No Full Fibre for Cradley Heath Exchange

[petedk42]

Hello!

Can anyone tell me why the Ultrafast Full Fibre roll out page with Openreach continues to say "We don't have any major plans to build in this exchange" for the Cradley Heath exchange. It's been like this for a number of years and doesn't appear to be changing any time soon.

The Cradley Heath are is currently like an island surrounded by areas which either already have FTTP full fibre or are in the Openreach building plans. If I sign up for a new contract with BT then a free upgrade to Full Fibre 100 is promised. But this currently seems like a promise which won't be fulfilled.

I'm currently out of contract with BT and, if this remains the case, I'm wondering what alternatives there are out there for a faster download and, more importantly to me, upload speed.

Thank you.

[imjolly]

this is a customer help customer forum for BT retail and there is no connection from here to openreach

you could try openreach

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

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/questions-about-fibre-availability

[petedk42]

Hello. 

Thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately, those are the pages which tell me I'm not getting Full Fibre in my area.

I'll see if I can find an email for Openreach.

Thanks again.

[stereohaven]

@petedk42 

I am in a similar boat, as are many, no plans here at all this side of 2026 (Brookwood exchange), Openreach FTTP rolling out in patches all around us.

In my experience, talking to Openreach will get you nowhere, options really are:

• Stick with FTTC until plans change or
• Use Virgin Media if available or
• Use an alternative network such as Toob, Gigaclear, Lightning Fibre etc. if they get to you first or
• Use a 5G solution if viable in your area

[petedk42]

Thanks for the suggestions.

It's really peculiar. My area is literally surrounded by other areas which either already have it or are in the build plans. My house is five minutes walk from streets where it's already available.

I edit video and it's often more convenient to send to the recipient via Dropbox or Onedrive. But 4K footage creates LARGE files and uploading it takes ages.

I'm finding it more and more frustrating. Oh well!

Thanks anyway.

[Crimliar]

Am I correct in thinking that Cradley Heath has a very high takeup of Virgin Media?  If so, then that can be a reason for it not being a high priority for OpenReach!

[stereohaven]

It’s certainly the case in my area.

Meanwhile, in the surrounding environs, which also had Virgin Media as the only ultrafast provider, as soon as an alt net or 2 turned up Openreach decided to start a build. 🙄

So those areas have gone from just Virgin Media to 2 or 3 alt nets and Openreach. It’s a farce really.

[petedk42]

That's an interesting point regarding Virgin Media. My house in Millennium Gardens was built in 2000 and, historically, we've never had access to Virgin Media. However, having just looked at Wifi access points on my phone, lots of people do seem to have it now. However, I'm reluctant to go there because of the issues family have had and also I've seen how unreliable it seems to be in neighbouring areas.

BRSK seems to be on the way to my area. Perhaps this will prompt Openreach into some sort of action. Anyone have any thoughts on BRSK?

Cheers.

[pippincp]

BRSK is as good as any other FTTP provider.