Super High Speed Broadband for Dalston Square

[Mark]

It seems we have some progress. Just received an email from Hyperoptic:

As you are aware you have registered your interest in Hyperoptics fibre broadband service. Hyperoptic off the fastest internet speeds in the UK and are looking to carry out a free installation at Dalston Square. The three packages that we offer residents are attached for your review. I also enclose a recent online piece where the FT’s How To Spend IT Jonathan Margolis reviews our service. I hope you will find this interesting.

[Article can be found HERE]

Hyperoptic have been working with your freeholder Barratt Homes over the last year on a test site. These installations have gone well and so we are looking to move forward with an installation. I will be picking up with your property manager on this, but wanted to keep you informed.

If you have any further questions, then please let me know and I will keep you updated with development.

We will ignore their spelling and grammar, but rather stick to the 3 packages:

20 meg connection for £12.50 per month
100 meg connection for £25.00 per month
1 gig connection for £50 per month

For all 3 you would also need their line rental which comes in at an additional £12.50 per month.

I have just one thing to say: Hyperoptic, SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

[ando]

It would be great if it comes about however I'll believe it when I see it. I would also be quite happy to never give BT another penny.

[tine]

...especially as I have heard a rumour that BT have no intention of bringing Fiberoptic to the Square.

[Mark]

We have more movement it seems.

I was, this morning, invited to a meeting between Consort and Hyperoptic. Apparently Hyperoptic have been working with Barratt at another of their developments and have managed to convince Barratt that their service and workmanship are of an acceptable level. Barratt (as the freehold owner of the Dalston Square development) have given Hyperoptic the go-ahead to survey the entire Square with an eye to installing the necessary infrastructure to give us high-speed internet access.

And this is how it will work: BT Openreach would be contracted by Hyperoptic to lay the fibre-optic cabling from the street into the basement of most blocks around the Square, where they will link into junction cabinets (some blocks would be able to share but most will have their own). From these cabinets, standard 'cat 5e' network cabling will be run throughout each block using existing ducting (cat 5e cabling is copper so some loss of speed can be expected - it would be far to costly and impractical to retro-fit/run optics to every apartment). Residents who sign up for the service would then have cabling run from this new cable network into the cupboard by their front door, where the router would be placed (this could be moved further into the apartment but would result in exposed wiring (no ducting exists within apartments in which to run it). And that would be that. And all of this work would be paid for by Hyperoptic: There would be no installation charges at all to residents, whether they plan to use the service or not.

The survey will be complete within a few weeks, and it is expected that Barratt will sign off on the permissions shortly thereafter. Hyperoptic will then again make contact with residents looking for customers while they begin the work. All being well, the installation will be complete within 8 to 12 weeks of the Barratt sign-off.

I am not going to hold my breath on this timeline, but I am hoping we might see something up and running by the end of summer. Will keep you all informed as I hear more.

[Mark]

Another step forward: Surveying is complete and Hyperoptic are in possession of the signed wayleave documentation from Barratt. This from them:

Great news, last week the wayleave document was signed that means we can now schedule the resource and arrange an installation, bringing the fastest broadband in the UK to your apartment. In terms of next steps we will assign a Deployment Manager and provide and installation date in the coming weeks and I will keep you informed of this.

For those of you interested in this service, now is the time to sign up. You will get free installation from the building network into your apartment (there will be a charge for this after the first round of installations), plus a great reduced rate for your first 2 years of service (£30 per month instead of £50 for the 1Gb connection for example).

[paul]

Further update from Hyperoptic that they begin work in Dalston Square end of October and so should be ready to go live back end of November

[timspencer]

Hi Guys.

Massive newb question, but this seems to be where i'm most likely to find an answer...

Apart from Hyperoptic, which ISPs are best on the square, do you think?

Cheers
Tim

[tsoundy]

Hi Tim, I use BT (basic broadband, not Infinity) and have not had any issues in the last year since I got connected.

[Mark]

I am also using BT and like tsoundy have had no issues at all since moving to Dalston Square and signing up with them back in January 2010. I have the 'Up To 18 Gb' connection and generally maintain speeds of 17 to 17.5Gb during downloads which is really very good.

