The possible chance of actually getting Full Fibre

[BigDave558]

Hi, just after a little info as it seems hard to get any kind of answer.
Where I live I am on a private community of 30 ish homes. We are on private land with above ground copper cables. In fact I have a BT pole in my garden less then 10ft from my property. 
We have poor quality copper cable based internet. No company wants to actually upgrade us to any kind of full fibre. 
Now as BT are shutting down the internet exchanges as they move over to full fibre, what will happen to my internet?

I have spoken to BT/Open Reach only to be lied too and promised dates for answers have flown by. I have found out that to do the upgrade work that Open Reach would need some form of paperwork to be signed by the land owner. He has little to no intensions of signing that paperwork. So my question is what am I supposed to do?
I was willing to join another big company on a 1gb full fibre package but that turned out to be just lies from them to get me to sign up, as they figured out they can't provide the service.

So BT/Open Reach can you please actually tell me what you intend to do? You have connected up everyone around our private property. So when is it our turn?

[iniltous]

You don’t seem to have much understanding of the relationship between BT and Openreach , BT do not operate any network, that’s Openreach , so BT have never given you any date for an upgrade to FTTP , Openreach don’t deal directly with the public , so any date OR give in public announcement are illustrative only , not contractual…so it’s difficult to see why you can be concerned about dates when you have never been given a date in the first place , Openreach deal in ‘big picture’ forecasts , ‘25million with access to FTTP by 2027’  , that type of thing .

BT don’t operate the exchange network and are not closing anything , many exchange buildings will still be in use after everyone is off copper pairs , but again it’s not your concern, no one is withdrawing copper pairs until an alternative is available , the PSTN switch off and the change from copper to FTTP are separate programs , if you are still on copper after the PSTN (old style telephone ) switch off , you are not disconnected, your existing copper based  broadband is more than adequate for IP telephony, it consumes a tiny amount of bandwidth, you continue as you are , not upgraded but not disconnected.

If you live on private property and the owner of that property refuses to consider any offer from Openreach to access their property to upgrade your service to FTTP then you will presumably remain ( as many will ) on FTTC for the foreseeable future, as stated , that doesn’t mean you being disconnected, you simply stay on FTTC with IP telephony.

Obviously you can join another company if you want to  , that’s your choice , if they promised something and didn’t deliver that’s got nothing to do with BT 

Hope you won’t think this flippant, but you ask what you should do if the owner of the land on which you live won’t entertain the existing infrastructure being upgraded and FTTP is (from your perspective ) essential, the answer is move to somewhere that does have access to FTTP , IMHO you do seem to be aiming your ‘fire’ at the wrong targets here 

[36ULW]

BT are just switching off the old PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network, aka providing a Traditional Phone Line with 50v DC on it.

Some services will still be provided via a Metallic Path, aka Copper for years to come. It’s just any Telephony will be provided via VoIP.

This idea that the Media keeps pumping out that anyone on a Metallic Path will lose any and all services after X Date is wrong.

As to why Openreach haven’t provided services on this Private Estate of yours I’m not sure. As you say there’s BT Telephone Poles on it so it’s not like anyone one particular Network Provider has exclusivity like some New Build Sites do.

Unless all these Poles on the Estate are fed by Multicore Ariel Cable from outside the boundary of the Estate then I assume the cables going up the Poles originate Underground first and it’s possible they’re DIG, Direct in Ground, which would require some digging/duct to be put in to provide FTTP.

As you said, Openreach have approached the Landowner to do whatever work is required but they’ve refused. 

At the end of the day of this Landowner is refusing then there’s little to nothing Openreach or any other Alt Net can do about it. What do you want them to do, trespass on Private Property and start digging big holes everywhere?!?!

Has said Landowner given reasons why they won’t allow the work, are they worried about the aesthetics of the work or are they your typical greedy Landowner demanding unreasonable sums of money for the work to go ahead?

[BigDave558]

Ahh please allow me to explain. I have been in contact through email with both BT and Open Reach as it is possible for the public to speak to them. Now yes I do understand what a contract is and I understand that they never offered me a contractually held date, but they both did offer me a rough date for some answers to be give which has long passed. 

As it is their equipment that is above ground and as they can now do above ground upgrades to  change copper to full fiber and as I have mentioned their pole is slap bang right in front of my living room window on my property, I find it very difficult to understand why no upgrades can be done. 

My main question is what will happen when they BT or Open Reach or who ever is doing it close down the old exchanges which my old Internet comes through. 

And I shall say it here, no other providers can upgrade my current service. 

[BigDave558]

The land owner won't sign a document that a company would need to complete any work. But that would be for digging up the road and laying a new fibre cable. This is not needed as I have spoken with the engineers that were in another estate behind us. They are able to replace old copper cables with new fibre cables and use the existing poles. 

I feel like I am getting told one thing by any company and another by the owner. And yes BT are shutting down some exchanges as thus was confirmed to me by BT through an email late last year. 

[licquorice]

As has been pointed out previously, the move to Digital Voice has absolutely nothing to do with copper versus fibre.

[iniltous]

As has been explained BT have no responsibility for the network, Openreach were set up deliberately by the Government/Ofcom not to be customer facing .

Your service is not at risk , the PSTN switch off is nothing to do with FTTP , if  area can’t be upgraded to FTTP , for whatever reason , wether that’s your ‘landlord’ intransigence, or even if were Openreach deciding that upgrading in your area makes no commercial sense, your service will continue as it is , if you have telephony that isn’t delivered from your router yet , then it will be before Jan2027 , this requires no change to the existing hybrid fibre/copper FTTC network.

Openreach have over 6000 local exchanges, only around 1000 are needed for the FTTP and the remaining FTTC infrastructure, if you have FTTC , the chances are it’s not provided from your local exchange anyway , if it is , then your local exchange is one of the 1000 headend exchanges, either way it’s irrelevant, your service isn’t going to be disconnected .

The exchange closure program will take decades , closing  those no longer required will not affect service to those that are within what was that exchange boundary, the fibre to the cabinet (FTTC ) is served from a headend exchange, that may be 40kms away.

[36ULW]

So if as you claim they can provide Fibre to the Estate by purely doing it all Overhead and not needing to do any kind of dig/duct work what exactly is it the Landowner is refusing?

What right has the Landowner got to say if Openreach can add anymore Equipment/Cables to their Network?

Its clear by your Post and subsequent replies you don’t have the full story and or facts so all this thread is going to become is a game of pure speculation and opinion.

[tonysmini018]

Are you on a caravan site or static home park by any chance?

If so, the poles would have been put in with specified network equipment attached to them on the wayleaves. To add the fibre equipment a new wayleave will have to be agreed between Openreach and the land owner. If they are refusing, or demanding a ridiculous fee, then OR will simply walk away for now and the upgrade will be skipped.