Barratt homes say they're not responsible for broadband

[DJSADERS]

See these 2 links:

https://www.cable.co.uk/news/barratt...lem-700001313/

https://www.cable.co.uk/news/labour-...mes-700001296/

I think the attitude from new build developers is all wrong, when the likes of Virgin are willing to pay to put the service on a new build estate but the developer is stopping them then the government or ofcom should intervene and make then allow it.
Its cheaper and less disruptive to do it while there are no roads and paths, while the other utilities go in, and lets face it broadband is now a necesity.

Like they are legally obliged to provide a telephone socket they should be legally obliged to allow ALL AND EVERY other telecoms provider in the area they are building, on to the development. Especially when a property in an area with good broadband is worth more money

Thoughts and opinions?

[Ignitionnet]

Indeed. http://telcotorment.blogspot.co.uk/2...-problems.html

[nomadking]

Look at it from their perspective. They get an area all neat and tidy and then VM and perhaps others come along and dig everything up. If it was all that simple, why wouldn't they allow it?

[vm_tech]

VM have contracts in place where the ducting and pits are installed by the home builders before and roads/paths are laid. VM get the cabinets built and install the network equipment. They are tee'd to the door and all internals rewired as the house is built. Win win for everyone

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by vm_tech

VM have contracts in place where the ducting and pits are installed by the home builders before and roads/paths are laid. VM get the cabinets built and install the network equipment. They are tee'd to the door and all internals rewired as the house is built. Win win for everyone

As is the case with Openreach should the developer contact them.

[tweetiepooh]

Without reading all the links - wonder who gets hit for repairs if something fails. Is it the telecoms company or can they pass buck to the builder. Twisted pair copper likely nice and simple so they do it, after all they just have to supply a "phone" socket. Actually putting in coax or something intended for "high speed" data is different.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Look at it from their perspective. They get an area all neat and tidy and then VM and perhaps others come along and dig everything up. If it was all that simple, why wouldn't they allow it?

So, they organise it so that the various companies come in and do their work BEFORE it's all tidy.

I suspect the problem is contracts. If a builder builds a new estate, the operator would have to cable up maybe a couple of thousand houses and/or flats. That's probably not cheap, so they'll probably want some sort of exclusivity. I am not defending them, as I don't think those sorts of deals are good for the consumer.

What I think, with an increasing amount of government services going online, is that the government should be intervening to ensure fair competition between the broadband providers in *all* areas, including rural and new build. This includes ensuring that all broadband providers at least have the chance to build on all new estates, regardless of what deals are in place.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

Without reading all the links - wonder who gets hit for repairs if something fails. Is it the telecoms company or can they pass buck to the builder. Twisted pair copper likely nice and simple so they do it, after all they just have to supply a "phone" socket. Actually putting in coax or something intended for "high speed" data is different.

Depends on the agreement in the case of the in-home stuff. BT would have a clear demarcation point at the master socket or, in the case of FTTP, the ONT.

VM's fault if they don't have a demarcation point really

[jungleguy]

A developer is obliged to ensure all utilities are available, the quality of those utilities is not their concern, which is fair enough.

NTL had exclusive deals with developers back in the day......when they went into Chapter 11 they pulled the plug on expanding their network overnight, leaving half built estates, half built......Since then there's been a certain amount of suspicion by developers allowing cable into their sites.

[Kushan]

My thoughts are that all future builds should have fibre straight into them. Of course, the problem is where the fibre is terminated (At the service end), someone has to own it and look after it.

Shame it can't be some neutral government company that leases it to the likes of Virgin and BT.

[Horizon]

..... I lobbied the politicians for such a thing 20 years ago (a nationwide fibre network into ever home with various companies offering services over the cables), but they decided to go down the DTT route instead...

With the calls for Openreach to be hived off from BT, which is now a real possibility, a neutral network operator may emerge.

[Kushan]

We can only hope. It would make a lot of sense for Openreach to start investing big in technologies like fibre, then.

[Pierre]

The issue is who puts in the plant?

If barrats let VM and whoever else to install infrastructure fine.

But if people are expecting barrats to lay the duct themselves then that's were it gets a bit murky. Because if they install a duct then they have to let everyone use it, then who owns and maintains the duct?

It's not straight forward

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

VM's fault if they don't have a demarcation point really

To be fair, for customers they normally they do, but it depends on the service.

For broadband the general assumed customer demarcation point is where the broadband kit creates a network point (either Wired or Wireless). Everything past that is the responsibility of the customer, everything before that is for VM to ensure it works.

For TV it's the RF / SCART / HDMI output of the set top box.

For a standard phoneline it's VM's master socket.

I'd agree that in a new build senario then it's a bit more complicated, and (this is a guess on my part) it's probably part of the discussion and agreement between VM and the developer as to who is responsible for what.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

To be fair, for customers they normally they do, but it depends on the service.

For broadband the general assumed customer demarcation point is where the broadband kit creates a network point (either Wired or Wireless). Everything past that is the responsibility of the customer, everything before that is for VM to ensure it works.

For TV it's the RF / SCART / HDMI output of the set top box.

For a standard phoneline it's VM's master socket.

I'd agree that in a new build senario then it's a bit more complicated, and (this is a guess on my part) it's probably part of the discussion and agreement between VM and the developer as to who is responsible for what.

Yet again Openreach are ahead of the game.

I would upload the developer's handbook but it exceeds the forum filesize by 0,01Mb