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Buying a new house (semi rural) but now worried about internet options

JayW

Member
Hi All

We are quite far down the line in terms of a house move and I stupidly didn't thoroughly check the internet availability before agreeing to purchase. Long story short we are still proceeding and im worried / trying to find a solution to help me sleep at night.

The property is located WV4 4XY

This is a 'private road' which could be a reason the infrastructure hasn't been upgraded, it seems like its FTTC to a cabinet near by but then it runs down the street to the houses via a telegraph pole.

When i do internet package quotes im getting 8-15Mb packages on Superfast etc with a 1Mb upload. I have looked at the BT wholesale site to check speeds, checked cabinet locations and looked at telecom tariffs which state for the postcode '7% area up to 30MB, 92% area less than 30MB'

I have done lots of research into if FTTP is an option and voucher schemes but it seems unless i get the other 9 houses on board for the scheme then it wont happen and I cant see Openreach randomly trying to improve this one street one day in the future. I also cant see my moving in and then being able to convince new neighbours to pledge their support.

I can see CityFibre is rolling out FTTP in Wolverhampton but i believe its via Wolverhampton City Council and this properly is literally the other side of the county line and classed as South Satffs however we do run through the cabinet / exchange (CMFIN) in Wolverhampton so i don't even know if the updates from CityFibre would affect anything in terms of speed, I guess not because id still be on a long length of copper from the cab.

Virgin Media isnt available either, even though their network is a stones throw away looking at the coverage maps.

It right next to a High School with most likely leased line giggbit which also rubs it in the face.

I have considered 4/5G as an option and the coverage looks good but until im there I wont know the speeds. I also do PC gaming which means ping is important so my question would be -

Would a 15Mb FTTC package provide a better experience (lower ping) than a 4G Router which could potentially see much faster download speeds with 5G becoming more readily available and offering even lower ping.

We also stream Netflix a lot and youtube / twitch etc (I already know with a 15Mb connection we would struggle to do multiple things at the same time)

Many Thanks
 
I also live in Wolverhampton, and recently moved from Finchfield (WV3) which is around half a mile from the post code you provided. We have moved just outside of Wolverhampton into a more rural setting, as part of our move we ran into the same issue you describe as our new property is on an Exchange only line (or at least we thought until yesterday).

I opted to purchase a 4G+ router (Huawei B818) and took out an unlimited sim card with EE. I tested this setup at our house in Finchfield and was receiving in excess of 200mb via the mast located in Lower Penn with ping in the region of c. 28ms. I would suggest this to be the most sensible option but of course please ensure you test the network prior to committing to anything...

I found out yesterday that there is a database error in our new road, so we are actually routed into a cabinet. I am awaiting the database update to be able to order FTTC. Once this is done, I will part with my Huawei as our speeds are maxing out at around 25mb here.
 
Thanks for your reply Jjakk!

Have you got any guidance on how to confirm if a specific address is on exchange only or FTTC? Was it Openreach you contacted?

I find that the speeds on BT's wholesale checker degrade per house as you move further away from the main street (must be some kind of algorithm they have based on distance) but im guessing it must be fairly accurate (well at least in that if its suggesting 16Mb then its not going to be 30 but could well be below!

I might have to go and park up near by and do a speedtest on 4G, at least 5g looks promising for people in this situation who dont stand much of a chance in getting fibre.

Thanks!
 
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You can identify if your line is connected to a cabinet vs exchange by using the wholesale checker you mentioned, if you have the phone number to the property it is more accurate.

You can tell by looking at the heading of the result page, it will say (Phone number or property address) on xxx exchange - Cabinet 2 for example. If the Cabinet part is missing from the end, that suggests that it is an Exchange Only Line.

In my case, after much investigation it turned out that our records were wrong and I managed to get into dialogue via Twitter with Openreach and they sent a couple of engineers out this week to survey the street and get to the bottom of it. Hopefully they update the database soon...

I took a quick look at the wholesale checker for your postcode and it appears that you are serviced by a cabinet with provision for FTTC, the speed limitations are simply due to the distance from cabinet.

Based on the roll-out schedule of FTTP, it could be some time before that is an option... Maybe reach out to Openreach on Twitter to see if they can shed any light.
 
For mobile options, suggest having a look a the major network's coverage checkers for your new postcode and see what they say? If they show decent 4 or 5G coverage then it might be worth a go. Pings will probably be higher than fixed broadband, but if you can get a decent signal you may trade some of that off for healthy speed improvements.

Around here in rural Norfolk our FTTC lines top out at about 35Mbps down / 6Mbps upload. However, I'm (now) happily connected via Vodafone at a steady 65Mbps / 27Mbps :)
 
If an extra £10-£15K on the house price is something you might contemplate, you could get a free quote for FTTPoD from Cerberus. It normally takes a week or so for them to get the answer from Openreach.

However, the estimate you get back isn't guaranteed; the final price can be substantially lower or higher. You won't know the exact price until you stump up £250+VAT to place an order, and it can take 1-3 months to get the survey results, where the final price is generated. You then have 30 days to pay the final price or drop out and lose the survey fee.

