No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting

[cnkcnk]

Hello,

No broadband available, no projected date of making it available, nobody assisting 

Perhaps someone can give me some advice or otherwise here, I'd very much appreciate it. I have bought a flat in a block of many flats. I am in a vertical set of 4 that is separated by the common stairs to another set of 8, then there's another common stair etc. etc. 

I have found out that there is no provider who can provide me with a broadband connection. I have been through every provider that is available on all the comparison sites, and directly to the likes of BT, Vodafone, EE etc and not one says they can give me broadband. Not has one of them been polite enough to tell me why. Open Reach tell me there is no connection and there are no future plans to make a connection.

The flats on the other side of the stair however, have broadband. By inputting various addresses from the block into various providers search bit for deals, I have established that it is only these 4 flats that can not get broadband. The flat I have bought used to be connected to BT. I've established that. When the owners left to go aboard, two years ago, they had the service disconnected.

As much as anything, I feel quite frustrated and a bit anxious at losing broadband when I move; and at being ignored and nobody with any courtesy willing to explain things to me. On a work level, I complete quite a lot of work at home and have conference calls at home - I'm not sure how I can now do this.

I have been in touch with my MP who has today taken it up, and with OFCOM. At a minimum this has at least helped me feel I am being listened to.

Can anyone give me any advice? How can it possibly be so difficult to get a broadband - or any - connection when flats less than 10 feet away from me have it?

Thank you in advance, 

C

[Keith_Beddoe]

Is this a new build block of flats, if so, did the developer register the site with Openreach when the construction work was started?

Did you check to see whether broadband was available before you bought the flat?

[iniltous]

Openreach and BT are not interchangeable terms,  so any issue with Openreach , if you are not already a BT customer, has nothing to do with BT .
In general Openreach look to provide services to every address in the UK ,  although than may not be FTTP, but copper pairs , when there are instances where  there is no Openreach availability of any kind , especially in new build type situations, it’s invariably because the developer/ builder / owner of the area deliberately excluded Openreach from the build ….whilst  building sites  etc are private property Openreach have no right of access , they can’t just turn up and provide cabling etc , with regular housing ,  once the road and footpaths are adopted by the local authority, OR have rights under the NRSWA , to retrospectively fit infrastructure, but obviously with MDU ( multiple dwelling units ) they are not covered by this , remaining private property , so if there is no OR service , it’s because they were not ‘invited’ to provide services during the build or they were told their services were not required because the freeholder intended to use someone else for connectivity , there are no occasions where developers say to Openreach  , ‘ please  put your services in our building’ and OR say ‘ no thanks , we’ll take a pass ‘ but there are many occasions where the developer does a sweetheart deal with someone other that Openreach and deliberately excludes Openreach .

[cnkcnk]

Hello,

It was built in 1986 and there are flats elsewhere in the block that have broadband. I've been in touch with the factors and they have no problem with having broadband in the block - two flats had broadband installed last year. I contacted the company who installed it, they say they can't install in my flat. No reason given.

[iniltous]

Ok , the terminology you use puts your location as Scotland , where the rules are not the same as in England , but the date of the construction suggests OR should be available as the 1980’s there wasn’t much in the way of an alternative ,  but that date could mean potentially only copper service , and speeds commensurate with copper pairs ( unless a relatively recent arrangement was made with the legal owners of the MDU to provide FTTP )  , is your search for fibre type speeds as it entirely possible that only ASDL speeds are available , or is your search for any OR service including relatively low speeds offered by ADSL , so sub 8Mb ? 

…if you say some ‘flats’ show availability but neighbours show no availability , show the method you used to establish this …. FWIW , the BTw checker is the arbiter not some random ISP site , so use this URL and post the results for a flat that has access and a very near neighbour that doesn’t ,
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

[gg30340]

You have stated "The flat I have bought used to be connected to BT. I've established that. When the owners left to go aboard, two years ago, they had the service disconnected."  

What could be the problem is that the area you are in may now be FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) and a copper connection is no longer available to the ISPs.

That however should not prevent you getting FTTP unless for some reason Openreach have not considered it financially viable at this time.

There is a "Universal Broadband Service" where you have the right to a connection of at least 10Mbps. This includes a mobile connection so if you have that you would not be eligible.

See link

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/access-to-decent-broadband/broadband-uso-need-to-know/

If you are not eligible and get no where with the ISPs and assuming you do have a good mobile connection you could consider getting a Mobile Broadband package. Most of the Mobile Phone companies do them. For example you can get unlimited packages of 5g data for £20 per month.

[cnkcnk]

Hello, thank you...

This is the flat on the same floor as me with a front door 15 feet from mine.

 Mine shows up as...

Thank you for any help/suggestions you can offer.

C

[cnkcnk]

Thank you for that. I will call that number next week and that's reassuring that there is some solution - mobile broadband, I hadn't heard of that. I will go and speak to some mobile shops tomorrow about that and see what I can find out. 

[pippincp]

Where's the result for your flat?

[cnkcnk]

It's that wee red line of text. That's all there is.