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Open Infra

Hopefully their supplied router (whatever it is) can be easily swapped out for a MikroTik 5009UG+ which I have coming. Will probably also get AAISP's L2TP service for some static IPs incoming and (if Open Infra use CGNAT) possibly outgoing too.
 
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Super interested in how you get on - am apparently "2-3 months" from install and with no Community Fibre in sight (despite it being available a few doors down) hoping this is a good alternative.
 
Update on the Colchester Open Infra deployment:

They sent us an email stating they have started planning stage of the build, start installing ONTs after March and constructing the backbones and connecting everyone up after that. Just saw a few Kelly Engineers down my street, I don't know if they were for Open Infra or VMO2 but it looks like they were doing a site survey down my street.
 
Following my post here last week:

"... booked me in for installation of the boxes next Monday (which he said would be phase 1 of the install). He said phase 2 (running the fibre to the box) would take place shortly afterwards and the final phase 3 (someone turning up with a router and installing) would be around when they go live ..."

an engineer turned up today to install the inside/outside boxes and ran the fibre to the outside box so we're just waiting for the service to go live in this area (EN4 Barnet) and then they'll send us the router. Was told last week that it should (apparently although I'm not holding my breath) be around the end of this week...
The end of this week came and went today and nothing (as I pretty much expected).

I did e-mail Open Infra customer support yesterday asking when they expected to go live ? I made it very clear that I'm not fussed whether they tell me going live now (hurray!), next week or next month in the hope that they'd tell me something realistic.

They were very quick to respond but instead of answering my question, they asked me the status of the lights on my ONT. I replied and send them a photo (just the single POWER light lit).

I received a response back this morning: "Please use the below link to book your 2nd stage lead in and splicing, after this appointment you should have the "PON" light. [...] If you do not have the "AUTH" light after the appointment, please contact customer services at customerservice@optyxbroadband.com with a new email so that can be done for you. // PON = Connection to the network. // AUTH = Connection to the service."

The engineer who - on the visit mentioned above - installed the external and internal boxes (phase 1) also connected the fibre (phase 2) ... but who am I to argue with customer service if that's what they tell me now to do 😁 so I booked an engineer visit next week and will see what the engineer says when s/he turns up!
 
Yesterday - engineer came and (as expected) said that we're already connected to the fibre (what the previous engineer did). He said that the area is not yet live and he'd try to find out the timing.

This morning - another engineer unexpectedly turned up to say the problem should be fixed and that we should have two green lights on the ONT (power + connected to network) but there was only one. He checked the ONT and said it should be working but perhaps the cabinet settings needed to be changed.

He left and came back just now. Restarted the ONT and we have two green lights! He said to wait the third and final light (AUTH) to light up and he submitted something on his phone to provision it. In the meantime, he gave us a router and then left.

The router is the Gardio HT-178AX mentioned at the bottom of this page:


So presumably all that's required for the third light to light up is a software config change on their end so hopefully we'll get 900 / 900 service here (one of the roads in the development off Verwood Drive in Cockfosters) later today or tomorrow.

They haven't taken a single penny from me nor do they even have any card or bank account details from me. I just signed online the contract on their website (900 / 900 for £35.90 / month; 24-month minimum period; free for first 4 months).
 
Up and running now and configuring / testing my local setup. Was getting slower on a speedtest earlier (not sure whether it was Open Infra or something at my end) but getting now 940 Mbps each way.

CGNAT so either they can hopefully give me an IPv4 if I ask nicely or pay more; or failing that, I'll get L2TP from A&A (which would then be restricted to 600 Mbps).
 
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I've been live now for 3 days and so far I'm really pleased with Open Infra (OI).

I consistently get around 930-940 Mbps up and down on a speedtest. I had to upgrade two of my very old Mikrotik CRS125 switches (which on paper can handle gigabit speeds but with my VPNs I found they maxed out at around 670 Mbps) to newer Mikrotik CRS326 switches to get the full speed. Speedtest shows OI's connectivity provider as Cogent Communications and OI's webpage says their data centre is in Canary Wharf.

