"Superfast" broadband - Fibre providers and availability

http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ says Southbank is "accepting orders" but Sky says I am "not eligible" whatever that means.

nelson_ wrote:

whatever that means.

It means that Sky cannot connect you to this service since they rely on BT to put fibre into the cabinet that serves you in the first place, and that is something that BT have yet to do, and when that may happen is something that Sky have no control over.

Taking orders may mean BT have connected a cabinet on the exchange and they can take orders as a result.... so long as you are connected to said cabinet. There will be hundreds of cabinets that may not be connected to fibre on the same exchange and some that may for whatever reason never be connected as part of the current roll out.

RZ do you mind saying how much you paid Zen for installation and monthly cost and contract length? Heard they are v good but the price reflects this.

youcrazyboy wrote:

RZ do you mind saying how much you paid Zen for installation and monthly cost and contract length? Heard they are v good but the price reflects this.

I have the unlimited 76GB package and I've transferred my phone line; £25/month, 12 month contract, no installation/setup fees, plus another £17/month for line rental. Line transfer is optional but broadband costs more without it (I think an extra £4.50/month but might be wrong).

I've used Zen before and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for a clueful ISP. They're not the cheapest but you're right that the price reflects the service. Properly unlimited, no filtering or other tinkering and, for those inclined to care about such things, niceties like a static IP with configurable reverse DNS.

I can't speak for them as a phone provider as the line is purely for broadband.

In case I haven't sold it enough, here's a peak-time speed test. :)

After initially ordering fibre from Sky on the 16th of September I now have an activation date for the 5th of December.

i received a letter from Hyperoptic who say they are wiring up my block. They take on contracts for smaller apartment blocks etc instead of the big suppliers. You would think its a good thing in terms of turn around times but still waiting for a reply to my email from a couple of weeks ago. Seems good speeds but might be a while for me!

Aha - everyone in Boss House got one of those letters yesterday. Mind you, they say that Boss House might be wired up if enough folks register an interest on their website. Will wait and see what happens!

Finally got fibre activated through Sky, getting 32Mb down and 9Mb up.

Everyone should have access to Virgin Media. I've just upgraded my broadband - only £5 more a month - and my speeds are amazing: 143mb/s down and 13mb/s up.

I live in crown apartments at the end of queen Elizabeth street in Shad Thames. I have the same problem of no fibre. I have sky regular broadband and get around 12mb and been looking to get fibre but no provider seems to have it available.

The new cabinet was installed across the road from me (corner of horselydown) in June 2013 and The Telephone Exchange in September 2013. I've called up sky and bt retail repeatedly trying to find out why it isn't available and just told to try again in another month!

I have found that south of the railway line fibre availability seems much more common (leathermarket street, Riley street), North of the railway line I couldn't find any places where infinity is available until RZ posted about Boss street.

I'm guessing that boss street has a different cabinet to me, although it's only 1 street away, and hoping that it will be just a matter of time before it does become available.

I'm pretty sure it's about whether the cabinet is enabled, and whether a provider has contracts in place to wholesale provide fibre in the area.

Has anyone else in shad Thames had fibre made available recently?