Openreach community for installing fiber broadband in Devonshire Road/Forest Hill Area

Hi there,

I live at Devonshire Road and since the start of this pandemic I’ve been working from home. My job requires really fast internet connection, which turns to be a no no for my area. I’ve tried every single internet company out there but the answer was always “no fiber” in your area. I can’t believe that not every household can get fast internet, considering the current situation and how many people are actually working from home. The only eventual possibility for getting one is to create an Openreach community for my area and get on board as many households as possible so that we can work directly with the company to install the fiber cables. That means Openreach covers a part of the cost and the rest gets split between households. As far as I know it is possible to apply for government help and grants too. I wonder if there is such group already in Forest Hill area? If not, I’m looking for households and businesses that would be interested to take part. I don’t know how much it would cost as of yet. I need to go through an application procedure to get a quote.

I’m trying to solve the internet issue, as I am currently using my mobile internet for work and that is not great either. Looking for other as desperate as me Forest Hill people

Let me know

Thanks
Lilly

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?

Thanks!

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).

Have you thought about a 4/5G router?
We had a thread about it earlier and I was surprised by the speeds people were getting…

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?

I tried 4g with three, and it was appallingly bad. I suspect I’ll end up biting the bullet and paying through the nose for EE.

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

Strange. I’m also on Devonshire road and had FTTP installed with no issue, nearly 8 years ago.

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So far my experience with 5G in this area is less than favourable…

Edit:wrong sceeenshot

Still about twice the speed of the fast broadband I can get!

I guess 5G will improve- where I am in HOP it says it’s basically not available yet, but maybe better coverage in other areas of SE23.

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.

93657890_10163604984925475_7073155655783153664_o720×509 33.7 KB

Over half a gigabit - impressive!

That’s probably going to be faster than your WiFi, if you tether your phone with it

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

Thanks!

Doesn’t work in this area. Really slow so I plan to return it

Out of interest, is your phone on 3 as well? If so, I must have to agree with your assessment of the Three mobile router.

Wow that’s crazy fast.

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

Just tried. Same result, not available at my address. So frustrating.

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.

Been on to bt today to see if they can improve service they can do Halo 1 & provide smart hub 2 & a booster plug. However 3Mb would still be my stay fast guarantee. Which is no different with current hub 4 guarantee. Anyone know if the smart hubs are more efficient? As price per month does increase & I may be no better off. Speed or pocket.

We’re also at the bottom end of Devonshire Rd (near the station) and the Internet connection is shocking! Would definitely be interested in exploring ways to improve it.

We’re also on this end of the road and desperately need better internet! Our neighbour above has fibre and we don’t which i still can’t get my head around. Would also be interested in trying to get this sorted. I’ve already been in contact with Openreach to see what they can do but no luck, they just say it’s a capacity issue.

Hi Lilly, did you manage to create an openreach community for Devonshire road? i’m happy to join. I’m trying an ethernet cable today to see if wireless is more of a problem with these solid victorian walls, but i would happily pay for faster, better broadband.