The connection has so far been solid apart from about 10-15 minutes downtime one evening around 11pm. My IP changed when it came back up.

No issues at all replacing their supplied Gardio HT-178AX router with my MikroTik 5009UG. Coming out of their Nokia G-240G-E ONT, it's not PPPoE and just a straight Ethernet interface.

The only disappointment so far is CGNAT. I've asked OI customer service if I can have, or pay more, for a public IP (static preferably but I'll take dynamic if that's all they offer) but after two days and chasing so far, no response apart from being told each time that the relevant department has been forwarded my query.

In the meantime, I've signed up for A&AISP's L2TP service (£2.40 setup fee; per month either £10 for 400 Mbps / 5 TB / 1 IPv4 or £18 for 600 Mbps / 10TB / 8 IPv4; no minimum term).

Although the first 4-months of my 24-month minimum commitment are free, I still find it strange that I haven't been asked by them for any bank or card details.

With OI, I get the feeling that the right hand doesn't quite fully know what the left hand is doing. One day after I'd gone live (after being given the router by an engineer), I got a call from a (I believe he said) supervisor saying that my area had gone live now and so all that remained was for them to give me a router. I told him no need!
 
All very positive - although wondering why OpenInfra or Optyx Broadband is missing from the BIDB or ThinkBroadband maps - is it that they have not rolled out to many folks?

Still hopeful they'll come past me now given VM and Community fibre have packed up and moved on.
 
All very positive - although wondering why OpenInfra or Optyx Broadband is missing from the BIDB or ThinkBroadband maps - is it that they have not rolled out to many folks?
I simply don't know enough about them. I can look into it a bit if someone is able to forward examples of where they're live/exist (dm) or if they have any contacts in the company
 
I simply don't know enough about them. I can look into it a bit if someone is able to forward examples of where they're live/exist (dm) or if they have any contacts in the company
I'm DM you.
 
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All great news so far, looking forward to it and to finally ditching VM in my neck of the woods. Openreach FTTP has such a slow deployment in Colchester and VX\LilaConnect has no plans here (they are focusing on South Colchester\Wivenhoe\Greenstead), (OI is deploying in the Lexden area of Colchester judging by the amount of small signs placed in peoples front gardens in that area).

Hoping that there is no CGNAT but since we're not using Optyx as a ISP and we're using Colchester Fibre as our main ISP for Open Infra, there will be a static IP option (breifly looking at their website states that they do offer a Static IP option.)
 
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The only disappointment so far is CGNAT. I've asked OI customer service if I can have, or pay more, for a public IP (static preferably but I'll take dynamic if that's all they offer) but after two days and chasing so far, no response apart from being told each time that the relevant department has been forwarded my query.
I got a reply from customer service this morning after the weekend saying they've made the change (no mention of any additional charge for this).

I restarted the ONT and found that I do now have a public IP (I don't know whether it's static or dynamic).
 
Someone else I know living in Barnet (EN5 - Arkley) went live with Open Infra today after a lot of chasing to get engineers out to finish the fibre install. Finally, three engineers turned up yesterday to do it (100+ metre run of fibre from cabinet to nearest telegraph pole and then fibre from pole to house).

He asked for a static IP and was told this by Optyx customer service:

"Unfortunately, we do not offer Static IP at all. As we service residential not businesses. We can offer you Public IP, Which allows freedom of port forwarding etc."

so what's provided on request (no mention of any cost so presumably free of charge) is a public dynamic IP.
 
When I signed up on the Open Infra website a few weeks ago, the only option available was the 900 / 900 service so I selected that and signed online the paperwork.

I asked them today whether they're going to offer any faster speeds in the future and I was surprised to be told that they already offer a 2500 / 2500 service (£79.90 / month for 24 months, i.e. about double the cost and no initial free period compared to the 900 / 900 service). They said they'd need to arrange for the Nokia ONT to be replaced with a new ONT.

