Dream home- broadband help

[Bellaboo18]

Hoping someone can help

We've found our dream home, literally, it's just how I imagined it *but* it's rural and has very poor broadband. My husband works from home so good broadband speed is a must.

The estate agents are useless. It's currently got copper cabling which gets between 2 and 5mps- so pretty useless. We'll need this upgrading so my question is has anyone been able to upgrade their broadband? Was it an absolute headache? Did you pay for it or did Openreach swallow the cost?

To get to the property you drive up approximately 1/3 mile of a drive that we'd have a right of access over and then a further 1/3 mile of the properties drive.

 

[Loveponies]

We use a 3/4G SIM card as we don't have decent broadband. I work from home and it is possibly a bit slow at times but perfectly acceptable. You don't need a phone line - we pay £35 pm with unlimited usage.

 

[suebou]

Depending where you are/how rubbish it is/where your postc is on priority list, you may be able to upgra. Your speed is lightning fast in comparison to mine….you may be better with a 4g dongle. If there’s a local development organisation, start there, or approach several providers and just ask. You’ll have to pay….we have a £400 voucher but I’m waiting for the rollout this year sometime.

 

[Hackback]

We have very poor broadband, there is fibre in the village but it isn't available to our property yet. Because I work from home and wanted to move my office outside I needed reliable broadband with enough data allowance to up and download large files and be connected to my colleagues via teams etc.

I ended up getting a 4G mobile broadband hub from EE (5G not availablehere yet). It costs me just about £50 a month with my 10% existing customer discount, which is more than I wanted to pay, but EE came out tops in all the reviews I read and I can run the yard cameras on it too.

So far I'm very impressed, it's much faster than our landline rubbish broadband, but I'm only using it for work, not for streaming TV or anything. I bet 5G would be amazing.

 

[EventingMum]

Our broadband was dire - average 1mbps, we were told that it wasn't worth upgrading to superfast so we swapped to 4G (BT uses EE for it) and it has helped a lot. It's still not as fast as most people have but it is definitely far better than it was and we can stream things that we would previously have had no hope of doing. We had an outside ariel/receiver thing put outside by EE at no extra cost.

 

[Coblover63]

We endured terribly slow BB for nearly 13 years, averaging 1.5MB. Then my husband worked out that by removing a few low branches of some tall pine trees in the grounds nearby it gave us line of sight to the Airband mast. They came and installed it in January, the receiver is about the same size as a security camera, so very unobtrusive and we're now reaching BB speeds of 25MB plus. And it costs us less than £30 a month.

 

[ycbm]

We use 4g on EE and get very usable speed with a top spec multidirectional router. Not all routers are equal we can stream netflix/amazon/iplayer no problems.
.

 

[paddy555]

We are in a similar position. The key seems to be if you have. A mobile signal

 

[HeyMich]

Yep, we got a 4G hub from Vodafone (get a Sim for whichever mobile signal is strongest in your area) and it has revolutionised our home connection.

 

[PeterNatt]

I live in a small hamlet and I bombarded bt and eventually they installed Fibre Optic cabling to the hamlet and then each property.

 

[Archangel]

I have a Gigacube from Vodafone. It is fine for work, zoom calls etc. If the weather is wild then it struggles a bit, but it is generally OK.

 

[blitznbobs]

Hoping someone can help

We've found our dream home, literally, it's just how I imagined it *but* it's rural and has very poor broadband. My husband works from home so good broadband speed is a must.

The estate agents are useless. It's currently got copper cabling which gets between 2 and 5mps- so pretty useless. We'll need this upgrading so my question is has anyone been able to upgrade their broadband? Was it an absolute headache? Did you pay for it or did Openreach swallow the cost?

To get to the property you drive up approximately 1/3 mile of a drive that we'd have a right of access over and then a further 1/3 mile of the properties drive.

we went the whole hog and got fibre to the property installed. It cost us about 15k but we kinda added it on to the purchase price of the property in our heads because otherwise it didn’t work for us and we seriously loved the house.

