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Openreach engineer needed to switch provider despite existing FTTP line?

dg1986

Casual Member
We've been with BT for many years on FTTP that was installed circa 15 years ago when the estate was built, have a white Openreach ONT box in the study, can see the optic cable, on 300mb speeds etc. Despite this we've consistently struggled to move provider as others begin to offer FTTP, often their system states we can't get above 100mb (Vodafone), or now moving to TalkTalk that we'll need an Openreach engineer visit first despite confirming we already have a connection. We are now waiting indefinitely to switch as TalkTalk say there is a long wait to book an engineer. Is this a case of anti-competitive behaviour or Openreach wanting to be paid twice for the same installation?
 
Go to


enter phone line number or postcode followed by address and what does it say.
 
Go to


enter phone line number or postcode followed by address and what does it say.
Thanks, the website states “Great news. Ultrafast Full Fibre is available at your address”. Which is a good start, should it also say full fibre is already installed not just available?
 
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No idea as I don't have FTTP, but it sounds like the database is not fully up to date. You can raise a query with Openreach team on Twitter who normally respond well.
 
We've been with BT for many years on FTTP that was installed circa 15 years ago when the estate was built, have a white Openreach ONT box in the study, can see the optic cable, on 300mb speeds etc. Despite this we've consistently struggled to move provider as others begin to offer FTTP, often their system states we can't get above 100mb (Vodafone), or now moving to TalkTalk that we'll need an Openreach engineer visit first despite confirming we already have a connection. We are now waiting indefinitely to switch as TalkTalk say there is a long wait to book an engineer. Is this a case of anti-competitive behaviour or Openreach wanting to be paid twice for the same installation?
Wow 15 years ago. BT were only still in early trials with ECI Telecom from the latter part of 2004 and only entered into a commercial arrangement with ECI around the middle of 2010 for FTTP.

So if your property was part of these very early trials, according to your timeline, then I dare say it may indeed require some further investigation and/or database updates.

As your headend exchange is still ECI then unfortunately you will be capped at 300 Mbps downstream. I don’t believe Openreach have announced any plans to replace the ECI-based estate of FTTP (now with Nokia and Adtran), affecting a small but significant number, as I recall around 50,000 FTTP available properties.
 
At 15 years ago, you would have been one of the very earliest FTTP installs (lucky you!) You certainly could be on very old equipment, and perhaps they want to migrate you to something else.

Can you see what's the manufacturer and model of your ONT? That may give some more clues.

If you're on an ECI OLT, you may be limited to 300M indefinitely (unless they move your PON to a different OLT port)

Anyway, I would just go with it. Accept the engineer visit, let them sort it, and if there's a problem you'll find out what it is.
 
If you're on an ECI OLT, you may be limited to 300M indefinitely (unless they move your PON to a different OLT port)
….completely different OLT needed. Would have to be a brand new Nokia or Adtran OLT effectively running alongside the old ECI OLT or at least in the same exchange.

Then of course they’d need to swap the ONT for each subscriber (whilst keeping others running - unless it was a Big Bang type change…unlikely). So then would need to do some work on the PON to introduce WDMs (don’t think they deployed them until relatively recently…certainly not likely in 2004/5/6

Don’t think they’ve announced any plans to sunset this ECI gear for probably theses reasons and also cost etc.
 
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Wow 15 years ago. BT were only still in early trials with ECI Telecom from the latter part of 2004 and only entered into a commercial arrangement with ECI around the middle of 2010 for FTTP.

So if your property was part of these very early trials, according to your timeline, then I dare say it may indeed require some further investigation and/or database updates.

As your headend exchange is still ECI then unfortunately you will be capped at 300 Mbps downstream. I don’t believe Openreach have announced any plans to replace the ECI-based estate of FTTP (now with Nokia and Adtran), affecting a small but significant number, as I recall around 50,000 FTTP available properties.
Thanks, I’m relying on the previous owners comments on the installation age, but I’ve been here 5 years so it’s at least a few years older than that. I have the Huawei 4 port hub (one with what appears to be vent holes on the front) with battery backup unit, so perhaps not as old as I was told, unsure. To be fair 300mb would suffice I’d just like the option to shop around, TT offered 3m free then £35pm for 18m at 500mb. Sounds like it’s not so clear cut as I thought so I’ll stop grumbling. Cheers.
 
