UPD Anger with BT and CALA as New Homes in Reading Lack Fibre Broadband

Residents of the new Parklands Development in Reading (Berkshire), which is being built by CALA, have told ISPreview.co.uk of their frustration after they were promised access to Openreach’s (BT) “fibre broadband” services but have instead waited months for a working phone line and slow ADSL2+.

The Parklands Development, which once completed will consist of about 290 homes, is situated in the Reading suburb of Woodley on the University of Reading’s former Bulmershe Court campus. Initially most of these properties are 3-5 bedroom semi-detached and terraced houses, with prices ranging from around £449,950 to £599,950.

At present the site is about 15 months from completion, but many houses have already been completed and over the past 1-2 years a fair number of new residents have moved into the area. One such home owner is Phillip Parkinson, who moved into his new house a year ago only to find that they had no phone line or broadband provision of any kind.

Phillip Parkinson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We have been in the property for a year and at the time of purchase we were promised Fibre internet would be available. As you know it’s difficult to confirm this for a new build but this was promised and Phase 1 of the development did have FTTC [up to 80Mbps “fibre broadband“] access and all the existing surrounding homes had Virgin Media.

Sadly after we completed and moved in the true picture became quite clear. There were no plans between Openreach and the developer, as a result there were no cables at all in the new ducts. It took 4 months of constant pushing by us with the developer and Openreach for Openreach to eventually lay cables from each of the homes in our phase to the cabinet.

Myself and a number of other residents even had to write to our local counsellors and the East Reading MP in order for Openreach to get the work done.”

Most large property developments will ensure that the necessary infrastructure is already in the ground and ready to go before residents move in, although there can sometimes be a longer than normal delay before the first service activations, but experiences do vary.

Unfortunately the problems at the Parklands development had only just begun because residents were then informed that they couldn’t have an FTTC broadband service from BTOpenreach because there was not enough space in the existing cabinet, which Phase 1 of the development uses.

Instead Openreach built a new PCP Street Cabinet (no. 56 on the Earley exchange), but they didn’t build the necessary FTTC twin and thus only enabled support for an ADSL2+ based broadband solution (a lot of locals struggle to get much above 5-8Mbps on this).

Phillip Parkinson added:

“Openreach say the cab is too new so they won’t upgrade it at their full cost and they won’t deal with the residents as the site is ongoing, so they only want to deal with the developer. Unfortunately CALA don’t seem to care about internet connectivity at this site and they simply don’t engage with anyone on this topic.

The current internet connections we have been left with are so inadequate that most residents have two lines to spread the usage, this is not what you would expect in Reading and a new build development.”

Phillip claims that Openreach proposed to install an FTTC cabinet for the area, which would have required the developer to pay a gap amount of just £6,300. However CALA’s support team informed residents in September 2016 that they had chosen not to progress with the Fibre roll-out for the rest of the site.

On top of that the property developer denies ever having received a quote from Openreach for the upgrade work and says that they didn’t promise a fibre broadband service for new home owners.

A Spokesperson for CALA Homes told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Openreach is responsible for providing the communications infrastructure for telephone and broadband services at the Parklands development. CALA Homes has never advertised or informed purchasers that this would include access to fibre optic broadband.

Individual homeowners have subsequently requested fibre broadband from their chosen broadband supplier and where possible, this has been installed using Openreach’s existing fibre cabinet. We appreciate this is not a viable option for all purchasers which has understandably caused some frustration.

We are endeavouring to work with Openreach regarding the issues raised and the feasibility of Openreach upgrading the fibre cabinet to allow additional homeowners to benefit from fibre broadband. We have not received a quote for any upgrade work but we continue to liaise with Openreach on this matter.

Once the road is adopted by Wokingham Borough Council, Virgin Media may also look to install its services at the development if there is sufficient demand, but this is at their discretion.”

Meanwhile Openreach’s initial decision not to deal with the residents directly means that a co-funded (BT Community Fibre) approach cannot be pursued, although it would be somewhat sad if residents of a new build development were left with no option but to pay for the vital infrastructure upgrade themselves.

We should add that the existing Universal Service Obligation (USO) rules do not force Openreach to provide anything more than a basic copper line and broadband connection, while the newly proposed 10Mbps USO won’t be enforced until 2020 (the details of this are still being debated).

Suffice to say that the bulk of responsibility for this situation rests with CALA, whose sales staff appear to have made their alleged commitment towards “fibre” in the verbal rather than written form. Sadly they certainly wouldn’t be the first property developer to make verbal promises that never materialise.

The question of support for “fibre” was asked a number of times via email, but the confirmation was only ever given verbally during on-site visits. “Being in I.T it was important to me so I asked a few times … and the yes response was always a verbal one,” said Phillip.

Phillip Parkinson concluded:

“Myself and other home owners have tried everything under the sun to get decent internet access. I have handed out Virgin Media leaflets to encourage sign ups as their network is all around us. I have engaged Hyperoptic as they are close by as well, but nothing from anyone so far. I have been in contact with Superfast Berkshire as they embark on Phase 3, [but] they recently stated there are no concrete plans for our area yet as well.”

In some areas the situation has resulted in an awkward patchwork of connectivity. For example, in The Orangery area (street) all of the odd number houses have no FTTC as they connect to Cabinet 56, but the even numbers have it because they connect to the older Cabinet 1.

It’s worth pointing out that Phase 1 of the development, which does have access to FTTC, is only a minor part of the project with around 20 associated local homes and thus the bulk of the area looks set to be left without access to faster connectivity. Cabinet 56 is already catering for 100 live connections and more will follow.

An Openreach Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We appreciate how frustrating it must be for the residents on The Orangery that do not have fibre. We’re always keen to work with developers to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs and recently announced that we will be installing FTTP free of charge for all new sites with 30 or more homes.

We will continue to discuss the various options with the developer and residents to see if we can provide a solution that works for everyone.”

The situation is particularly frustrating because of the new rules that are due to come into force at the end of this year, which will require “high-speed broadband” (30Mbps+) to be factored into the planning process for new builds (example).

Not to mention the recent agreements between BT (Openreach), Virgin Media, GTC and the Home Builders Federation (examples here and here), as well as BT’s recent enhancement to their existing FTTP centric promise for new build developments (here).

Sadly the timing of some developments, such as Parklands, mean that they have effectively slipped through the cracks, at least with respect to some of the new measures highlighted above. As a result residents may end up having to wait even longer for a better broadband service, unless some sort of agreement can be reached sooner.

As usual we recommend that anybody who may be thinking of buying a CALA Home, or for that matter a home from any property developer, ensure that they get promises about “fibre” connectivity in writing and then check those claims with the relevant telecoms operator first.

The good news is that Openreach has said they’re now willing to engage with residents over a co-funded Community Fibre approach, although ISPreview.co.uk understands that, after a bit of prompting, there may now be some discussion with CALA about pursuing a “fibre” solution. We’ll keep an eye on this to see if the words can be turned into action.

UPDATE 21st November 2016

ISPreview.co.uk understands that, following our article, BT and CALA have now reached an agreement to deliver “fibre broadband” to 600+ homes on the Orangery and Parklands and Brookwood Farm estates. A letter confirming this should be going out to residents “soon“.