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Lit Fibre FTTP

LGDT

Member
Hi everyone

First time poster so please be gentle with me. I’m a VM Fibre broadband customer. Lit Fibre were in our postcode last summer and autumn putting in what we assumed was the infrastructure for their network. I spoke to one of their engineers working outside or house around late July and he told me they expected the network to be fully commissioned by November.

Well we waited and waited with the Lit webpage telling us that full fibre FTTP was coming soon and to pre-register. In February I contacted Lit to see if I could get more than the generic web page info. To my surprise they arranged a survey which took place first week of March.

There the good news ends. The engineer told me that our current landline connection to the house - we actually gave up our landline in 2015 - is armoured cable running under a large hedge adjacent to our 8m drive to the pavement. He checked various maps and diagrams on our tablet and told us he thought it unlikely OpenReach could connect us.

I followed this up with Lit and the wording of the response is below:

We would like to kindly advise you that we have sent one of our supervisors from the engineering department to survey your address. He found out that due to the armoured cables, the whole street is not serviceable.

Unfortunately, we are 100% certain that the cables cannot be used for feeding any property on the street.

I’ve been digging around various forums, websites etc to see what this actually means but I’m still none the wiser. I contacted OpenReach via their query page but they referred me back to Lit. Also whilst out walking I’ve noticed that some of the telegraph poles have Lit Fibre labels on them.

So my questions are

1. Is the “armoured cable” issue insurmountable?

2. Is there an option to connect us via a telegraph pole?

To be honest we’ve never had an issue with VM and at every contract renewal I’ve managed to beat them down to a “new customer” price. But I would like to have an alternative option if there was one available.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
I suspect they're saying that you're connected via a buried armoured cable as opposed to a duct. This means they can't use PIA to connect you via an existing duct. They could dig their own duct, or deploy poles, but it sounds like (at this stage) Lit Fibre aren't going to do that.
 
Thats how it sounds to me. The cost of ducting or building extras infastructure without the PIA access due ot the buried cable likely means they see it as too much of an expense to do the work needed for a single user connection.

As for being insurmountable, thats entirely dependant on how much work they'd need to do. If its a case of building a single duct from the street, theres a few options. If it's further down the line and more extensive roadworks etc are needed, then thats less likely.

Same would go with any polls. If theres a way to route on existing structure with space available, it might be an option. But if they need new infastructure outwith what exists - you may be stuck.
 
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It's basically economics.

Without any easy options to use OpenReach poles or ducts your street is just not viable based on their current business plan.

Some fibre infrastructure companies would do the dig to install their own ducts or a duct to a pole, but Lit doesn't appear to be in that category. So unless another fibre infrastructure company comes along it's probably a case of waiting for OpenReach to do whatever their are going to do, in their own sweet time. Unfortunately.
 
Thanks everyone - all understood now. I've bitten the bullet and signed a new 18 month VM contract - beaten them down to the " new customer" price as before so happy enough. Maybe by Nov next year Lit will be in a position to do it - AIUI they're being merged into City Fibre so fingers crossed.
 
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