OK well 5+ years sounds more plausible than 15. That was a stretch. FTTP was being deployed, albeit not in huge numbers in those intervening years.

If it’s Huawei then theoretically there is nothing needed from an engineer visit perspective. It may just be an anomaly in the database. You may find that although a visit gets booked - it gets cancelled. Just follow the process in any event.

The “good news” is that you aren’t artificially speed capped as you would be with ECI based kit.

Good luck.
 
We've been with BT for many years on FTTP that was installed circa 15 years ago when the estate was built, have a white Openreach ONT box in the study, can see the optic cable, on 300mb speeds etc. Despite this we've consistently struggled to move provider as others begin to offer FTTP, often their system states we can't get above 100mb (Vodafone), or now moving to TalkTalk that we'll need an Openreach engineer visit first despite confirming we already have a connection. We are now waiting indefinitely to switch as TalkTalk say there is a long wait to book an engineer. Is this a case of anti-competitive behaviour or Openreach wanting to be paid twice for the same installation?
FTTP 15 years ago wow, there can't be many places that even had FFTC back then, maybe you could post a picture of the connection box, have you done an online check as to which ISPs do FTTP to your home?
 
FTTP 15 years ago wow, there can't be many places that even had FFTC back then, maybe you could post a picture of the connection box, have you done an online check as to which ISPs do FTTP to your home?

Turns out it’s not actually 15 years. Probably more like 6 or maybe 7 years. It will be a standard (for the time) Huawei 4-port ONT. Like this.
 

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Glad to confirm Openreach must have told TalkTalk no engineer needed so went live 1 December. But….
- Emails stating an engineer was due arrived a week later,
- I’ve never been given a go live date, only by calling did I know it had started,
- equipment wasn’t dispatched until 9th, arrived 10th
- BT have no record of a switch (but TalkTalk say they did process as a switch) so I now have TWO broadband lines live at once, BT on port 1, TT on port 2. So I now need to get BT to end my account with them separately… something tells me TalkTalk are not geared up for customers eith existing FTTP lines.
 
It would seem that switching FTTP suppliers is not a simple process, unlike conventional FTTC which can use the "one touch switch service". I had same problem when I wanted to switch from TT to vodafone both of whom use CityFibre in my area, in order to vodafone to take over the service I would have to terminate TT first then sign up to vodafone, the "systems" would not even allow an advance order, therefore I would be without service possibly for a few weeks.
 
It would seem that switching FTTP suppliers is not a simple process, unlike conventional FTTC which can use the "one touch switch service". I had same problem when I wanted to switch from TT to vodafone both of whom use CityFibre in my area, in order to vodafone to take over the service I would have to terminate TT first then sign up to vodafone, the "systems" would not even allow an advance order, therefore I would be without service possibly for a few weeks.
Was fairly painless in my experience on Openreach FTTP. Quite literally around 12 seconds of downtime going from Cerberus to TalkTakBiz at 1am. Nothing to change either physically or virtually.
 
It would seem that switching FTTP suppliers is not a simple process, unlike conventional FTTC which can use the "one touch switch service". I had same problem when I wanted to switch from TT to vodafone both of whom use CityFibre in my area, in order to vodafone to take over the service I would have to terminate TT first then sign up to vodafone, the "systems" would not even allow an advance order, therefore I would be without service possibly for a few weeks.

The key part here is CityFibre. At present they don't seem to be able to handle transfers between two of their own partners.

Openreach based services, between two of their partners, handle transfers just fine.
 
something tells me TalkTalk are not geared up for customers eith existing FTTP lines.

Correct. TalkTalk systems presently don't seem to handling multiport ONTs across the Openreach network.

They seem to default to Port Restarts, thus starting the next available free port, which of course does not trigger a migration notice on the original port. Likewise, a cease won't go through as that has to be handled by the current provider.
 
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