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Hi, and thanks in advance for any help/advice you can contribute.
My OH is a member of a small tennis club in the middle of a council park. They have a club house with an office where the admin, court booking ,coaching sessions get booked up. At the moment they get t'internet and phoneline via copper cable and for their needs, everything is rosey.
Unfortunately for them BT is doing away with copper in our area and have offered to dig up the park to lay a fibre cable to the club house, this will be at the clubs expense and will be many more £££££ than they want to spend. The council won't contribute towards this cost
Now I know we have a significant amount of IT expertise in the forum, is there maybe a router that could be connected to 4g or 5g frintance?
Any better way of doing it? They looked at Starlink but were put off by the £450 of new hardware necessary. This is a very low usage situation.
yes. Loads of options, we use this at work as a backup (you just plug it into any wireless router) but there are probably cheaper and/or all-in-one options available.
combine with a cheap no-contract Smarty SIM or similar
EDIT: dunno why Amazon links don't seem to work properly but it's a Netgear LM1200
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HQZ57ZC
There's plenty of good 4/5g routers for peanuts that just need a cheapy sim in them. if 3 has ok service where you are thats < £20 per month on smarty for a big data allowance + maybe £50-100 one off for a router depending how much wifi range you need. EG:
+ £20 a month for unlimited data on Smarty. Just for office use the £5 a month option probably works.
Are they just trying to hardsell a fibre upgrade, or have they actually been told they are ceasing all copper services? I know they are not selling new copper connections in many areas but I didn't know they were actively removing them.
PS Poles are cheaper. Getting BT duct supplied to site and getting your own groundman to dig it in is also cheaper.
As above, we've had one of these at our static 'van since August and it's been fine, just works:
You just need to check which mobile network works well where it's going to be and sign up for the cheapest SIM only data deal possible.
Can the copper service be removed and a fibre one offered at a forced cost?
I am also thinking of switching from wired broadband to 4G.
Roughly how much data would be needed for two adults in a typical home? We WFH using emails etc and then each stream video etc. of an evening/weekend. Would it be more sensible to go for Unlimited data? I don't really know how much a Gb gives
I thought BT had a statutory requirement to provide infrastructure (or does this not count as it isn't residential)? A few years ago, we bought a house that had been empty for many years so it had no telephone line. It was too far away from the nearest pole so they had to install a new pole to reach and it didn't cost us a penny.
Thanks everyone, that's both useful and reassuring. Seems alot more doable than Starlink!
@ Spooky, I don't think there is any upselling going on, we are part of a national pilot where they are getting rid of copper, we had the same problem a couple of years ago when renewing our home internet. The club really don't want to go down the route of providing their own poles, trenches or whatever, if the council would even allow it. I think the signal is good, but will pass this on.
Does anyone know if it would be possible to run a phone line through one of these routers recommended and is it possible to keep their present phone number, its a landline number at present.
Thanks for the help!!
yep, you need to use a VOIP service, we use one at work (recommended from here!) that only costs a few quid per month (cheaper than an analogue phone line I think!) You either need a special phone or plug any old one in via an adapter, that's just a one-off cost though obviously. (I'm sure you can probably also buy an all-in-one 4G router than also has a VOIP socket.) We were able to port our existing number for a small charge.Does anyone know if it would be possible to run a phone line through one of these routers recommended and is it possible to keep their present phone number, its a landline number at present.
Thanks Zilog, that sounds like just the job, I'll pass all this on , really useful.
we are part of a national pilot where they are getting rid of copper,
Kick up a fuss, go to the local paper, radio station and tell them BT are blackmailing you into paying for something you neither need or want.
make it BT's problem, not yours.
If BT want to switch from Copper to Fibre they should pay for it....
how is the copper line fed at the moment?
Where?
I agree that it does seem a bit off that BT's " improved service" has had this unintended consequence, particularly as the town was chosen to be the pilot for this following the Russian poisonings and all the damage that did to local business, tourism etc.
Having said the above, I'm not sure there is much of an appetite to get into a scrap with BT through the local media, I think they will probably just go down the 4g router route (see what I did there!).
FWIW the copper goes underground, maybe across the football pitch, maybe under the tennis courts......
Thanks again everyone.
Salisbury was a full fibre pilot but as far as I know it's not an exchange closure pilot area. Those are noted here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openreach-reduces-pilot-for-national-uk-exchange-closures.html?fbclid=IwAR2-hJb6i8vIJ5jD0P_mBJ4S74bLL7fqWXC4Mz4Hl-0V-idbWukKW1qbnsg
The service providers (inc BT) are incentivised to switch you onto full fibre packages but I'm not sure they can force you. The main exchange closure program is not starting until 2027 so I'd have thought the club have a few years left.
If they are using a fttc product now, the proposed exchange closure, will only affect the exchange generated analogue dial tone, sogea fttc doesnt use an analogue dt.Sogea products can just run from the fttc cabinet( lots do now) and the phone number is ported to be used as a voip service.
Spooky and Sparky, that's interesting. The call centre dealing with this were very vague about timings, what was actually going on, so maybe time to ask a few more questions. Not sure about the implications/meaning of your last post Sparky?
If the copper internet connection at the site at present is fibre to the cab(fttc), you can simply change to a sogea service same thing but no normal dialing tone.this is a data only line, and the phone number for the site at present, can be used on a digital phone plugged into the modem.so no need for any copper connection to the telephone exchange.so it is an alternative to full fibre,and 4g/5g.
The call centre is probably set up for sales so have a vested interest to sell full fibre.
But as your post stated , if its low use and only used for bookings and admin stuff,4g/5g modem and have the land line diverted to a nominated mobile number, cheap and cheerfull.The deadline is a while away anyway(and will come and go as per)
Cheers Sparky, all a bit clearer now and good to know that using the copper cable maybe an option still.
I think they will probably go with the 4g option and maybe even save a few quid on what it is costing at the moment