I've asked to be upgraded.

I need to think now about upgrading the house networking from its current gigabit copper cable to, probably, 10G single mode fibre optic cable for future proofing; plus a new router, SFP modules, dongles etc.
 
When I signed up on the Open Infra website a few weeks ago, the only option available was the 900 / 900 service so I selected that and signed online the paperwork.

I asked them today whether they're going to offer any faster speeds in the future and I was surprised to be told that they already offer a 2500 / 2500 service (£79.90 / month for 24 months, i.e. about double the cost and no initial free period compared to the 900 / 900 service). They said they'd need to arrange for the Nokia ONT to be replaced with a new ONT.

I've asked to be upgraded.

I need to think now about upgrading the house networking from its current gigabit copper cable to, probably, 10G single mode fibre optic cable for future proofing; plus a new router, SFP modules, dongles etc.
so whos your ISP? as on open Infras site shows this

1709300720767.png

1709300800453.webp
 
so whos your ISP? as on open Infras site shows this
I'm not entirely sure! The documentation which I've signed (and which I've been sent today for signing) only names Open Infra. It's probably Optyx who on the above page on the site shows their 2500/2500 service as £79.90/month (compared to Infinity Broadband on the above page at £69.90/month).


Where do I choose the provider?
Modified on: Mon, 30 Jan, 2023 at 11:28 AM

As of right now, all of our customers will be connected to Optyx Broadband for the first year of their services. We’re working towards having more options in the near future and we’ll inform about this as soon as we have more information.
 
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Engineer turned up this morning to swap out the Nokia G-240G-E GPON ONT (which I'd been using for the 900 / 900 service) for a Nokia XS-230X-A XGS-PON ONT (for the new 2500 / 2500 service).

He had no new router to give me (that will follow) and anyway, I'll use my own. He said to wait for activation later in the day and then left.

Seven hours later, I received just now an e-mail from customer service saying they found out that they also need to upgrade the CAB in my area as I'm the first one in that CAB with this speed. This upgrade should apparently be done later today and the service should be online tomorrow morning.
 
Seven hours later, I received just now an e-mail from customer service saying they found out that they also need to upgrade the CAB in my area as I'm the first one in that CAB with this speed. This upgrade should apparently be done later today and the service should be online tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning came and went. E-mailed customer service in the afternoon to ask for an ETA but no response.

Following day (today) still zippo from customer service despite another follow-up. Tried phoning customer service a few times but they all went straight through to a voicemail saying they're busy and to e-mail them.

Finally, I called the original install engineer's supervisor who left me his number before (when he called to ask whether things are OK) and he said he'd look into it and get back to me tomorrow (by which time it will have been 72 hours of the service down since the ONT replacement).

Fortunately I kept for now my old FTTC connection as a backup and am in no hurry!

I get the impression that they're a new operation (at least here in the UK) and if things are working, then fine but when they're not, communication seems to be lacking. Hopefully this'll improve as time goes on...
 
Heard back from customer service in the morning to ask me to restart the ONT. Did so but as soon as the ONT "booted up" and received its config, both the 2.5G and the 1G Ethernet ports shutdown. Reported the problem and they fixed it in the afternoon. Seems to be working fine now for 2.5G (it's over 1G at least - will run a proper speedtest later).

Engineer said so far they only have a handful of people on the 2.5G service (including me) and one person on the 8G service (presumably at the price advertised on the Optyx website). He also mentioned a 5G service.
 
Heard back from customer service in the morning to ask me to restart the ONT. Did so but as soon as the ONT "booted up" and received its config, both the 2.5G and the 1G Ethernet ports shutdown. Reported the problem and they fixed it in the afternoon. Seems to be working fine now for 2.5G (it's over 1G at least - will run a proper speedtest later).

Engineer said so far they only have a handful of people on the 2.5G service (including me) and one person on the 8G service (presumably at the price advertised on the Optyx website). He also mentioned a 5G service.
show a speedtest later. but 5gbps sounds nice depending on the price
 
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