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Someone covered up the toby box

timf

Regular Member
A family member living in Cambridge wants a good internet service. The website bidb.uk reports fibre internet service is available from CityFibre and VirginMedia. Wanting good service, zen.co.uk was approached and an order was placed, using CityFibre as the network provider.
After several visits to the site, CityFibre reports that the toby box has been tarmacked over, can’t be found and they can't provide service to the house. This leaves Zen with no choice but to cancel the order.
Has anyone had similar issues with CityFibre or other providers? Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.
 
Try going with one of the more specialist providers on CityFibre like IDNet who will be better at applying pressure on CityFibre to find a resolution. Take a rolling contract with them and switch elsewhere after they've got you up and running if you want but be warned Zen are nowhere near as good as they used to be and someone like IDNet or A&A will have much better service anyways.

If there's extensive work involved to make the connection usable again though, it may be that the answer is no and they just don't want to spend the money on doing the work. Worst case scenario you might find that CityFibre just isn't a viable option.

In that case you'll have to go for a different infrastructure provider, whether that's Openreach, Virgin Media, or going down the route of 5G Home broadband instead.
 
Emtelle's EMU pavement boxes have a large metal washer embedded in the lid enabling it to be found with metal detection equipment under asphalt for exactly this scenario...

Screenshot_20240427_132647.webp


Emtelle are by far the largest supplier of this product in the UK
 
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When I installed a new water main the inspection cover was plastic with a large steel washer screwed on the underside so it can be traced by metal detector.
 
A family member living in Cambridge wants a good internet service. The website bidb.uk reports fibre internet service is available from CityFibre and VirginMedia. Wanting good service, zen.co.uk was approached and an order was placed, using CityFibre as the network provider.
After several visits to the site, CityFibre reports that the toby box has been tarmacked over, can’t be found and they can't provide service to the house. This leaves Zen with no choice but to cancel the order.
Has anyone had similar issues with CityFibre or other providers? Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.

No, but I feared the same scenario, CF had markings on the pavement outside each house which made me assume its dig. The council after that was done did major works, which included resurfacing the pavement and all those markings were gone.

But the installers told me its from the pole so wont be a problem, interestingly they also told me dig jobs were currently suspended in the area as well due to lack of equipment.
 
Can you obtain any photos of its location post-install and pre-resurfacing to aid the search? Google Street View can sometimes offer a history, an estate agent who sold the property may have photos (potentially online) etc.
 
I'm not sure how believable I find it that something like that was covered over. The people doing surfacing work aren't looking at a footpath for the first time, they know what a utility box looks like and how to go around it.

Quite possible that the toby was never actually installed.
 
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I agree with @jpm. I know of at least one house in Langley Green, Crawley where a Toby box was missed out by CityFibre's contractor (Lanes) and have seen others on my walks. (They did not appear to be covered by an OR pole and definitely UG fed).

The issue here appears to be that Cityfibre may be unwilling rectify a duct issue once the "rollout" has occurred. If a microduct does exist they should be able to trace it and make a small dig. The microduct is often only 2 to 3 inches below the surface on the installation here in Crawley.
 
Whether missing or covered CityFibre should have no issues with replacing/building the Toby. Virgin Media and others do this all the time.
 
Whether missing or covered CityFibre should have no issues with replacing/building the Toby.
Over time I suspect this will increasingly become an issue with CityFibre-installed infrastructure. If your microduct gets crushed, are they going to dig up the whole pavement all the way back to the cabinet to replace it? I'm sure they won't. CF are not *required* to provide service to anyone, even if you had it before.
 
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Over time I suspect this will increasingly become an issue with CityFibre-installed infrastructure. If your microduct gets crushed, are they going to dig up the whole pavement all the way back to the cabinet to replace it? I'm sure they won't. CF are not *required* to provide service to anyone, even if you had it before.
Yes. That's what everyone else does. They repair their plant. No need to dig all the way only to the crushed part and repair it.

https://www.millsltd.com/default/cable-ducting-fttx-products/microduct-connectors-seals.html in case you want to get some in for next weekend. Find break through usual techniques, dig around, new section, join, job done. Shouldn't cost more than a few hundred quid: a premises passed with a live customer is worth more if they sell.
 
It seems that in this part of Cambridge (a city in the heart of 'Silicon Fen') the only provider of domestic FTTP infrastructure is CF (not OR and VM couldn't tell me with certainty if VM supplied fibre or cable).
We are now approaching other ISPs (with the facts about this issue available) to see if they will take up the challenge.
Thanks everyone for your ideas/comments/experience/advice.
 
It seems that in this part of Cambridge (a city in the heart of 'Silicon Fen') the only provider of domestic FTTP infrastructure is CF (not OR and VM couldn't tell me with certainty if VM supplied fibre or cable).
We are now approaching other ISPs (with the facts about this issue available) to see if they will take up the challenge.
Thanks everyone for your ideas/comments/experience/advice.
you checked https://bidb.uk ?
 
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I mean that tells you, you are VM covered, I would personally go with Yayzi, and give it a try free for a month with the reddit offer, see how you get on :) it sticks you on a monthly contract anyway, so if not happy after a few months, you can leave.

They've had there ups and downs, but who hasn't?
 
To continue the story..
After trying 2 ISPs, CityFibre have effectively said ‘there is no fibre service to the address in question’ and declined to provide FTTP. This is despite there being a CF manhole just a few metres from the driveway. The address is still marked as ‘live’ in bidb.uk
So VM may get a new customer - I only hope their service is very much better than their reputation locally. I don’t plan to use VM’s WiFi but to set the VM router to modem mode and provide WiFi with a mesh system. Fingers crossed.
 
You might be pleasantly surprised.

To give you hope, I have been with VM twice at this address, the first time many years back there was very visible congestion, very jittery etc.

Then I signed up for gig1 almost 2 years back, and it was like a different service, never had any issues whatsoever with downstream performance peak or off peak didnt matter, and once the docsis 3.1 was rolled out on the upstream that was the same as well. Jitter was very low by cable standards.
 
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