Fibre/Fast Internet
 

Hi, newbie here.
Wasn't sure where to post this and being a virgin customer decided maybe this was the right sub?

So, virgin have held a monopoly in my area for as long as I've been here (about 13 years). I have nearly every year asked bt/open reach when they're going to upgrade their internet in my area as quite frankly it's pathetic (average is less than 10mb).

I'm at the stage now where I'm sick of virgin ripping me off and want to change to another provider, or at the very least have that option.
The trouble is, I don't know what to do or who to speak to. With the country apparently at over 90% fibre ready and me living in a well built up area I'm dumbfounded as to why we still don't have any competition to virgin in terms of speed.

So my question is, who do I speak to about actual time scales of getting faster internet in my area? Openreach have been less than useful each and every time.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Hi Thorski
I don't know what area you are but it may be worth a quick search on companies who are doing FTTP (fibre to the premises) in your area. You don't have to necessarily contact BT Openreach (although they are involved in the process), There's Cityfibre and Zen broadband that spring to mind.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

How do I find that out?
I live in pontypridd, south Wales and I haven't seen anyone coming here at all to survey potential upgrades etc
Much of this town has fibre as far as I know, but my area in this town hasn't had an upgrade to internet since I moved here.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Our FTTP is via the telephone pole and I didn't notice any upgrade happening. I just contacted the companies I mentioned above and asked them. Cityfibre weren't much help but Zen were really good so i went with them although they are quite expensive..

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

A quick search has some providers offering 30 meg in Pontypridd so I guess you are unlucky. I assume you have done a comparison check ? ( I know you are gonna )

I am guessing you do not have 5G, What is your 4G coverage like?

Strange VM has you covered and FTTC does not. You could still try the old 30 days notice and see if they will cut you a better deal but with less switch options they may not play the game

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

I had heard recently that some university were able to get fttp speeds from copper above ground but wasn't aware that people were getting these yet... Or is that actual fibre above ground? And if so, did they come and fit that fibre to the poles for you or was it already done?
As I said, I have never seen any company installing anything on our street.

---------- Post added at 09:49 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

Some parts of ponty have really good speeds, some friends of ours already have fibre across town for example... But it's like this area of ponty has been forgotten about. Would they consider a rough area (and therefore less likely to be able to afford fibre) for upgrades? The back part of our estate is pretty rough, some call it giro city haha

I don't think we have 5g (don't have a 5g phone to test it) and our 4g signal with Vodafone is sometimes shocking, they can't offer us very high speeds either.

Have tried the 30 days notice a few times and I'm almost positive they know the situation as they don't drop the price by much at all

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Try entering your house number/postcode on https://bidb.uk/ (top right) to see what's available and anything planned in the near future.

From trying a random address for a Spar (117 Hopkinstown Rd CF37 2PT) there's not much in the area except VM and nothing planned in the near future. However, EE has some 5G coverage as does Three.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Pontypridd Industrial Estate gets 4G BB from BT.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Use the openreach checker: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broa...ibre-broadband

Or just zoom in on the map until it loads the coloured zones, it's only a few steps of zoom. Shows planned rollouts up to 2026.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

According to that, I should have it by April 2024.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Virgin have had a monopoly in our area for the last 20 years, ever since the NTL days. The only alternative until 2016 was 2meg ADSL, even now the best BT can do is 60-70meg, so no real competition to Virgin.

Probably your only real alternative is 5g or Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/ although to be honest Starlink would be only realistic if you couldn't get Virgin as it's going to be way more expensive.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Starlink doesnt seem much better than the 70M you could get from BT (about 100M down, and 15M up).

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Starlink 2 will change that but it needs Starship to be operational which should happen in the next couple of months.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

TBF Virgin was the only part fibre company for a long time, but with the need for faster internet more companies have been born

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Our area is the same Virgin are the fastest at the moment but Cityfibre & Youfibre plus some openrech FTTP in parts has really started to put them under some pressure works well under way to move this area from HFC to FTTP most of it so far is repairing chambers and phishing the fibre deeper into the area

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Well, its coming here a lot sooner.
They are fitting the fibre to our poles at this very moment.
Went out and asked them when I'll be able to actually get it and they said in about 6 to 8 weeks.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

The option appeared for my address last week.

I have booked an upgrade of my Talk Talk BB for the end of August.
As its currently my "back up" connection, I'm only getting the 150 atm.

If this performs well over the next 7 months, I'll probably upgrade to the 900, and drop VM.
I already planned to move to a 4G backup connection (eventually 5G when thats available here).

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

The same has happened where I live.
Until now openreach services have had a guaranteed speed of 15mb download and from what neighbours tell me it is usually worse than that.
Now full fibre is here, I will have better leverage come contract end time, I might actually leave Virgin completely.
Still another year to go on contract so that way I can hear how the neighbours find it.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

The Welsh Assembly are due to roll out another round of funding for FTTP. To fiind out if you will be included go here.

https://gov.wales/broadband-in-wales

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

So it took about 5 weeks after you saw them doing that work?

A friend has been asking how long this takes as a company (not BT/Openreach) had installed fibre cabling to box's above all the doors to the flats where he lives a month ago and the guy doing it told him its for fibre broadband (he already has FTTC) and he will be able to order it through most ISP's. So I assume they are doing in on behalf of Openreach although it did have their company name on the box's which isn't an isp's name.

Checking the address for superfast broadband on Openreach it says he can't get it yet but it does say build program complete for the area.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

What is the company name on the box, was it Openreach?

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Yep. :)

The Openreach site is useless, they told me its not available at my address, and there are no plans for my area atm. :rolleyes:

All the work round here was done by "Map Group UK".

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Map Group UK are contractors for several AltNets as well as Openreach and VM, the full list is here.

https://www.mapgroupuk.com/clients/

I was really asking Qtx about his friends install.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

There was me thinking their site would be spot on with its info :p:

---------- Post added at 10:07 ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 ----------

Complete technology group, or something very similar. Not a name that stood out to me at all

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

I don't think Openreach use them but I could be wrong.

I would advise your friend checks if any AltNets are also in the area.

Re: Fibre/fast internet
 

Will do.

I know he checked out Hyperoptic as someone around the corner has it but it wasn't available for him. Maybe re-checking someone of them again over the next few weeks would be beneficial.