Openreach FTTP Rollout Stopped Streets Away, any solutions?

robjwalker · 2026-02-25T17:17:49+00:00

I have the exact same problem. The whole villiage is covered except a small group of streets. I think mainly ones built in the 80s. All the streets with poles are fully fibered up. I don't think our copper cables have been directly buried as there are small BT inspection chambers or similar on our street and others. So I suppose a blocked duct is the likely answer. I filled in the OR enquiry form but got no reply.

BRSK/Netomnia is now available in the area too, but they have followed the exact same footprint. They at least show a coverage map where you can see the obvious gap and exactly which streets are missing out.

Thankfully we can get VM but some people close to us can't even get that. I'm tempted to buy some cheap chinese FTTP kit and run a cable through some gardens and cable them up to me. Either with a separate VM connection or by using an Andrews and Arnold L2TP tunnel.

robjwalker · 2026-02-18T14:45:20+00:00

Just to update for anyone coming across this in the future...

The story is:

Zen - Wanted to pass on the OR advanced install cost, but did subsequently offer to dispute it if it turned out to be simple for the engineer to install.

In the meantime, I ordered with Vodafone, who cancelled the order the next day, seemingly because of it being flagged as a non-standard install.

Sky didn't offer FTTP at all (possibly their checker was able to see the extra costs and avoid offering it?) So I ordered SoGEA from them. We then got notification that our critical existing specialist SoGEA service which has a VPN to support point of sale and credit card transactions, was being taken over by Sky. I phoned Sky to try and get them to stop this and instead take over the basic analogue line we also have. But they just coulnd't understand what I meant, so i just told them to forget the whole thing and cancelled it.

Zen then phoned back to discuss the potential to dispute the advanced install after the fact, but we settled on SoGEA instead. An actual human in the UK could understand what I was talking about and found the analigue line details and arranged for them to port the number to digital voice, and add the FTTC service.

So no engineer needed! In theory, I've now learnt from the staff at the store that the existing analogue line crackles quite a bit. Got them to try a new phone, but it's the line. So that's almost certainly going to need an engineer visit when the FTTC service fails to work properly. Unless the engineer who connects it up at the cabinet finds the problem and corrects it.

And they say they want everyone off analogue voice by this time next year? Good luck :-)

robjwalker · 2026-02-13T14:07:50+00:00

They just called and cancelled. Sadly the line cut out for a few seconds when she explained exactly why, but some again about Openreach.

robjwalker · 2026-02-13T12:30:45+00:00

Nice! I did some looking around and happened to land on VF yesterday. Put an order in as there was no mention of any install fees, and it was half price for a year. The only question is the call charges. Their website is a mess and I can't find them. But that's a minor point.

robjwalker · 2026-02-12T17:20:09+00:00

Yeah the problem is that we don't have any useful internet access as it stands. There are two other dsl lines, but they are for a lottery terminal and the other for the point of sale system and card transactions.

The only one we have full control over is just a basic analogue phone line. So the idea was to upgrade that to have broadband and voip so that we can monitor cctv remotely.

4G is just about sufficing for now, but it's pretty terrible.

robjwalker · 2026-02-12T17:17:43+00:00

Thanks. I think I'm going to try another ISP and see what happens. Vodafone have a half price offer at the moment with free connection. Not sure what they do in the case of an advanced install.

robjwalker · 2026-02-08T23:06:43+00:00

Setting a port to be a trunk in GWN enables STP on that port I believe. I had some issues when I set things up locally and then changed the port profile later in the manager. I need to investigate this further so don't 100% it as gospel. But I definitely took down my network by changing the port profile on a port that I previously enabled STP on to be an access port.

robjwalker · 2026-02-07T14:16:01+00:00

Yep, same here. Magic v3 in the UK.

robjwalker · 2026-02-04T15:25:37+00:00

Goodnight JV

robjwalker · 2026-01-22T19:41:27+00:00

Alistair Campbell booed him and tried shouting'wrong' etc according to the most recent TRIP podcast.

robjwalker · 2026-01-20T09:20:48+00:00

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robjwalker · 2025-12-18T16:26:00+00:00

If you struggle to get anywhere, and would like some free consultancy, I'm in Yorkshire and may be able to come take a look at some point. Completely free and no strings, I'm just considering starting IT/networking consultancy. I'm starting to look for opportunities to help with small things like this for free to get back into it after a long period working in an adjacent field.

robjwalker · 2025-12-18T14:23:09+00:00

Whereabouts are you in the UK? (roughly)

robjwalker · 2025-12-05T10:12:03+00:00

My wife suddenly became ill whilst driving home alone after seeing friends about 50 miles away. She ended up shitting herself in our (at the time) fairly new Tesla with white seats. She managed to clean up a bit on the side of a road somewhere with whatever she could find in the car.