 

[Ownedby4horses]

Not sure where you’re based but in the north of the UK, they have B4RN https://b4rn.org.uk/

If you’re not in the north then maybe theres a similar scheme running in the area? When we were in Yorkshire three of our neighbours got B4RN and it was really good. We had already signed up to a satellite broadband scheme (which was beyond useless and I don’t recommend them at all) so didn’t get B4RN ourselves.

 

[TotalMadgeness]

I'm in the same boat and use a 4G mobile broadband router with a '3' unlimited data SIM. We work from home and watch Netflix... £18 a month.

 

[Leandy]

Sorry, can't help on the BB. But:

The estate agents are useless.

Why are you expecting the estate agents to be experts on advising you on BB? They are experts in advising the seller on a sale, not the buyer on utilities. Bit harsh! I would take it as a possible red flag though, that this may be a known problem in the area.

 

[ycbm]

The router we use is not available on any broadband tariff as far as I know, you have to buy it yourself. But it has multiple aerials and can receive a "swirling" weak 4g signal and decipher it, in layman's terms. If anyone wants to know I can get the spec for you later.
.

 

[eggs]

As my husband and I both work from home we paid to have fibre installed to the house - I think it cost about £5k.

 

[Bellaboo18]

Thanks everyone for your replies, they're all really helpful. I'll sit down and discuss them with OH this evening and will update the thread with how we get on x

 

[Bellaboo18]

we went the whole hog and got fibre to the property installed. It cost us about 15k but we kinda added it on to the purchase price of the property in our heads because otherwise it didn’t work for us and we seriously loved the house.

Thanks, this was what we were thinking of doing/investigating. Our main concern with this is the right of access x

 

[Bellaboo18]

Sorry, can't help on the BB. But:



Why are you expecting the estate agents to be experts on advising you on BB? They are experts in advising the seller on a sale, not the buyer on utilities. Bit harsh! I would take it as a possible red flag though, that this may be a known problem in the area.

Sorry that sentence was a random vent. We are finding the estate agents to be useless, not particularly about the broadband just in general.

 

[paddy555]

Thanks, this was what we were thinking of doing/investigating. Our main concern with this is the right of access x

I am in a similar position with just over 1 on BB. I wish it was as easy as paying 15k and fibre would be installed to the house, problem solved.
It may be for you, I have no idea, but it is not necessarily so easy.
In your investigations I would find out where your fibre comes from, possibly the exchange, and how far from that fibre has been taken if at all. If it is only a question of running it from the end of your drive it is one thing but if it has to be run from the exchange over any distance it is most definitely not so simple,. In that case you would need to research from Openreach what their plans are and when they intend to install it to your area.
We have been told for the last 5 years it will be next year (for free). Still waiting and it is going to take them at least another 18 months. They are now thinking about it. They sent a couple of men out who have to walk every inch of the proposed line. They didn't even know whose land they were going to need permission to walk on. After that wayleaves have to be obtained from all the landowners. If yours it at the end of your drive that may only be on landowner, if fibre is not yet installed in your area if could be many. Only after that will work start and we were told there was a long list and few workers.

The other thing to consider is if there is any community scheme and what the local village/area are doing about it if there is no fibre. It may be you could join a scheme and get it more cheaply. What are your proposed new neighbours doing and how do they cope. That may give you some ideas. If it is only one field or so you may be able to come to an arrangement to install the cable yourselves a lot more cheaply but they would still have to deal with the wayleave question.

For us 15k would go nowhere near the cost. There is a 4.5 mile run on the cable over some difficult terrain and if every household contributed 15k it wouldn't cover the cost.
We have had people, such as you describe yourselves, move into the area who need to work at home and they have had to have satellite. There has been no choice for them to get their work done. That is the Elon Musk type satellite (whatever it is called) and they have found it successful. I suspect some of their employers/client's will be funding the subscriptions. Could that be a quick and easy option for you perhaps.

afraid I have to agree with you about estate agents. All the properties around us have no mains sewage, no water and sometimes no other services plus lots of boundaries and hedges and who owns what. They are totally lost when asked the basic questions on these sort of issues.

