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Help with connection options

jctly

Member
Hi all,

Apologies for a long first post.

I've been trying to find a solution to my apartment block's poor internet connection but am fairly stumped at this point. Here's where we are:

We are a small block of 14 flats in the centre of Brighton with an ADSL connection providing about 5/1mbps down and up respectively. Virgin media run their fibre to the rest of our street but left us out of the rollout. Despite the cable running to within 5m of the building, they are unwilling to connect us up.

I had managed to commission a report from a local wISP and this was progressing nicely. Now, however, the two flats closest to the flat roof where the aerials would have been placed are refusing to allow access for installation.

We have had a quote from Openreach at £36k for FTTP a few years ago. Recently Hyperoptic has suggested they could connect us for £8k. However, given that we had a free solution other residents aren't keen to shell out for the installation.

There is a Three owned LTE mast across the street from us, but as Brighton is part of Three's 5G rollout I figure it's worth waiting for confirmation on that before committing to the 4G connection.

Have a missed any other avenues? Any and all help much appreciated.
 
I suppose you could also consider the 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) too, which is due to be introduced from March 2020. However given your location I suspect the supplier (BT / EE) would just hand you a 4G service using their mobile network. Otherwise I think you've pretty much covered the options.

However if there were any home workers in your building then in theory you could make use of the Gigabit Voucher Scheme to potentially help fund the Hyperoptic install. Usually the rule is up to 10 homes can participate for every one SME. Each voucher can be worth up to £500 per home and £2,500 per business.

 
Presumably it depends on your patience. 'Waiting for 5G' might not be worth the interim inconvenience.

'There is a Three owned LTE mast across the street from us''''

You can get an 'unlimited' broadband SIM from Three and others on a 1 year contract, and either go for the supplied router or buy one (or a MifI) for £60+ from Amazon etc.

Even 3G will give between 10-20 Mbs (optimally) though Brighton masts can be congested. 4G: 20 Mbs - 45 Mbs with the Three HomeFI.

You can test with a free PAYG SIM in an unlocked phone.

Downsides with mobile broadband are 50 ms 'latency' which seems to annoy gamers. It doesn't annoy Netflix or VOIP phones. :)

From experience, getting 'other residents' to agree to anything is like Waiting for Godot.' Also, installing external antennas often needs the freeholder's permission, which equally often, is not forthcoming.
 
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Thank you both for your replies. Went out over the weekend and picked up a 3 unlimited data sim and a Huawei router. Pulling 65mbs at the moment.

Good to see that I can just upgrade the router to 5g when it comes.

Less need to pull the residents together!
 
Any build within your flats has to be cleared through the buildings owners as it will feed , ISP’s can’t just turn up and fit it because the residents want it. Because part of the build would be on private property, this can exclude it from some BDUK funded work.

Flats are classed as Multiple Dwelling Units (MDU’s) and have a different build approach to normal houses that are fed via a single fibre.
 
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