Which? is supporting Ofcom’s Boost Your Broadband campaign

Yes I can help Jed – taken from the Guardian-
“It seems when Openreach decided to give Oldmeldrum fast broadband the cheapest way to do so would be to not replace the old exchange, but instead to offer the majority of Oldmeldrum fast broadband via the green boxes around the village. Those close to the exchange would not be offered fast broadband but remain connected to the old exchange.”

To add insult to injury, he says Openreach told him that one way he could upgrade was if he persuaded his similarly affected neighbours to put up some money. “I was told that we could then apply for a community fibre partnership to help pay for an upgrade ourselves. I’m not sure it is my job to do their canvassing, and pay them for the privilege to buy broadband from them at a more expensive price. It seems to me that they want me to help fund the scheme to guarantee their future profits,” he says.

Guardian Money was also contacted this week by the residents of Wigbeth in Dorset, who were told they were too far from the exchange to get fast broadband. So a group of 16 residents collectively came up with £5,500 to enable Openreach to install broadband to their community. Dorset County Council matched their sum, leaving Openreach to pay the remaining £11,000

You might not like that Jed but all I am doing is relaying the practical position as it stands now .
I have seen case after case including some in London been told the same as those others.
It is a lot more expensive for Openreach in engineering terms to do this type of than just install a fibre relay cabinet next to the old cabinet.

The government will assist villages by giving grants to help whether this is still ongoing I am not up to date with.

Get back and I can supply additional info on this situation.
I hope I dont offend by wishing you a Merry Christmas on this Christmas day and I hope things are sorted out for you .

To show its not always Openreach,s fault a stubborn pensioner is refusing Openreach access to a street cabinet to upgrade the area to fibre because he says –its on my land – his neighbours are furious -read thecnextv post ofv mine.

I have said again and again its not always BT/Openreach,s fault that upgrades to fibre are delayed in North Wales overseas investors blocked access to their land but here is one stubborn pensioner making life unhappy for his neighbours .-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3580564/Stubborn-pensioner-86-condemns-fellow-villagers-painfully-slow-broadband-won-t-engineers-access-junction-box-garden.html

“Funnily enough” he doesn’t block then from walking over his land to fix his own phone ? This isn’t an isolated case but what BT has to put up with day in day out and they get criticised by the public instead of the person refusing access to their land .
I can quote 100,s of similar situations . its so bad that Openreach had to install a website on Wayleaves –
https://www.ournetwork.openreach.co.uk/altering-our-network/obtaining-your-wayleaves.aspx

That’s simple to sort out, but it’s typical DFM reporting. We have no fibre access, despite there being no need to cross land or dig trenches. It’s simply that BT can’t be bothered to spend the cash.

“Simple to sort out” Ian ?
and you would do what to that stubborn pensioner –shoot him ?
and the well publicized locally reports in North Wales newspapers which I posted along with links to the said newspapers a couple of years ago about US investors owning parts of North Wales and not allowing Openreach access to their land so stopping fibre to remote areas for Welsh people -get government legislation ?
You seem to forget BT is now a private company no longer has the legal right to force entry etc .

Quote “BT cant be bothered ” ??? obviously you never read my posts even recent ones .
Why should BT pay for those remote customers out of its own pocket why aren’t you hammering at the door of VM -quote we cable your street – North Wales too far away from their shareholders and SKY another $billion company ,why dont you ask them ?
There is nothing stopping any other ISP from digging up roads-for ducting -laying fibre cable etc . remember- UN-bundling legislation allowing this ?
Why cant you just admit those companies wont cable those streets because —there is no profit in it .

DFM reporting? you dont need strategic engineering analysis to see the obvious that’s just trying to complicate matters to the financial gain of business corporations .
You obviously dont know all the professionals that work for BT in every field .

Duncan said ““Simple to sort out” Ian ?
and you would do what to that stubborn pensioner –shoot him ?”

How interesting that you chose to make an extreme suggestion rather than seek clarification of my point, Duncan. By suggesting that I might wish to murder a defenceless human being I believe that – once again – you’re crossing a line in here.

The clarification you chose not to seek is straightforward, by the way. I was referring to the prevailing issue of the article – that access can seemingly be prevented by absentee (or present) landlords. Legislation can be put in place that would require compulsory access to be afforded for the purposes of FO cable installation.

I’m not going to divulge information about my precise geographical location but I can tell you that a BT technician with whom I’ve talked at length has confirmed that it would be relatively simple and cost little to use the existing infrastructure to bring FO cable to our house. The same technician also confirmed that despite Openreach being awarded billions to cable rural Wales they remain committed only to cabling those areas that will provide the greatest financial return in the first instance, despite the desperate need for FO cabling by the hill farming community and others.

Oh – and we don’t have streets, by the way.

