Openreach Adds 27 UK Locations to FTTP Broadband Rollout
Openreach (BT) has today confirmed that a further 27 UK locations have been added to their £12bn Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband rollout plan, which is working to make their gigabit-capable network available to 20 million premises by the mid-to-late 2020s (currently building at a rate of c.42,000 premises per week).
The new additions will be familiar to our readers because we leaked the draft list on Monday (here) and it’s now become available via their website (here).
Just to recap, Openreach’s full fibre network is already available to over 4.5 million premises (here), rising to 5.8 million by September 2021 and then 20 million. In addition, some 3.2 million out of their planned deployment to 20 million premises will also be in rural or semi-rural areas (here) – these are all commercial build without state aid.
The 27 locations announced today directly involve an expansion of Openreach’s existing rollout plan for rural market towns and villages up to March 2024, which reflects that aforementioned 3.2 million premises (i.e. the operators Area 3 commitment). The expansion of this plan will mean less of a gap for the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme to fill later on.
So far as we can tell the operator’s final changes are almost identical to the ones we published on Monday, except for swapping the columns of Kilby and Crick to be the correct way around. Overall, almost 800 locations have been included in the company’s “Fibre First” programme so far.
27 New Rural Market Towns and Villages
| Locations within planned exchange area | Exchange in plan up to March 2024 |
| Abergele | Abergele |
| Addiewell | Stoneyburn |
| Barnstaple | Barnstaple |
| Bents | Stoneyburn |
| Blackridge | Harthill |
| Crick | Crick |
| Eastfield | Harthill |
| Greenrigg | Harthill |
| Harthill | Harthill |
| Hartwood | Shotts |
| Kilsby | Crick |
| Llangennech | Llangennech |
| Newbridge; Gwent | Newbridge; Gwent |
| Newport Pagnell | Newport Pagnell |
| Salcombe | Salcombe |
| Shipham | Winscombe |
| Shotts | Shotts |
| Soham | Soham |
| South Wootton | South Wootton |
| Stoke Fleming | Stoke Fleming |
| Stoneyburn | Stoneyburn |
| Stowmarket | Stowmarket |
| Strete | Stoke Fleming |
| Thame | Thame |
| Torbothie | Shotts |
| Winscombe | Winscombe |
| Yelvertoft | Crick |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Goes without saying, take the document with a pinch of salt because my town for example is on the list but says they’re not “currently building in”. However they’re currently building as a colleague is now able to order and my street has recently been cabled so this document isn’t necessarily 100% accurate.
Nicer problems to have I guess
☆SIGH☆
Always get excited at these announcements.
And then almost instant disappointment when my area is missing.
I feel your pain Bob, I am next to a LIVE FTTP enabled exchange, 1 building in right now and 2 others that are due to start building in the next 3 months, yet my area hasn’t even been discussed.
Could be worse… they could have dug up the dropped pavement blocking your drive to provide WBC FTTP to your next door neighbour and left you on the copper network having issues every time the street lights turn on.
eh I wouldn’t worry about it even if your are were in the list.
they’ve missed the date they were going to install it in my area by 3 months now
I’m with you on that, Bob.
South Clapham has been added, SW London exists!
Don’t get too excited if your area is on the list, my exchange LVHOO was in the September 2020 list of next exchange areas for FTTP rollout and nothing has changed. The BT Wholesale Broadband checker today states for my number “The premise/line is associated with exchange which is NOT part of current fibre priority programme.”
I managed to get a call back from an Openreach person when I requested on their website for any update and I was told my exchange is not yet on the rollout! I’m holding back on spending £6K for a new drive in case my direct duct is blocked which is highly likely with 27 years of local tree root growth since the direct copper cable was installed.
Amazing! I checked this website yesterday, https://api.superfastmaps.co.uk/fibrecities/1.0/ and there was no mention of LVHOO Hooton exchange area, today it’s now on the list and showing “Due to start in the next 3 months”. That will be almost 12 months from the Openreach FTTP next rollout announcement in September 2020.