On top of that, the delivery timescale isn't guaranteed either; it could be installed in as little as 4 months, but if you're unlucky it could be 18.

The fact that your existing service is delivered via poles may work in your favour, but they would have to take the fibre all the way back to a Fibre Aggregation Node, and that might be a long way away (and not necessarily anywhere near your FTTC cabinet). The desktop survey will at least take into account the location of the node.
 
I have a choice between ADSL at 8mb to 10mb, FTTC at 2mb or 4G at 50mb, so I use 4G and no landline with my old landline number ported to sipgate. No issues but you have to be careful as it does vary between providers, I must be one of the few on Three that have no problems.
 
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For mobile options, suggest having a look a the major network's coverage checkers for your new postcode and see what they say? If they show decent 4 or 5G coverage then it might be worth a go. Pings will probably be higher than fixed broadband, but if you can get a decent signal you may trade some of that off for healthy speed improvements.

Around here in rural Norfolk our FTTC lines top out at about 35Mbps down / 6Mbps upload. However, I'm (now) happily connected via Vodafone at a steady 65Mbps / 27Mbps :)
Not all Norfolk lines top out at 35bps! I live in a village and top out at 68/18!
 
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Hi All

We are quite far down the line in terms of a house move and I stupidly didn't thoroughly check the internet availability before agreeing to purchase. Long story short we are still proceeding and im worried / trying to find a solution to help me sleep at night.

The property is located WV4 4XY

This is a 'private road' which could be a reason the infrastructure hasn't been upgraded, it seems like its FTTC to a cabinet near by but then it runs down the street to the houses via a telegraph pole.

When i do internet package quotes im getting 8-15Mb packages on Superfast etc with a 1Mb upload. I have looked at the BT wholesale site to check speeds, checked cabinet locations and looked at telecom tariffs which state for the postcode '7% area up to 30MB, 92% area less than 30MB'

I have done lots of research into if FTTP is an option and voucher schemes but it seems unless i get the other 9 houses on board for the scheme then it wont happen and I cant see Openreach randomly trying to improve this one street one day in the future. I also cant see my moving in and then being able to convince new neighbours to pledge their support.

I can see CityFibre is rolling out FTTP in Wolverhampton but i believe its via Wolverhampton City Council and this properly is literally the other side of the county line and classed as South Satffs however we do run through the cabinet / exchange (CMFIN) in Wolverhampton so i don't even know if the updates from CityFibre would affect anything in terms of speed, I guess not because id still be on a long length of copper from the cab.

Virgin Media isnt available either, even though their network is a stones throw away looking at the coverage maps.

It right next to a High School with most likely leased line giggbit which also rubs it in the face.

I have considered 4/5G as an option and the coverage looks good but until im there I wont know the speeds. I also do PC gaming which means ping is important so my question would be -

Would a 15Mb FTTC package provide a better experience (lower ping) than a 4G Router which could potentially see much faster download speeds with 5G becoming more readily available and offering even lower ping.

We also stream Netflix a lot and youtube / twitch etc (I already know with a 15Mb connection we would struggle to do multiple things at the same time)

Many Thanks
I'd be optimistic that if there is a school next door somone has provided a fibre to them and so you are quite close to fibre infrastructure. If you can find out who has supplied to them then there is a good chance you can get fibre on demand. This is more expensive, but as you appreciate it is one of those things to factor into a house move these days, like refitting the kitchen etc.
 
I believe B4RN are covering Scole and some of the villages around. Not too far from you if you are in the southern part of NR15! It may be worth contacting them and seeing just how close their network might be. If you can gather enough local momentum and possibly investment they may be persuaded to cover your village.
(Lovely area you live in too, if you are into walking: research High Ash Farm and some of the walks around there. Good views over Norwich and the roman camp/ruins from some of the hills!).
 
The property is located WV4 4XY

You're in luck, seems your area is very well covered by mobile operators.
EE has great 5G in your area!

O2 also claim good 4G, as do Three and Vodafone.

I'd get a payg sim from all of them and do some testing on your phone.
To test O2 you can get a Giffgaff sim, a Voxi for Vodafone and Smarty for Three, it's usually easier/cheaper to get it like that.

I'm on EE 5G and it's great, avg 300 mbps with peaks at about 500 mbps. Pings are 20-30, generally within gaming thresholds, but of course.. radio will not be as stable overall as copper for this.
 
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I believe B4RN are covering Scole and some of the villages around. Not too far from you if you are in the southern part of NR15! It may be worth contacting them and seeing just how close their network might be. If you can gather enough local momentum and possibly investment they may be persuaded to cover your village.
(Lovely area you live in too, if you are into walking: research High Ash Farm and some of the walks around there. Good views over Norwich and the roman camp/ruins from some of the hills!).
Yeah, B4RN are making waves in the area but unfortunately we're a pretty long way away. The majority of the locals are content (happy isn't quite the right word) with the current state of play which doesn't help in terms of raising funds etc.
4G'll do the deed nicely for now - not sure I've got the patience to push forward with a CFP etc!
 
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