Anyone Been in this Situation with Broadband?
 

A friend has recently moved into a small block of flats, all privately owned, run by a management company. She has health and mobility issues and placed an order for a broadband connection back in August. Only full fibre being offered in her location, no copper or part fibre.

So nearly a month after moving in she has no broadband yet due to Openreach advising major civil works will be required and now may not happen. There is very poor/non-existent phone signal in her flat so she can’t use a phone or connect laptop to essential services like NHS and banking etc. She is piggy backing onto a neighbour’s wi-fi, however, it is not stable and intermittent. All the neighbours are still on the old copper system, which will be disconnected in about a year.

Anyone any suggestions on how to get internet into a location like this while they figure out how to deliver full fibre? Annoyingly all providers are only offering full fibre in the location despite the lack of infrastructure. Starlink is expensive and doesn’t help with the phone.

Not british so advice is very limited, if she access to roof get a starlink, here in AUS its more expensive than FFTN/FFTP but its the most effective other option

I suggest you try her postcode on a sales page for any primary or secondary provider. She lives in what is termed an MDU or multiple dwelling unit where the building copper network will be present. See if the likes of Sky etc. can sell her a 70Mb product which they will order from Openreach using the SOGEA suite of products.

Good luck.

Round here people even further out in the sticks use Airband or Starlink

What do other residents do?

Would it be possible to mitigate poor mobile signal with a well sited mobile based router rather than a handheld phone.

Broadband providers usually fall over themselves to get you signed-up.

Try a different mobile 'phone network, e.g. Vodafone: they don't all have the same geographical coverage.

Openreach in my recent direct experience, are not very good and are only interested in providing installations that are easy for them to install. Any slight difficulty and they don't want to know.

I had a similar issue, although mine was a case of a break somewhere in the wiring within the building itself. Openreach were unable to source the break and a standalone line was not permissable.

Vodaphone came up brilliantly with a 4G/5G mobile hotspot

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/mobile-br...-wi-fi-hotspot

I have one now and it is so easy to use, no external connections required, just plug it into the mains and do the password etc on the pooter and away you go. Mine is actually significantly faster and cheaper than the fixed type broadband and with the added bonus that I can take it anywhere too.

Mine is the Max plan that gives unlimited data and no upfront cost for £23 per month (payable by DD or direct via Vodaphone website) there are 4 plans available via the link

There are 4 UK mobile UK phone networks, try entering the postcode into each networks coverage page and see what comes up. One might cover the area.
Due to poor BT service I've been on mobile broadband with data only sims for many years for a fraction of the cost of a landline service. The online coverage maps are not always correct in the real world though. One option is to get a PAYG or a 1 month sim on each network to try in a mobile handset. Once you have that information buy a mobile broadband router (unlocked so you can change networks and one of the better ones). There may be limitations using a MVNO sim instead of one from the main network but a might be to OK to start with to see how it goes. Some do not allow access to all the available bands.
Look at cellmapper.net to see what masts are in the area of interest. Use the menu to select the network.

I've just gone onto 3's '5g Outdoor Hub'. It's much faster than my fibre to cabinet was. The hub is on my outside window cill (it's designed to be 'stickied' to a window), router inside window cill. I've had to reset it (off/on) twice. Getting between 75 and 100 mbps. Previous was 35. Under £20/month on offer.

CG

PS, long try it and see period...

The other residents are still on the old copper system which will be deactivated in 2027.

She is currently using a dongle modem with a data only sim and it is sellotaped to the inside of a window which gets the best download speed, which varies between 1.0 and 4 Mb/s.

Thanks all for suggestions so far.

That's the analogue voice over copper network. Copper broadband will be around for much longer. I did smile at the original target date of December 2025. I doubt 2027 will be achieved given the history of smaller and easier technology withdrawal programmes.

Openreach withdrawal of copper lines | End of BT copper telephone lines | Digital telephone lines

On her behalf I spoke with several providers on that very issue, one of them agreed to provide broadband via the existing copper installation in the building, then about an hour later withdrew that offer. They wouldn't tell me why, but as you say it made complete sense to do so until the fibre situation is resolved.

When my BT connection went down for a few days a couple of years ago, they immediately dispatched (I think it came through the letterbox well under 24 hours after I reported the fault!) some form of standalone wifi box to which I was able to connect while they resolved the problem at the cabinet. Can the provider not do something similar while they sort out a permanent solution? Seems a good way to impress a new customer...

Incidentally, a friend had to piggyback on a kind neighbour's WiFi for a while, it was also quite intermittent and I got her a WiFi extender which improved things no end...

Ofcom Mobile Coverage Checker
 

This site *might* be useful to determine the best telco to use for a mobile 4G/5G hotspot while the hard-wire issues
are sorted out.

As others have mentioned, the maps are not always 100% accurate.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage-checker

Another vote for mobile broadband. Got fed up with BT so binned them completely and have a Three broadband router working off 4g/5g. Set up contract online, router arrives, switch on, use. Other networks are available.

We had one of those gizmos when we were with BT. Then we switched to PlusNet and had to give the gizmo back. PlusNet uses the same infrastructure as BT but BT will not let them give out the gizmos, so when your Broadband goes down, it stays down until it is fixed.

Just about to move to a countryside location where there is little or no 4G signal and the BT connection is over original copper hence pretty slow. My current provider is Virgin who don’t have a service (and no plans to) so I have decided to go with Starlink mini..

Will report back if it works :rolleyes:

Three cheers for privatisation and deregulation.

:ok:

There is no 5G where I live and I have to clip the 4G MiFi to the curtains to get a one bar signal. One bar is enough for 30 Mbps with Talkmobile. £ 9.95 a month for 70 GB data.