Stuck on hold (again) to Sky who are completely unable to ‘find’ our new build house on their system, and thus unable to provide us with any sort of internet connection.

I know these sort of problems are common in new build estates, but it’s usually (I understand) due to lack of infrastructure. I know the infrastructure exists on our estate as we’re currently mooching off our neighbour’s wifi, but apparently we can only connect to BT.

Barratt (the developer) have been unsurprisingly useless, just shrugging their shoulders.

BT Openreach say that our router etc. are all commissioned and that our address is available to the market, so in theory Sky should be able to find us.

Since Sky can’t seem to tell me what the actual problem is, and on principle I don’t want to get forced into a contract with BT, has anyone any advice, seems like Openreach are being deliberately awkward to prevent us going to anyone but BT… 👿

Id guess Sky (and BT) would have to pay Openreach for the latest lists of connections? Presumably Sky just dont do it as often as would be helpful to you? Total guess mind.

We can only get crap copper broadband on our new build street, because apparently not enough people on the street want fibre so they won’t put it in.

I say new build, it’s only ten years old.

If we lived in a little village, the government would force them to put it in. But in a big city, it’s tough titty 🙁

How new is new? Can take an age for addresses to show on various systems.

The obvious alternative is to go with PlusNet

Stato and Legend have it (hopefully) – turns out the various Sky people we’ve spoken to have just been advising us of the wrong ‘date’ that they update their address database, I’d previously been told it was the 24th or the 27th, now being told it’s the 28th, so will wait for a call back on the 29th 🙄

I was going to grumble about them only updating addresses once a month, but I guess if they have to pay then that explains it.

Will just have to spend another couple of nights actually talking to one another and reading proper books etc. First world problems… 8)

42 million!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bt-42m-ofcom-fine-regulatory-breaches-openreach-talktalk-vodafone-a7651426.html

Possibly worth getting the mods to edit the title, as it seems that it may be (slightly) incorrect?

so will wait for a call back on the 29th

That’s highly optimistic in the world of telecoms.

We can only get crap copper broadband on our new build street, because apparently not enough people on the street want fibre so they won’t put it in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-30585271

New build “Executive” homes in a high profile “garden city” with 2mb copper broadband 🙄

Fair point BR, I was sort of basing it on Barratt’s original shrug of the shoulders and ‘it’s only BT you can get’ response.

Let’s all just let this premature and poorly informed rant drop off the page shall we? 8)

so will wait for a call back on the 29th
That’s highly optimistic in the world of telecoms.

Working in telecoms and still chuckling away to myself.

Seriously, don’t assume that because something could and should happen that it actually will happen. If it does happen it will be sheer luck.

Have you checked and made sure your address is showing on the Royal Mail site? Often addresses of new build houses remain on the not yet built file and aren’t available depending what PAF data a company is using.

BT have another wheeze called no space in the cabinet. We live in the small village but have fibre to the green box given 70+ download which is pretty amazing given remoteness.

Basically ithe cabinet is a small one and it is full but BT won’t release space to other providers e.g. Vodafone even though you are creating space by moving providers i.e. You’re porting your existing line. Argument is other providers would need a separate card but there is no space and no incentive to add space as people would leave. There is a second cabinet a mile away but no fibre and a speed of 2MB. The irony was the fibre was subsidised via a government grant.

I suspect the problem is Sky’s address matching system.
BT tend to use the Royal Mail for address matching, whereas Sky may not (I know Talk Talk didn’t) so the address, especially if a new build, may not have been added to their system yet.
OP If you want to pm (e-mail in profile) me your address and I can take a look on BT’s system to see if I can find a gold match on your address.

If we lived in a little village, the government would force them to put it in

My parents live in a small village with crappy broadband and no-one has forced anyone to put anything in.

see if I can find a gold match on your address

The premier arson service *may* be available to you!

My son is having the same problems on a new build development down sarff – since the beginning of January!

Given how 4G prices are dropping I’d seriously consider it as an alternative to copper wire for a location that has a decent signal.

I probably won’t renew the landline/broadband as I can get 35-40mg on 4G consistently and the landline despite being in a 6yr old house is getting there on a good day.
Bad days can see rebooting it multiple times to get it to stabilise.

