I’m a self confessed geek and I’ve been religiously checking on the trooli.com website for a while, hoping that my address will magically appear and I can order what is now potentially the fastest broadband product so far at 2Gb/2Gb. That’s to say 2 Gigabits up and down!

Sadly my property doesn’t seem to be on their list. despite my immediate neighbours being on there and us both currently using the same pole for our telephone services. Perhaps because I’m at the end of the road? I’ve tried to reach out to Trooli to get a formal reason as to why but answers seem unforthcoming so far.

It seems that quite a few properties down our street have whats called a JUP or “Joint User Pole” and whilst Trooli are allowed to use them, they have to apply for usage. The process seems a little confusing as Trooli are suggesting that there may be an additional cost if your property uses a JUP as Trooli have to carry out an assessment and then potentially pass on some/all of the licence fees associated with that JUP. It’s unclear at this point as to what these costs will be but they do say that they will let you know before you proceed with your order.

One thing that’s not clear is whether you’re footing much/all of the assessment/licence fee for the JUP which in turn then allows Trooli to sell services to other users of that pole without charging them a fee. I guess that the price you pay for wanting something sooner.

Wessex Internet

At present there’s not much competition for full fibre, but Wessex Internet have been making progress coming down the Everton Road through Hordle to Sky End Lane.

I bumped into an engineer the other day and asked if he had any information on whether Wessex Internet were coming to Everton. His reply was probably not this year but they would likely be starting in Milford and moving north anyway, not south from Hordle.

On paper Troolis product is cheaper and faster with their fastest 2000Mb/2000Mb residential service costing a penny under £50.00 per month, whereas Wessex Internet are quite a bit more expensive at £79 per month for a 900Mb/450Mb service. So it seems that at present, Trooli are the go to choice in terms of speed and price.

This may be because Trooli may be hanging their cables from existing poles for much of their installation whereas Wessex may be digging, which I suspect is a much more costly option and that cost is passed on to the customer.

BT/Openreach

So where is Openreach? As you may know, BT was broken up into a two parts, BT and Openreach to try to release their monopoly on the communications infrastructure and provide more competition. When you buy a broadband service, you don’t buy from Openreach, but it is they that provide and maintain a high percentage of the national infrastructure. If you visit this page you’ll be able to see what their plans are for the future and whether your area is planned for a full fibre upgrade.

Many companies use the Openreach network to sell their own products on, so when this becomes available, you may quickly find many more companies are able to provide Ultrafast broadband in your area too.

If anyone from either company wishes to reach out and let me know, I’d love to hear from you.