Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Fibre broadband connection costs
  • Lazgoat
    Free Member

    We’re with Virgin Media right now and have just had their letter advising of their latest price increase. So I’ve been shopping around looking at alternatives, we just need fast broadband and a phone line really.

    Zen internet reckon we don’t have a fibre connection at the house and want to charge £155 to put it in. It seems quite a bit to me and wondered whether there was any way to check their claim and/or reduce the connection cost?

    Ta!

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    Check with Openreach to see if fibre is in your area…

    https://www.homeandwork.openreach.co.uk/when-can-i-get-fibre.aspx

    …if it is then most of the big suppliers should be able to offer it.

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    Check with Openreach to see if fibre is in your area…

    Take Openreach’s findings with a pinch of salt though.

    If you do have Fibre in the road/trees outside, £150 connection is about on the money, other than any special deals going.

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    surfer
    Free Member

    Try samknows.com to see what is available in your local exchange

    Lazgoat
    Free Member

    THanks muffin-man, just checked and I’m in a Fibre area. BT and Plus Net have installation costs of between £50-60, plus some enticing offers, so Zen still seems expensive.

    robdixon
    Free Member

    Vodafone is £28 a month for the 76Mbps fibre broadband product. There’s no line rental cost on top of that and installation is £49.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I’m confused (not unusual really).

    I assume we’re talking about fibre to cabinet – standard issue, 32 or 76meg fibre – not fibre to premise?

    Why the extra charge if it’s just a matter of someone from open-reach moving your over from ADSL to VDSL?

    Why would Trees in the street matter?

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    Fibre via OpenReach is an engineer install in your house (at least it was with mine), not just the flick of a switch somewhere, hence the charge. I’m sure my charge was much less than that though (although I was on Zen ADSL already so maybe it was a deal), it was an 18 month contract to so might be absorbed into that (if your £155 one was for a rolling monthly contract?). Zen is a bit more expensive in general but the service (and customer service) is very good.

    I was curious if the Vodafone (no line rental option) would shake things up but if it’s £28 then it’s just moving a lot of the line rental cost into the service cost so hardly a game changer. I’m also not going to be an early adopter of a new Vodafone service given how much bad press they get for their mobile phone customer service.

    robdixon
    Free Member

    Fuzzy, the vodafone service is built of the Cable & Wireless business they bought a few years back. That wasn’t new and Vodafone are already very big players in BB in Spain and Germany. I agree their mobile network and mobile customer service are both abysmal though!

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    I was curious if the Vodafone (no line rental option) would shake things up but if it’s £28 then it’s just moving a lot of the line rental cost into the service cost so hardly a game changer. I’m also not going to be an early adopter of a new Vodafone service given how much bad press they get for their mobile phone customer service.

    Yeah, despite it’s lofty claims, it’s a more straight forward pricing plan – the total cost is ballpark with all the other providers, there is still a line to rent and a usually useless landland number to go with it.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    I deal with Zen at a corporate level and whilst they are good, they are also one of the more spendy options.

    robdixon
    Free Member

    P-Jay – which are the other providers that do Line Rental and 76Mbps broadband over the whole life of the contract for £28/month all in?

    Genuinely interested because I haven’t managed to find anything close to that after the usual 3/6 month promotional reduced rates end.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Just talk to Virgin, tell them they’re too pricey and you want to leave. Bosh.

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    Fibre via OpenReach is an engineer install in your house (at least it was with mine), not just the flick of a switch somewhere, hence the charge.

    Not any more. You just get a kit that you plug in and someone from Openreach plugs your wires in at the green box in the road. Home visits stopped ages ago.

    If your BT master socket is antiquated, replace it with one of the new Openreach combined master sockets / VDSL faceplates. They fall off the back of Openreach vans if you ask nicely, or you can pick them up on eBay for about £20.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    As PJay mentions above check whether it’s fibre to the premises or the cabinet. To the premises involves some faffing about by the engineers with fibre optics. To the cabinet uses copper from the cabinet in the street and is very much cheaper.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

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