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Moving into FTTC wait list area - what can I do?

FrunningMan

Member
Hi,

If our housing chain does not collapse (touch wood), it looks like we will be moving house in early December. I did not think to do more than have a quick look at a general broadband speed availability checker (all good) and check what the current owners' setup is (Sky fibre, all working well).

Now that I ran out of other housing-related stuff to worry about, I checked in a bit more detail. Long story short, the (address-based) lookup on broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com shows FTTC availability as "waiting list":
broadbandcheck.webp


Couple of questions:
  • Is there any way to find out what the FTTC situation might be like in 2 months' time? Would anyone at OpenReach know and (more importantly) be able to tell me whether there are plans to expand capacity on that cabinet?
  • If not, is there anything I can do ahead of the move? I've got a good link to the current owners and might well be able to find out their deactivation date. Would there be a means of placing an order/reservation at that time, before the actual moving date?
  • Less likely (but worth asking): is there any way to port their current line over to myself?
  • If none of the above, and I find myself without FTTC on day 1, what is my best bet to change that as soon as possible? Is there an ISP that would supply ADSL and that does actually use the FTTC wait list?
  • Doing some searches on the area, there also might or might not be plans to infill FTTP availability in the Burntisland area in Fife - is there any way to find out more about this and what time scales might be?

Many thanks in advance!
 
Try calling Sky and ask to take over the broadband account - I know Plusnet can do this though they charge about £50 to change the account owner unless you take out a new contract.
 
Try calling Sky and ask to take over the broadband account - I know Plusnet can do this though they charge about £50 to change the account owner unless you take out a new contract.
Thanks brookheather - will give them a ring and ask once moving date etc. are firm and fixed. Doing a quick search it looks that Sky is generally pretty bad at account porting at the best of times.

Any way one can contact an oracle at OpenReach to find out more about FTTC capacity/FTTP schedules?
 
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Account porting has also been made a lot more tedious since the introduction of GDPR rules, so I suspect you might need to work with the existing owner of the property to get Sky to play ball. As usual the biggest problem with doing this on a large ISP is that it's a non-standard request for the front-line support people to deal with, which can make it harder to resolve.

As to the question of Openreach. How long they take to resolve the issue depends upon whether its a simple matter of adding an extra line card into the cabinet, physically extending the existing cabinet or building a new one. Issues of cost and civil engineering play a role, so such issues can take weeks or even many months to resolve.

I generally find that the best place to ask is via Openreach's Twitter support team, which seem fairly responsive:

 
[...]
I generally find that the best place to ask is via Openreach's Twitter support team, which seem fairly responsive:


Thanks Mark - looks like it's time for me to finally get a Twitter account!

Regarding porting, we are for now waiting for the solicitors doing their magic housing dance, and I'll bring up that topic once all is sorted.

It maybe worth a read of our guide to Waiting Lists which can be found https://support.aquiss.net/en/knowledgebase/article/fttc-broadband-waiting-lists

Thanks Martin - FTTC waiting lists are the sort of thing they never tell you about in the shiny TV adverts. Good to know there's a reliable way to ensure one is at least sitting on the waiting list..
 
Hi, the best option is to sign up for an ADSL account with the same broadband company that the current owners of the property have their Fiber account with. You can request to get notified of an upgrade as soon as they activate your ADSL account which usually happens the next day. As the current account line release from the cabinet(DSLAM) takes one day after new activation is in place, no other broadband companies will be made aware that there is availability and your broadband can be upgraded by the company by taking ownership of the existing line. I am yet to see this work when I move into my property at the end of the month, but Sky has assured me this is common practices. I am not sure this works if the new account is not from the same company as the existing one, but in principle, it should be the same given they know when they have taken possession of the new account and should know at that point they can check for availability straight away.

The alternative will be to go with either Hyperoptic or Virgin Media if there is coverage and availability. They operate with a different network to Openreach.
 
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Hi, the best option is to sign up for an ADSL account with the same broadband company that the current owners of the property have their Fiber account with. You can request to get notified of an upgrade as soon as they activate your ADSL account which usually happens the next day. As the current account line release from the cabinet(DSLAM) takes one day after new activation is in place, no other broadband companies will be made aware that there is availability and your broadband can be upgraded by the company by taking ownership of the existing line. I am yet to see this work when I move into my property at the end of the month, but Sky has assured me this is common practices. I am not sure this works if the new account is not from the same company as the existing one, but in principle, it should be the same given they know when they have taken possession of the new account and should know at that point they can check for availability straight away.
Did it work for you? I have put in an offer on a new house with working FTTC broadband with BT but when I look at my options online I see there is a waiting list. EE says "Fibre broadband not currently available due to current capacity constraints" and the Openreach checker says "Waiting List". Something else to worry about!
 
Did it work for you? I have put in an offer on a new house with working FTTC broadband with BT but when I look at my options online I see there is a waiting list. EE says "Fibre broadband not currently available due to current capacity constraints" and the Openreach checker says "Waiting List". Something else to worry about!
Doubt you will get an answer

soyandcurry

Member
Joined May 12, 2021
Last seen May 12, 2021
 
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