Hopefully availability for my line will coincide with Plusnet supporting FTTP which they announced will be late 2021.
The Fibre Priority Program has nothing to do with you getting fibre or being prioritised for getting fibre. It simply means a line / exchange has FTTP available to over 75% of its served base and so fibre should be offered as a priority over copper, i.e. it is a sort of precursor to a stop-sell on copper. I’m pretty sure that’s right. Even BT sales people don’t know this though and they quote the text and misrepresent its meaning to people when trying to sell them leased lines.
Same here, been waiting for LVHOO to be started on FTTP which is frustrating knowing Chester is already being built for FTTP by CityFibre and LVHOO was most likely added to the list by Or to stop CF building.
Had to sign to VM and hoping FTTP will finally be available when that contract is renewed. Luckily my property is Pole fed so FTTP will most likely be done that way.
Worth noting they may not even use the direct duct to install your FTTP.
I’ve been tracking Chester’s City Fibre progress on https://one.network/ lot of activity around Upton by Chester at the moment but no chance of them coming near here once Openreach start in LVHOO. I was told by an Openreach person that direct underground fed properties do have a relatively high blockage rate but there are no poles around here so it would be a balance between the cost of poling a whole estate to deliver FTTP or clearing the blockages. I don’t think the residents would be too happy if poles start appearing on the pavements and outside properties when there were has been no previous need for them in the past. The other alternative is burying some copex a few inches across the garden to the property Virgin Media install style.
I’m on LVMAN and looking at the current mapping of upcoming work, work on-going and complete I don’t hold out much hope my exchange will go live for a very long time. There s large gap between Tarvin and Delamere with me slap bang in the middle.
I get very excited at these announcements.
And disappointment when my area isn’t on the list.
Thank you for let me down Openreach
Have you offered to pay? Usually that helps
If its any consolation Max my fttp works great. Maybe you should move to somewhere that already has fibre? I am surprised though that someone so well known to the upper echelons of BT management has been overlooked. Its almost as if they are ignoring you.
Ah well, the wait goes on to be announced.
I know the feeling. Been waiting since 2004. I’ll no doubt be waiting until 2025, or beyond.
So forgive me for asking this but are there anymore areas to be announced before the 2024 date mentioned?
Put simply, if your not on the long PDF list, you will be potentially after 2024?
I’m lucky Cityfibre are potentially coming to my address but that could be more like 2025 also.
I tried to have fftp installed via hey!broadband, sent installer but no duct (in pavement though) so need to pay extra £1700 but with a £500 contribution by hey! How many other premises will have the line put in the street and then owners will have to pay for the drives to be dug up? I think it’s going to be a big obstacle for the rollout of fftp
Once change over to fttp only happens that charge won’t be there any more (sound like a fibre on demand product you was trying to sign up for)
Also most don’t plan for the future and make sure they have pre piped there drive
seen them fancy fake paving with concrete patterns all the way to the road (no pavement but first 2-3 foot is the utlily line) with no thought of what happens to that expensive paving when you need to get to the utilitys or have fibre installed
What happens to the expensive paving is it gets lifted then put back, Lee.
Shouldn’t be concreted in, though that does happen when builders err.
Pretty common for new builds to have block paved carriageway and block paved service strip in lower traffic areas in estates.
Last two places I’ve lived one was partially block paved the other almost completely block paved. Only way anything other than Openreach FTTP is getting here is via PIA.
The ones I see are not split up it’s pored concrete then fake brick patterns on top (it’s not a slab of concrete) they have to cut it up and likely brake it into chunks if need to gain access under it
What’s with the really slow rollout across Glasgow?
Round my way (north east Glasgow), Openreach are busy clearing blocked ducts. No mention of FTTP, but I can’t believe they would do it too far in advance in case the ducts get blocked again.
Openreach are so bad in building FTTP in Tower blocks and Flats I live in London E3 No proper fibre yet only FTTC fibre. the problem is that only limited to speeds up to 80mbps and if the cabinet is full its Adsl internet.
I can see Community Fibre exhilarating in building fibre in Tower Blocks flats etc..