Given how 4G prices are dropping I’d seriously consider it as an alternative to copper wire for a location that has a decent signal.

Latency still seems an issue though.

What 4G deals have you seen?

Normally I would laugh at the suggestion of 4G or whatever but after tethering my laptop to my mobile recently I was left rather impressed. Just need to make sure the data limits are good enough.

The main issue with 4G is you have quite low download allowances.

We can only get crap copper broadband on our new build street, because apparently not enough people on the street want fibre so they won’t put it in.

I am sat in an Innovation Park office of a Scottish city. I can *see* the cabinet from the building where fibre is connected.

However BT/Openreach claim our postcode is ‘connected’, despite no-one actually being connected, as they have installed to cabinet. Our connection actually comes from the landowner (University) supply half a mile away across the site.
We then have a landlord and landlords suppliers who have made money of leased lines (£300/month) or subletting a portion of leased line (£40/month per 3mb speed), who again are being done over by the lease/landholder (the University) who again make money from the sub-let leased lines.

We have to get better at this.

Reminds me of back long ago when Virgin who were formerly known as NTL were formerly known as CableTel, and I was moving house, cable box on the outside of the building but not been connected for a while and CableTel as they were then flat refused because “computer said no” and didn’t believe at all on the phone that there was cable in the road. This despite me pointing out the box with their name on it on the wall, the socket in the house and the manhole covers in the street! Was told can’t have it and that was final. Took some effort writing letters to them to convince them.

Though was a big mistake to go with them.

I’ve always been really pleased with Virgin, we get a reliable 200Mbit connection and between four of us manage to average about 1Tb of data download a month.

Ah well, interesting couple of insights into the new build/telecomms industry.

Some very helpful advice from another forumite confirmed that Sky couldn’t provide us a service. I queried with BT how this didn’t constitute a monopoly and they quickly corrected me, there are two other providers able to supply us, both tiny outfits from London that I’ve never heard of before and who are both at least £10 a month more expensive than BT who in turn are £8 a month more expensive than Sky.

To add insult to injury when I eventually resigned myself to going with BT I phoned up and discovered that all their website deals they currently have aren’t applicable to us as we have fibre direct to the property, which means high monthly costs, higher set up fees and none of the online deals.

But finally someone admitted what I had always suspected. Our development IS a BT monopoly as Openreach effectively subsidised laying the fibre (which sounds awfully like a euphemism for ‘Cut a deal with Barrat…). So we’re stuck with more expensive packages and no competition, in order that Barrat could make a bit more profit out of the new development.

I suspect I won’t get any sympathy from most as at the end of the day we appear to have the best possible connection going, just a shame we don’t need it and don’t want to pay for it!

To add insult to injury when I eventually resigned myself to going with BT I phoned up and discovered that all their website deals they currently have aren’t applicable to us as we have fibre direct to the property, which means high monthly costs, higher set up fees and none of the online deals.

But finally someone admitted what I had always suspected. Our development IS a BT monopoly as Openreach effectively subsidised laying the fibre (which sounds awfully like a euphemism for ‘Cut a deal with Barrat…). So we’re stuck with more expensive packages and no competition, in order that Barrat could make a bit more profit out of the new development.

Bingo.

I’m in a similar position (not new build though). When we installed fibre, only BT was prepared to do it. Didn’t cotton on (and weren’t informed) that this was because we were fibre to the home. So when we’re looking around for a competitive price, no-one can take over the connection – except Zen etc etc, who are great, but significantly more expensive. IMV there is an element of misselling and abuse of its relationship with Openreach there. I wouldn’t enter into a contract with any telecoms supplier if it turned out I’d be stuck with them.

When we were looking to negotiate, even got stuck through to the BT FTTH team which specialises in telling you you’re screwed in a surly way…they know you’re over a barrel.

Ofcom weren’t interested, naturally. Yours is worse though, might be worth a quick complaint.

I’d be tempted to go with Zen anyhow, just for the two-fingers up approach. Plus BT Customer Service is a dystopian nightmare to negotiate.

The final piece falls into place…

Openreach offering ‘free’ FTTP install to new build developers

Good for Barratt profit margins, not good for our monthly outgoings…