I’m on Devonshire Road between Woodcombe Crescent and Ewelme Road, and BT has happily accepted an order from us for an FTTP install, though we’re supposedly waiting on a meeting between Lewisham traffic management and Openreach to agree some sort of pavement / road closure before the install can be completed. My understanding has always been that the infrastructure is in place for fibre installs on the road, but it’s complicated by the fact there are no telegraph poles.
But you may be further along the process than me…have you actually had an order accepted by BT, and roughly where on Devonshire Road are you?
My understanding is also that it’s not possible to get fibre broadband to homes where a building is split into multiple flats, so I don’t know if that’s also applicable to you?
It’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it? I’m Dacres Rd, so probably not close enough to be helpful, but in a similar boat. I’m in a block of flats and have been trying to get Hyperoptic or Community Fibre interested, but not much progress there yet (to be fair, I suspect the freeholder is not being especially responsive to their enquiries).
I am in Whatman Road and my broadband currently with sky is a nightmare - I live in a house split into two flats - upstairs have BT Fibre and yet no supplier can offer me a reliable Fibre supply. Had long conversations with BT tech team who tell me there are no plans to add additional fibre lines to my address - this is a nightmare as I an working from home with an unstable connection trying to run zoom workshops and meetings all day. I am moving to BT next week in the hope that I will be in a better position when new fibre lines are made available. Virgin wont supply to this address either. very frustrating - anyone else in Whatman Road want to create a community for our area? - would welcome any advice on how to do this?
Hello! I faced the exact issue you are facing this time last year (and also live on Devonshire Road, near Benson Road), and managed to resolve by getting in contact with Aquiss (https://www.aquiss.net/) who managed to get a FTTP line into the building! Well actually 3 of them because I live in a house split into 3 flats, we all managed to get our own line.
If you give Aquiss a call and manage to speak to Martin then he is extremely helpful and will hopefully be able to sort you out
I’m the same in HOP. I can barely get a normal mobile signal, let alone 5G and broadband options are pretty much lousy. I have Sky Broadband and get 15mbps. Yet you have places where I’ve tested my 5G phone, I managed 500mbps whilst waiting on platform at Highbury & Islington. If we had a better option around SE23, I’d dump Sky and just tether to my mobile.
I am at the beginning of Devonshire Road and A205. Close to Forest Hill station. When I checked (on the website) with BT, I got a message they don’t have plans for now to extend their cable network at my address. I guess I can try and call them. I got Three mobile router and it is total shit. It is even slower than my phone internet, so I have plans to return it.
Thanks for the reply. I guess for now I would have to suffer with really slow internet
I think you’d still want a 5G router in the house for all the other devices to stay connected to while you’re out. I’m hoping we get one ‘all-in’ 5G family style plan which allows you to connect a few core devices like router and phones onto one account.
That sounds like a bit of a nightmare. I’ve heard from BT that they plan to complete the external works for my fibre connection in a couple of weeks’ time.
Instead of Three, it might be worth checking out the EE home 4G router, as I routinely get 40Mbit for downloads and 30Mbit for uploads on my mobile (though with a monthly limit that would make switching to mobile tethering for everything impractical). They have a £35 per month 500Gb package available. There’s also a 1Tb 5G package for £70 a month, but as others have remarked, the 5G signal here is listed as ‘weak outdoors only’.
As someone else on Devonshire Road who has tried and failed to get fibre, here’s the situation.
Fibre has indeed been laid on the street. All the way. It’s there, and it runs right past my building. Yet I cannot have it. I can’t even get Fibre to the Cabinet. I’m stuck with ADSL with a max speed of 15mbps. I work in IT and working from home is painful.
Months of back and forth with Openreach means I at least know now the reason why: I live in a block of flats (well, converted house into 8 flats). To connect me to Fibre, they would need to upgrade the equipment inside the building (the distribution unit). Houses or maybe smaller blocks of flats do not have such distibution units, but larger blocks will and Openreach aren’t currently interested in working on what they call “Multi Dwelling Units”.
I’ve tried for months but I’ve given up. But if you can’t get Fibre when your next door neighbors can, that’s why.
Did you try Hyperoptic - they seem to prefer to do apartments because they can connect more people all in one go. Seems obvious. My son has it in his block up in Bermondsey. I’m so jealous
We’re on London Road in a block of flats and also are unable to get fibre. I was told two years ago that our cabinet (cabinet 14) is not fibre-enabled and there aren’t any plans to upgrade it. I wrote asking for an update two weeks ago and am yet to hear a response.
As you say, it’s become a greater issue now that working from home is more commonplace. I have colleagues in rural parts of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk who regularly get frustrated with my slow connection and often express their disbelief that they have faster internet than someone in London.
Anyway, if we’re in close enough proximity we’d be happy to join the group.
