreach will only run FTTP when and how they decided to do it.

[FLC]

@jrgb 

If there's signal 50m away it may be worth investigating an external 4/5G aerial on your own mast.

[jrgb]

Thanks - that's an idea I had thought about. But, the environment is challenging - Atlantic storms bringing savage winds and lots of salt spray. The bigger issue is that the property sits in a National Park so planning is very constrained. We could probably get away with a Starlink slab inside a plastic housing tucked somewhere out of sight but operating costs mount up a bit.