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BT fibre roll out

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grannyjan2 Mon 09-Feb-26 15:46:41

Hi .. I'm hoping for some insight into the whole change over from copper to fibre lines. I really wasn't sure whether to post here or under "house and home".
We are approaching the end of our BT contract, and I phoned them today to discuss dropping our landline, as it's barely used now.
The first thing I was told was that we'd have to get the fibre installed first, then they would discuss plans/contracts/prices.
Our area is apparently fibre-ready.
What I couldn't get to the bottom of is what the new set-up would look like, how big are the new bits of kit etc. They say we will need 2 electrical sockets available nearby. We have these, one already in use for the WiFi hub, but we run the wires very neatly down the inside of a bookshelf.
Will our neat arrangements be respected, or will the just leave us with wires everywhere ?
You may guess from my worries that we have "history" with installations of various types.
I'm hoping that some of you have been through the process and could share experiences.
Very grateful for any input.

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Flippinheck Mon 09-Feb-26 16:00:44

In my house there was a new relatively compact box where the line enters the house and a new modem. There is no practical difference to what I had before and definitely no mess of wires. Mind you, I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference to the BB speed.

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kittylester Mon 09-Feb-26 16:03:21

We just had a new router which was about half as big again as the one it replaced. Ours is a bit more obvious as it had to be on an outside wall where our last one was hidden behind a plant and we were told this needs more clean lines of sight for the other stuff it has to communicate with. We still have a landline. We are with sky.

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kittylester Mon 09-Feb-26 16:04:19

I should say that it isn't so reliable.

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cornergran Mon 09-Feb-26 20:06:43

Our BT installation was straightforward. The technician asked where we’d like the router and the small white box that goes with it. We discussed options, agreed on a location and an hour later it was done. The router is slightly larger, we were shown how to turn the lights off if we wanted to. The small white box is behind a shelf unit. The technician cleaned up after himself, made sure one item attached to the router would work as a way of testing the connection. We chose our tv and off he went leaving us to change the router password on the rest of the internet connected items, eg iPads and Alexa. So far speed is much faster and the connection totally reliable.

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MiniMoon Mon 09-Feb-26 23:13:56

Virgin Media had all the full fibre broadband kit ready to go last spring here. We were looking to change our broadband provider anyway so we went with them. The engineer ran the new fibre cable from the pole to the house, put a small brown box on the outside wall and ran the cable under the facia boards to the position we wanted it inside the house. He installed a small white box inside with the new router next to it. All done in a couple of hours and he cleared up after himself. I was left with the task of changing the password on our tablets, Alexa etc. We had decided that we would not have a landline phone, and advised doctor dentist etc and gave them our mobile numbers.
Much better without the landline, no more scam callers.

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