DFM reporting? you dont need strategic engineering analysis to see the obvious that’s just trying to complicate matters to the financial gain of business corporations .

Sorry, Duncan, ,but I cannot understand what you’re saying, there. But for clarity, I should add that it is typical of the DFM to sensationalise aspects of a story it feels with enrage its readers.

You obviously dont know all the professionals that work for BT in every field .

Er, no, Duncan. Do you?

Finally, you clearly felt my using the phrase “BT can’t be bothered” was a slight on this bastion of democratic service. In fact, I simply quoted what a BT technician had told me. Living where we do it’s impossible not to detect a certain irony in the way Openreach operates. Granted, we have extreme weather, are very exposed, have a lot of agricultural machinery adept at digging through cables or just pulling them down but we do have landlines – all on poles, of course – and the simple fact is that Openreach attends and deals with issues with the landline provision almost every other day, as it does with the two cabinets that exist between us and the exchange. The cost of having at least two vans plus the inevitable cherry picker on at at least a weekly basis must be little sort of eye watering, and it seems to me that they’re playing an accounting game, whereby they fund repairs and maintenance ad infinitum yet it would, perhaps, pay them to install new lines with FO cabling in one go.

In answer to your query Raymond , unusually (for me ), I present the official government line (updated ) get back with you opinion /criticisms so that we can talk about it.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/broadband-delivery-uk

Junglejan don’t go ! You are entitled to your opinion if you love VM say it, many have extolled the “virtues ” of VM – high speed etc no problem with that but mostly they live in urban areas as VM wont “cable the street ” of some remote rural village.

I dont mind differences in opinion as long as they can be discussed rationally with an engineering outlook as broadband relies on a digital network .
Many people come here looking for help and we do our best to help them if you want to put a differing point of view do so .

William – BT will be introducing a new service in the future due to complaints of —
why do I need a landline ?–quote–
Openreach has published a short notice to give a very rough indication of how much their new ‘Single Order Generic Ethernet Access’ product might cost ISPs at wholesale. At launch in 2019 the service will enable consumers to buy a standalone FTTC “fibre broadband” (VDSL2 or G.fast) line without the voice (phone) service.

Previously consumers had to buy their phone service alongside line rental (included by default) and then FTTC broadband was optionally added on top. Today few people use their landline for making calls and thus SOGEA reverses the aforementioned approach, making it possible to buy a copper line just for broadband. Consumers will still be able to add a voice feature if they want, albeit more as an optional VoIP add-on. End of quote.

There is more but its a bit technical.

William if you are using VM cable then I hope you still have your Openreach wiring -internal + external as VM wont let others use their cable (except one “friend “).
If not it will mean a full installation which will cost .

For 12 months Derek so not applicable to William who has the dearer bundle where a concession of £10 is given instead of £80.
Its there to stop people like William downgrading after the full price kicks in .
The cheapest (new deal ) is £42 + £25 upfront costs after 12 months.

Every month I e-mail out a newsletter to members of a voluntary organisation. If ever there are problems with non-delivery it is a btinternet.com account [or several]. Multiple e-mails get rejected because the server thinks they are junk or spam and I have to resend them one by one. I am not btinternet’s customer but our members are and they are being badly served.

You have my sympathy, John. Service providers try to achieve a balance between protecting their customers and creating problems such as treating email as spam when it is not. It’s common for bulk email to cause problems. Here is some advice from BT: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47055/~/bt-email—best-practices-for-postmasters-and-senders-of-email It’s disappointing that it does not mention GDPR.

For years I have had a problem with sending emails to people working for our town council, irrespective of which email address I use. My emails are often treated as spam and if I don’t receive an acknowledgement I have to send a text or email to inform them I have send an email. Their IT department does not understand the problem. I used to have to send a separate email to a contact in Natural England because if I circulated minutes following a meeting, their server blocked the email. Thankfully that problem has been overcome.

A friend stopped using btinternet because of communication problems.

The problem can be compounded if emails have attachments or contain links.

It so happens I have an American company monitoring my email service which is BT .
I get reports regularly about its terrible service , in technical terms .
What I can vouch for is that BTMail goes “down ” regularly, I get the time-duration etc .
BT Mail ISNT BT is an American company so your emails wizz to an American server get looked at by the usual US “bodies ” and are sent back to wherever they are addressed to .

As you know I have criticized BT continually on this score that a $Billion company cant afford its own email service .

I keep getting offered a really professional/high security email service but it would mean me losing my email URL.
BT Mail is not secure if you think it is well——.

Nothing I send or receive has any security implications so I am not bothered about the route it takes. It is just a minor inconvenience. Just as I am thinking I have put the newsletter to bed up pop some ‘undelivered’ notifications and I have to re-send some.