Residents Association SUCCESS – FTTP for all Northern side residents

Latest Fibre Broadband news!

For some time now, regular readers of our newsletter will know that some of us (the northern part of the estate) have had to put up with poor broadband since many of us moved onto Bannerbrook Park. For those on the Southern side, you are the lucky ones who can get fibre broadband. This article is for the ones on the newer Northern side.

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, OpenReach had been on the estate in late November/December 2017 installing the fibre cable ties to your front door.  The intention was that all properties on the newer northern side would be enabled to receive fibre, where possible. OpenReach did mention that some houses may be blocked in terms of the cabling, but you should have been notified if this was the case.

Good News

If you live on the northern side of the estate, up Astoria Drive round to Baychester and roads off Astoria Drive, then you should now be able to receive Fibre To The Premises (FTTP). Openreach did not complete the whole of the estate, despite installing the cable pull throughs for all houses! The Residents Association have had a long battle with Openreach.

From a little research using the OpenReach site, it appears that up to 80 Astoria Drive and across to Baychester are able to get fibre services (plus pockets in Ferguson Close, Steinway, Auburndale, Bellerose Close and Williamsbridge). However and this is where there is a but, do remember this is Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) and your current ISP may not have that product available which is another stumbling block. However we recommend speaking to your current provider and also research the market for offers. Those on the southern side have a wider choice due to being supplied Fibre To the Cabinet (FTTC).

Still no fibre connection? Read on….

For those who live down from 80 Astoria Drive and all roads off of it down to Broad Lane (plus Ferguson Close, Steinway, Auburndale, Bellerose Close and Williamsbridge), we needed your help recently to show a demand for take up of fibre services. With approximately 140 houses without a fibre provision, we had a 100% take up for a fibre service provision. There were 55 responses, though only 49 could be counted after matching the address given with the Openreach website fibre checker.

In the background, the Residents Association were contacting Openreach on your behalf to ascertain why we were missed out, what was happening, etc. We had a number of close calls thinking we had the fibre provision resolved when the first half of the northern side were enabled for FTTP.

So what happened? Well, due to the lack of progress on Openreach’s side, we approached a company that we were made aware of previously who were due to supply fibre to us. After the Open Market Research (OMR) was completed back in Oct 2015, CSW Broadband (government funded broadband enabler) informed us that we were no longer getting fibre through Openreach and this 3rd party enabler. At this point we thought all was lost so we contacted both Openreach and the 3rd party.

Openreach initially indicated that we had been missed off the fibre city journey (unbelievable but true). This is the full fibre rollout to the whole of Coventry. Typical we thought losing out yet again. Indications at that point were installation of FTTP around 2020! Not ideal and we were not happy.

We approached the CEO of Glide and received a favourable reply. We ascertained that due to a postcode mixup when some of us moved in (ie failed deliveries etc) that that had actually been a good thing. If that had not happened we would not have known about Glide, nor emailed the CEO. This was the reason we asked you to fill in the survey to help us see whether it was viable option or not.

So now to the even better news than above…….for those on the northern most part of the estate. 

On Friday 2nd November we spoke to Glide (formerly WarwickNet) and were told that we needed to sign up a number of households in order to enable Cabinet 48 to receive FTTC as a viable solution. That said, we would need 10 households to sign up in order to trigger this. We said we would pass on the costs for you to see for yourself (as this would be via Glide Residential). However since informing Glide by email that Openreach had finally come back to us, they have gone very quiet.

That was it or so we thought! And then the really good news……..

We received a further email from Openreach saying that our complaint has been passed to another team during the conference call we had with Glide. Our initial thoughts were, not another team. The CEO’s Complaints Team were still handling it, just another person. However on Mon 4th November we received another email and we met with Openreach’s Chief Engineer that night. This is the team that happens to be the build team for our area. So yes, after some serious persistence and polite but factual emails over the last 12 months or so, we have finally managed to secure Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) for residents on the northern side of the estate.

We have asked Openreach to verify households north of Linear Park so that no household is missed out on the northern side of the estate. The tentative timescale for this is currently the end of March 2019, as there are surveys to action, planning to undertake, the installation and commissioning. Given we understood it was going to be 2020, we finally have a result!

What are the FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) costs?

Good question and in the eyes of being open and transparent on this as we had said to Glide, the prices are as follows (correct as 2nd November 2018):

  • Glide – Option 1 – Residential Broadband 40/10 – 40 Mbit/s Down 10 Mbit/s Up Unlimited Data Allowance
    • £100 Set Up
    • £45 Per Month
    • 2 Year Term
  • Glide Option 2 – Residential Broadband 80/20 – 80 Mbit/s Down 20 Mbit/s Up Unlimited Data Allowance
    • £100 Set up
    • £60 Per Month
    • 2 Year Term

As discussed these are served as a fibre to the cabinet service meaning they will be delivering the service on the existing copper line you have. For each of the services above they will need to migrate your existing line on to the Glide network which will then add an additional £15 per month to the monthly cost of each package.

What are the FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) costs?

Choosing BT as an example, there are a range of costs (all 18 month deals – check deals for other elements) based on a random address we know can receive fibre:

  • SUPERFAST FIBRE ESSENTIAL (approx 36Mb) – £29.99 with £9.99 activation fee
  • SUPERFAST FIBRE (approx 50Mb) – £35.99 with £9.99 activation fee
  • SUPERFAST FIBRE 2 (approx 67Mb) – £45.99 with £9.99 activation fee
  • SUPERFAST FIBRE PLUS (approx 67Mb) – £54.99 with £9.99 activation fee
  • ULTRAFAST FIBRE PLUS (approx 145Mb) – £54.99 with £59.99 activation fee
  • ULTRAFAST FIBRE 2 PLUS (approx 300Mb) – £59.99 with £59.99 activation fee

Other providers may be available, but please check with the provider first. There are offers on the above as well depending on which option is chosen.

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