Full Fibre - now or in the future?

If your area is shown as “accepting orders”

You can order fibre broadband. You’ll need to contact a broadband provider to do it.

If you’ve already contacted a broadband provider and were unable to place an order, then fill in this form but please remember to run your fibre check first; as this will help us investigate the problem for you.

If you live in an area which has fibre but the cabinet isn’t ready

You can’t order fibre yet but we’re working on it.

If we’re reviewing your area

You can’t order fibre broadband, unfortunately. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help – we’ve previously worked with hundreds of communities to get them fibre broadband through a Fibre Community Partnership.

How Fibre Community Partnerships work

There needs to be a joint funding arrangement in place, where we contribute as much of the cost as we can, and the community funds the rest. We’ll then build the most affordable solution, and advise on any grants or funding you might be able to get to help pay for your part. Because of high demand, we’ve paused registrations.

Find out more about a Fibre Community Partnership and express your interest in getting Full Fibre broadband.

The short answer is that it’s a really complicated engineering programme. So there’s a lot to do. We’re working as quickly as we can – fibre broadband is already available in more than 96.59 per cent of the UK.

Why is it so complicated?

As well as working on installing equipment in our exchanges, we’re also overlaying part of our existing copper network (the part between exchanges and green cabinets) with fibre. And we’re running fibre direct to homes and businesses too. This involves lots of civil engineering work – in lots of different, and sometimes hard to reach or remote, locations.

We publish regular updates on our Full Fibre broadband build plans which can show you our plans in each exchange area in the UK.

To get more a personalised view of your home or business then register for updates via our Fibre Checker

Our fibre checker is continuous updated and refresh to ensure the data is the most accurate possible. However, there are rare occasions when the data is incorrect or missing. If your home or business address is missing or you believe the result you’re being shown is incorrect, then you can submit a request too investigate and resolve the issue.

Fibre availability enquiry

Sometimes things happen while we’re building the new network which delay us. For example:

• we might not have been able to agree a location for the cabinet with the local authority
• it’s taking us longer than we thought to get permission to close roads or manage traffic to do the work
• we might not be able to lay our cables or underground duct routes where we need to – this could be because there are already other utility cables there, or other obstacles like blocked ducts
• we might have come across unexpected things like archaeology or a protected wildlife species
• we might be having trouble getting power at the location (we’re not allowed to use domestic or street lighting supplies for our cabinets)

So if something like this has happened in your area, that might be the reason why the date’s changed. We can’t comment on other companies’ line checkers though, so if you have questions you’ll need to talk to them directly.

Have a look at our fibre checker

Sometimes it takes a while for information on broadband providers sites to update. You can find the latest information for your area on our fibre checker.

Unfortunately not. We can’t move a line that’s already connected to a home or business from one cabinet to another.

Sometimes we can’t tell from your postcode which of our green street cabinets provides your broadband. That’s because some postcodes have more than one cabinet.

Or it might be that your broadband comes directly from the exchange, rather than through a cabinet. If either of these apply to you, you should talk to a broadband provider to see which services are available to you.

Due to the complex nature of the network our plans occasionally change. For a variety of reasons this can cause some areas to be removed from their expected fibre roll out.

This doesn’t mean your area will never receive fibre. It’s worth regularly accessing the fibre checker, as we’re constantly working towards our ambition of 25 million homes and businesses connected to fibre in the coming years and your area may be added to future plans.

There are some areas where technical limitations mean we can’t build our standard fibre network. This makes it too expensive for us to offer fibre broadband there.

This doesn’t mean we can’t do anything though. We’re always looking at ways to overcome these limitations.

Or you might want to think about a Fibre Community Partnership. This is where we contribute some of the costs of fibre broadband and the community funds the rest.

We’ve paused registrations for Fibre Community Partnerships at the moment, but if you check your postcode and fill in our Expression of Interest form we’ll get in touch as soon as they reopen.

Want to know more?

Find out more about more about a Fibre Community Partnership and express your interest in getting Full Fibre broadband.

First we have to find the right location – a new cabinet has to be within 100 metres of an existing one. Once we’ve done that we then check:

• there’s access to power and the other infrastructure we need
• that the new cabinet won’t block pavements or access to roads
• if there are other utility companies’ cables underground, or any other obstacles
• how the cabinet will look – we have to take into account its visual impact in some places, for example conservation areas
• that we won’t put the security of any properties next to the cabinet at risk
• that it’ll be easy for us to get to the cabinet later for installations and any maintenance we need to do

Do you need planning permission for new cabinets?  

Not usually. Although we might if the location we’ve chosen is in a national park, conservation area or other area of special interest.

You can use our fibre checker to see our latest plans for your area. Or you can talk to your local authority. When we decide to upgrade our network in a particular area, we give details of this to the chief executive of the local authority and its regeneration or planning departments.

If there aren’t any plans for fibre broadband in your area

The Government is supporting investment to get faster broadband to as many people as possible across the UK (beyond the 95 per cent level reached in December 2017). There are lots of different projects happening in different regions that could apply to you – find out more on the gov.uk website. And if you live in Scotland, there are plans underway to deliver fast broadband access to every home and business – find out more.

You should also check with your local authority. They’ll be able to tell you if you’re likely to be covered in the next round of Government subsidy.

Another option might be for your community to privately fund upgrading your cabinet via a Fibre Community Partnership with Openreach. This would involve a joint funding arrangement, where we contribute as much of the cost as we can, and the community funds the rest. We’ll then build the most affordable solution, and advise on any grants or funding you might be able to get to help pay for your part. Because of high demand, registrations are paused at the moment but you can find out more about a Fibre Community Partnership and express your interest in getting Full Fibre broadband.

What we’re doing to get fibre to more people

We’re working hard to give people the speeds they need in their daily lives. Over the last decade, we’ve invested more than £17 billion into our network. And we now manage more than 192 million kilometres of cable stretching from Scotland to Cornwall, from Wales to the east coast. We’re continuing to take that network further – making fast broadband speeds available to thousands more homes and businesses every week.

As a first step, you should contact your local authority. They’ll be able to tell you who to speak to.

You might also want to have a look at our Fibre Community Partnership. We’ve paused registrations for the moment, but you can check your postcode and fill out our Expression of Interest form and we’ll get in touch as soon as they reopen.

We’re doing our best to make sure people in rural areas have access to fast fibre broadband. For example, we’ve invested more than £14 billion in improvements to our network. That means we’re making Fibre to the Cabinet broadband available to thousands more homes and businesses every week, wherever they are in the country. To see our latest plans for your area, please use our fibre checker.

No plans for fibre broadband in your area yet?

A Fibre Community Partnership might work for you. This is where we contribute some of the costs of getting fibre broadband in place, and a community pays for the rest. We’ve paused registrations for the time being, but you can find out more about Fibre Community Partnership, check your postcode and fill out our Expression of interest form and we’ll get in touch as soon as they reopen. The Government is also supporting investment to get fast broadband coverage to as many people as possible. There are lots of different schemes available which might work for you:

• Find out what’s happening in the UK
• See the plans for Scotland

As a first step, we suggest you talk to your local authority. They get funding from the Government to improve access to fibre broadband through the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. You might be able to help them decide which areas to prioritise for the next wave of BDUK funding.

Another option is a Fibre Community Partnership, where we contribute some of the costs towards upgrading your area, and the community funds the rest. Due to high demand registrations are currently paused.

Find out more about Fibre Community Partnership and express your interest in getting Full Fibre broadband.