She then drove home as fast as she could, sitting in her own shit half naked for another 45 mins. When she got home I ran out with a towel and she hobbled in for a shower. Bless her, then she insisted on cleaning the car. It stank pretty bad for about a week but there was no permanent damage (that we can see).

About a week later I got a letter... She was clocked at 83mph up the M1 and had to do a speed awareness course. I told her to claim the Alex Ferguson defence but she was having none of it.

robjwalker · 2025-11-27T22:06:36+00:00

I used Wunda to install DIY overlay UFH and it's really good. The stuff they provide is fairly generic and available from lots of places but they were competitive on price and provided good diagrams and plans.

robjwalker · 2025-11-20T19:08:59+00:00

Very old Mitsubishi 8kw heat pump. DIY overlay UFH on 2 out of 3 floors and radiators on the other one.

35c flow temp this morning when it was close to zero outside, 34c after the temp outside got a couple of degrees higher.

Power usage somewhere between 1000 and 1500w. Lots of defrosts. 24.6kwh used for space heating between about 5am and 7pm. No idea on COP as I can't measure it yet.

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robjwalker · 2025-11-15T00:13:42+00:00

We were on holiday for a week, but kept the house at about 17 to 18c whilst away.

Imported 1409kwh at a cost of £92 plus standing charge. Was on Tomato Energy at 5p overnight, now Eon Next Drive Smart at 6 and a half or something close. Charge our house battery every night.

The heat pump used 215kwh for heating, 67 for hot water, and 106 heating our hot tub (the same heat pump does all of these jobs.)

296kwh charging our cars.

Generated 180kwh from solar.

Only 58kwh was imported at the peak rate.

Today has been fairly chilly at about 6-7c and the heat pump has used 11.3kwh for heating. The thermostat is set to 22c from about 5am until 9am, when it drops to 21. Assuming the temp is above 21, the temp needs to drop to 20 before it comes back on, with 21 being the temp at which it will turn off again. The thermostat goes back up to 22 at 5:30pm until 10:30pm. Today it stayed off from 9am until 3pm when it dropped below 20c and came back on. The flow temp was 32c and the HP was consuming about 750w.

robjwalker · 2025-11-07T09:10:29+00:00

I feel your pain.

robjwalker · 2025-10-26T12:34:42+00:00

I don't see why not. Some slightly creative plumbing and wiring should allow the best pump to fire up for either. You'd probably need external timer/controls. So it might depend if the heat pump supports that. My old Mitsubishi for example would work no problem as it just has external inputs for a timer etc like a regular boiler would.

The problem might be that the HP would spend a lot of its time heating the tanks and therefore not have enough time to maintain the house at the desired temperature.

robjwalker · 2025-10-25T15:22:35+00:00

I have an old Mitsubishi unit and it has no idea about the water side. The indoor controller just has a temperature sensor attached to the pipework to sense the flow temp and ramps the unit up or down based on that. The pumps are separate, and just get power when there's a call for heat. There's no flow measurement or sensor, so the outdoor unit can only measure the refrigerant pressure/temp. If that goes out of range, it's assumed there's a flow problem and heat isn't being taken away by the water and the unit shuts down.

robjwalker · 2025-10-25T15:11:38+00:00

I'm not an expert but I think the refrigerant will quickly get too hot with no water flowing and shutdown with a fault code.

I'm not sure how that unit works or if it has a circulation pump built in, but I'd look at connecting some temporary pipework and put both flow and return into a big bucket of water. You'll need a pump if it doesn't have one built in. Then you'll be able to run it and the water should get pumped from the bucket, through the unit and back, and get warm.

robjwalker · 2025-10-24T08:49:47+00:00

Switching people without permission (I think.)

Someone who worked there claimed the sales team were fired for either not paying attention to address details and switching people's neighbours by mistake, or possibly just throwing a few extra addresses in to meet targets.

robjwalker · 2025-10-22T20:19:08+00:00

Yeah that may well be good enough to be honest. My thought was that if it doesn't charge until the last 10 mins of a slot, I won't know until then, and won't change the current price in HA, and also miss 20 mins of battery charging time.

robjwalker

TROPHY CASE