Further to that though, we have news regarding Hyperoptic. I have just returned from holiday to find 2 emails from their engineers. The first gives a start date of November 20th for them to begin the installation of cabling throughout the square, the second says the crew finished their previous job early and advises work will begin this week! And this morning when leaving my flat I found their guys wiring my floor in Gaumont! I stopped to have a quick chat and have been told that they anticipate finishing the basic cabling in just 4 to 5 weeks time. After that will come the work of hooking new registered customers into the network (which will mean running cables from the network cabling they are fitting at the moment into your apartment to a modem which will be placed in the cupboard next to your apartment door). Those of you who have already registered with Hyperoptic will be contacted soon (if you haven't been already) to confirm your wish to sign up.

2 things to bear in mind: Because this system is independent of the telephone system you will be able to wait until your new Hyperoptic system is turned on and running before you cancel with your current ISP. No swap over period where you get stuck without internet access which can be a right pain. Secondly, the fibre-optic part of the system will stop in the basement of your building where it will switch to standard copper cabling, so there will be some loss in speed: This though should not be very much as it will be, in networking terms, a very short run of copper.

[ando]

In relation to Hyperoptic, I received an email yesterday offering me the opportunity to preorder. There was a bonus discount too for the first 24 months, so if anyone wants to take advantage you can find the contents of the email here;

emails.hyperoptic.com/t/ViewEmail/d/674BEDAD4B93C10C/2FD74550DC4FA360C9C291422E3DE149

[paul]

Getting frustrated at how long Hyperoptic are taking to go live in the Square -they initially promised late November and this then slipped to Dec 20th -contacted them today to be told they still have no idea when we will go live with this service so looking like Jan /Feb now! Zero communication from them on what is causing this delay!

If anyone else has signed up can they contact Hyperoptic to complain about this constant delaying of the service going live at Dalston Square?Hopefully the more noise we make the quicker they will go live with the installation - They can be contacted on:


tel: [phone]
email:[e-mail]
twitter: @hyperopticcs

[Mark]

I have heard that part of the problem was that the light-box exhibition that has been in the square for the last couple of months (wrapped up last week), was sitting atop one of the access points that Openreach need to get to in order to turn their part of the system on. Add to that the whole holidays thing that is apparently going on this week and next (bah humbug) and that probably accounts for the delays. Wouldn't hurt them to be honest with their customers and let them know what is going on though.

[paul]

latest email from hyperopic....not expecting this to be live for a few months yet...they are great at over promising and under delivering to date!

Dear Paul,

First of all, please accept my apologies for the delay in getting you connected to Hyperoptic.

We had planned to have completed our installation by now, but we’ve been unable to bring our fibre to Dalston Square using the route we anticipated. After exhaustive investigation of other routes to the development, we can see no other way without civils works involving road closures and traffic management involving permits from Hackney Council.

Unfortunately, road closures of this kind were embargoed over the Christmas period, but we hope to have a schedule from Hackney Council this week. After the civils work are completed we will have a further month’s work to run 120 meters of new ducts and complete our fibre installation and testing.

When the civils work is underway we’ll be in a better position to advise you of when service will go live. I’ll be in touch again next week with further updates.

I’m sorry this isn’t the news you were hoping for, but when delays like this occur I wanted to keep you as updated as possible. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact Customer Support on 0333 332 1111 or by email to [e-mail].

Thank you for your patience.
Dave Shaw
Head of Customer Support

[Mark]

A bit more progress. This from Hyperoptic today:

Further to my email last week, I’d like to update you on our progress at Dalston Square. A council permit was issued to enable work to begin to clear blockages over the weekend. Although some progress has been made, another council permit is required to finish clearing the blockages.

Once the blockages have been cleared, we will then build 123 metres of external ducting. Once the second permit has been received and the blockages have been cleared, we anticipate the new ducting to be built within 10 working days thereafter. Please be assured that we will continue to send regular updates to you to keep you informed of progress.

If you have any questions, you’re welcome to contact us at any time.

Thank you for your continued patience

[robert]

At least 2-3 months right now.