Then its hlHyperoptic followed by G network.
Virgin media are very slow in roll out in building fibre in flats, Tower blocks etc…
Only hope is Hyperoptic is coming to me as they applied for permission to install fibre maybe a year later or so will be getting hyperoptic thats if I dont move houses.
Tha pain i get reading news that outside London getting these upgrades or better fibre.
Im stuck with Three Broadband 5G
So. How come openreach have updated my neighbour to FTTP and according to their web site I can get upto 80mgb(I can’t 12 mgp at the most)..he can get 1gig now. Yet when I request an update on my service I’m told they have no planes to update my in area.
Why did they just do one house in my entire neighbourhood and why are they lying to me?
Get this checked. We have FTTP in the village and early days some houses showed as been able to get it some not. Ours was one that was not but my neighbour who lives further down the road had already ordered FTTP. I spoke to Zen about it and they chased up Openreach who admitted it was a mistake and they corrected it. It stayed corrected for about a day and then went back again. :o)
In the end I didn’t bother getting it, just stuck with ADSL because Plusnet offered me a ridiculously cheap deal. Probably upgrade when Plusnet adopt FTTP later in the year.
Your neighbour may have paid for it, the council also may have paid for it.
Are you pole fed? Are you directly next to your neighbours?
You can raise an escalation if so to Openreach CEO and then it’d get sorted.
My cabinet is FTTp enabled.
What they don’t tell you is you have to pay construction charges from the cab to your premises for the fibre. Which in my case was £15k install.
But if I paid it other people near to me can then have it. Which is a nonsense.
That’s FTTP on demand. For normal FTTP the installation fee is not even £100.
Would’ve thought it a huge bonus that if you paid for FTTPoD others could benefit, not nonsense?
All these rural areas, and still nothing in Leicester from them.
Harthill on there 4 times ahaha
Harthill exchange covers multiple villages as does Stoneyburn which is also mentioned more than once. As far as I know Harthill is also the headend exchange that feeds Stoneyburn, which I can see out my window so I’m happy!
Thats good, I have just tried to have a phone line installed and was told that the cost would be approximately £5300.00 bt would pay £3,400 and we would have to pay the balance which is ludicrous as half of the estate has already got a line
What sort of estate?
It’s amazing in rural Soham on the list I know for certain a fibre cable runs on both sides of our property, I have asked engineers from open reach and subcontractors does it run outside the reply is yes. However I can’t be connected for some unknown reason yet property about 1/2 a mile away is. Please explain?
Same reason you can’t drive onto a motorway without a junction.
i find it amazing that my exchange is Full Fibre Ready Exchange (SDHRLY) to my house – yet i cannot get it. More annoying is the current copper to cabinet (12) be moved by BT/Openreach to come in the house through new extension. probably means a new run of copper to under pavement. Should be nice if it was fibre.
BT Openreach regularly advise not currently planned or scheduled
Population of my town adjacent to Gatwick about 25000 i think.
and currently paying £60 to BT a month when should be paying same but Full Fibre etc etc
2025 hits…
12 homes finally have FTTP
Year 3000…
13 homes finally have FTTP
well round here we are having the fibre overheads installed and we are not on the list
so you would think they wouldn’t be doing anything but I have someone in the know this location must remain secret but they have estimated that we will have fibre overhead before anyone and at the rate they are going the next 4 months will see full installation here that opens up the FTTP install straight away
until you see the installers laying new fibre in your area
your location will have to keep on with the old installs
but soon when the full test’s have been done with a wide area that open reach are installing at the time
and it is a big area that the first test will happen it will not get the go ahead
Good luck if your on Vodafone as despite it going live here over 3 months ago they still don’t offer it as an option.
Apologies to those still waiting for it to go live btw as I know I have at least an option for it but its still out of reach until my contract ends
YAS! This might explain why I’ve seen Openreach engineers checking stuff out in my village lately. Makes sense as they are just finishing off connecting the two small towns next to me and have moved to prep the village right next to me so it would be logical to do mine next. Totally didn’t think they would have been sensible with it though!