Pre installation visit?

[gazwxm86]

Hello I am wanting to get fibre to the property installed but as we don't own the house I have asked my landlord and he won't give permission untill he knows exactly how this will be done. My research tells me that there might have to be holes drilled into the brick work for a cable of some sort to be fed into the house. Is it possible to arrange an engineer visit to assess how this will be done before I commit to buying the product/service? Thanks in advance for your help 

[Keith_Beddoe]

@gazwxm86 

Its not possible to ask Openreach to do a survey without paying them. You may be able to get advice from other forum members.

Try https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/full-fibre-broadband-installation-checklist#:~:text=We'll%....

Lots of pictures on this page, which should help.

[iniltous]

If the current copper pair phone line is ‘overhead’ from a pole , then the new FTTP  service will almost certainly be the same , if underground, if ducted , the duct is used , if underground but no duct , a small trench dug between the footpath and house wall … at a minimum there will be holes drilled , not least to fix the CSP to the wall , but also potentially a hole drilled through the wall to get a cable inside and to fix the ONT to an internal wall….if your landlord is being difficult then there isn’t much that can be done about that, and as said OR don’t come and do surveys unless there is an obvious  issue , such as ‘no duct’ and a trench needs to be excavated through the garden, obviously this needs permission etc.….

Probably,  your ‘install’ is flagged as ‘no anticipated issues’ , so there is no reason for your landlord to interfere, if worried about drilling through electricity wires or gas/water pipes , Openreach are responsible and fix issues should anything like this happen , but it’s extremely unlikely that anything untoward will occur.

[gazwxm86]

@iniltous Our phone line is overhead from a telegraph pole. The telegraph pole has had a new splitter thingy fitted which I believe is for the new fibre cables to run to our row of houses. So from what you are saying there won't be a need for holes to be drilled into the brick work? Sorry if I have misunderstood you. Thanks for replyin

[Keith_Beddoe]

@gazwxm86 

From the page I linked to. A hole will still be needed. Please look at the example photos.

1. External work - Installing the junction box on the outside of your property

A small junction box, around 15cm x 13 cm, will be fitted on the outside of your property

We'll then run a fibre optic cable from a nearby telegraph pole or underground to the junction box.

[rbz5416]

There will be a CSP box fitted to the external wall, so likely a cable run down to that. There will then be a hole drilled in the wall to feed the cable from this box to the ONT. It's a matter of pure luck as to how neatly this is done & whether there's damage to the brick face from drilling inside to out. So I can understand your landlord's position.

[iniltous]

It’s likely the existing ‘fitting’ at height that the current dropwire attaches to will be used , but from there it’s ‘new’ , so ( as said ) optical cable ran down wall ( so cable clips etc ) to a CSP about the size of half a paperback book , then a hole drilled to allow the internal optical cable to be run to where the ONT is to be sited, it’s generally accepted that access to FTTP increases the value of a property, so that should be of value to the landlord, but ultimately it’s you that would have to convince them ,

TBH , I dare say most tenants would simply order FTTP , there are no ‘checks’  if you are the ‘owner’ or have the owners consent , it’s pretty much deemed consent, and the chances are the copper dropwire is taken down at the same time as the optical cable put up , so visually , externally there is no difference apart from the CSP on the external wall.

FYI , the chances are the pole top ‘box’ is a CBT , and the splitter is further back in the ‘network’  

[Keith_Beddoe]

@gazwxm86 

See https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/Permission-form-for-rental/m-p/2257206#M341159

[rbz5416]

Probably worth noting that proceeding without the owner's consent will likely be a breach of your tenancy agreement. Resulting in at best, the loss of your deposit to "make good" any perceived damage & at worst, immediate termination of the agreement.

The only way forward I can see is if you can get the owner to attend on installation day & agree the proposed installation there & then. Not sure where that would leave you though if he refused, as you'd be cancelling through no fault of BT or Openreach. I would expect that to fall within the 14 day cooling off period but you'd need to confirm that in advance.

[gg30340]

Point out to the landlord that having full fibre installed would be advantageous to him when it comes time for him to look for a new tenant because most people now expect a fast Internet connection. This would also be at no cost to him as you will be picking up any installation costs.