 

[Bellaboo18]

I am in a similar position with just over 1 on BB. I wish it was as easy as paying 15k and fibre would be installed to the house, problem solved.
It may be for you, I have no idea, but it is not necessarily so easy.
In your investigations I would find out where your fibre comes from, possibly the exchange, and how far from that fibre has been taken if at all. If it is only a question of running it from the end of your drive it is one thing but if it has to be run from the exchange over any distance it is most definitely not so simple,. In that case you would need to research from Openreach what their plans are and when they intend to install it to your area.
We have been told for the last 5 years it will be next year (for free). Still waiting and it is going to take them at least another 18 months. They are now thinking about it. They sent a couple of men out who have to walk every inch of the proposed line. They didn't even know whose land they were going to need permission to walk on. After that wayleaves have to be obtained from all the landowners. If yours it at the end of your drive that may only be on landowner, if fibre is not yet installed in your area if could be many. Only after that will work start and we were told there was a long list and few workers.

The other thing to consider is if there is any community scheme and what the local village/area are doing about it if there is no fibre. It may be you could join a scheme and get it more cheaply. What are your proposed new neighbours doing and how do they cope. That may give you some ideas. If it is only one field or so you may be able to come to an arrangement to install the cable yourselves a lot more cheaply but they would still have to deal with the wayleave question.

For us 15k would go nowhere near the cost. There is a 4.5 mile run on the cable over some difficult terrain and if every household contributed 15k it wouldn't cover the cost.
We have had people, such as you describe yourselves, move into the area who need to work at home and they have had to have satellite. There has been no choice for them to get their work done. That is the Elon Musk type satellite (whatever it is called) and they have found it successful. I suspect some of their employers/client's will be funding the subscriptions. Could that be a quick and easy option for you perhaps.

afraid I have to agree with you about estate agents. All the properties around us have no mains sewage, no water and sometimes no other services plus lots of boundaries and hedges and who owns what. They are totally lost when asked the basic questions on these sort of issues.

Thank you, you've hit the nail on the head with all my concerns.
I'll speak to openreach and see if we can make any progress. Also off to Google about satellite broadband...

 

[Spotherisk]

So long as you have a mobile signal you’ll be fine. Ditch the landline (we don’t have one), we run two businesses from home, streamline Netflix etc, speeds are about 50 and it’s rarely down.

 

[minesadouble]

The router we use is not available on any broadband tariff as far as I know, you have to buy it yourself. But it has multiple aerials and can receive a "swirling" weak 4g signal and decipher it, in layman's terms. If anyone wants to know I can get the spec for you later.
.

I'd love details if you can spare the time please ?

 

[Bellaboo18]

Randomly sitting thinking and thought I'd update the thread as I really appreciate everyone's help.
We didn't go ahead and buy the property in the end. Nothing to do with the broadband as we did find some work arounds thanks to all your help. We just found an even better property in a nicer location which we moved in to 6 months ago ❤

 

[AmyMay]

deleted. Sorry

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We have very poor broadband, there is fibre in the village but it isn't available to our property yet. Because I work from home and wanted to move my office outside I needed reliable broadband with enough data allowance to up and download large files and be connected to my colleagues via teams etc.

I ended up getting a 4G mobile broadband hub from EE (5G not availablehere yet). It costs me just about £50 a month with my 10% existing customer discount, which is more than I wanted to pay, but EE came out tops in all the reviews I read and I can run the yard cameras on it too.

So far I'm very impressed, it's much faster than our landline rubbish broadband, but I'm only using it for work, not for streaming TV or anything. I bet 5G would be amazing.

We use an EE dongle. We sacked off BT/Openreach years ago because of very poor service and have no chance of fibre in the foreseeable future but the dongle works.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Just read update so no longer relevant

 

[Parrotperson]

Where’s your nearest telephone line?

Open reach or whatever they’re called upgraded ours to fibre to the property at no extra cost so we have high speed internet now.

Might be worth ringing them if the telephone wire (the overhead type) isn’t too far away? Anyhoo read this .

Retiring the copper network

We'll be retiring the old analogue phone network at the end of 2025. By then everyone in the UK will need to have moved to a Digital Phone Line. Find out what this means for you.

www.openreach.com

They’re upgrading anyway so you get an upgrade for free is how I read it.

 

[Parrotperson]

Oh sorry. Just noticing fed the date