A Comical Case of Starting and Stopping Openreach FTTP Builds
Sometimes the UK rollout of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in an area can be a bit of a roller coaster, which is something we’ve touched on a few times before (example). But today it’s the turn of Openreach, which recently seemed to suffer an almost comical level of difficult with deciding whether or not they’re even building.
In this case, the situation concerns the area around ISPreview itself in Dorset. CityFibre deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network here at the end of last year (i.e. date it went Ready for Service) and, in March 2023, Openreach followed that with one of their own notifications, which informed us that our area had finally been added to their build plans too and would be covered within the next few weeks. Hurray.. more choice!
However, what followed that first email notification was a chain of updates that became almost as amusing as they were frustrating, which seemed to highlight Openreach’s struggle with trying to clearly and consistently communicate whether or not they’re actually going to cover a particular property.
But sometimes it’s easier to show rather than tell, so here’s a simplified log of the updates we’ve recently received, where Openreach seems to have contracted a bad case of tourette’s syndrome.
Openreach’s Local FTTP Build Notifications (Emails)
07/03/2023 – We’ve added your area (and specific address) to our build plans and are on course to deliver by Mar/2023.
19/03/2023 – We’ve started building and it should be available “soon“.
02/04/2023 – We’ve reviewed our build plans and currently we can’t deliver to your address. “There are lots of reasons for why our plans change – from engineering hazards to access permits. We review our build plans regularly as circumstances change. We hope this is just a temporary setback and that we can bring [your address] back into our Full Fibre build plans in the future.”
05/04/2023 – We’ve added your area to our build plans, and we’re on course to deliver to your address by Jun/2023.
17/04/2023 – We’ve started building and it should be available “soon“.
19/04/2023 – We’ve reviewed our build plans and currently we can’t deliver to your address.
21/04/2023 – We’ve started the build in your area and full fibre should be available “soon“.
For most people, the “we can’t deliver to your address” message is usually taken as somewhat of a finite communication, which at best means that the service is unlikely to arrive anytime in the near future. So you definitely don’t expect to see several of those messages in a short space of time.
However, in this case, Openreach appears to suggest that they’ve re-started their local rollout three times within the space of under two months, and that’s as odd as it is frustrating, as well as being just a little bit humorous. Naturally, we queried this with the network operator, which confirmed that it “isn’t normal” and is in fact the result of a “glitch with our data system that responds to Registrations of Interest from members of the public.”
The good news is that Openreach has located the cause of this error and are now fixing it. So, if anybody else has a recent email chain like ours, then you should soon be getting another email to apologise for the incorrect messaging. The next email will also explain that you’ll soon receive another email (yay.. more emails!), once their systems are fixed and updated, to confirm the correct status of your address within their plan.
In our case the news is good, since we’re still very much set to be covered by the rollout. Feel free to comment below if you have also been impacted by a similar issue.
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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At least they confirm that they are still coming to your area. My area they have moved the dates 3 times now until last week when they decided to ditch my part of the town. What seems funny is they only seemed interested in the town when Airband showed up as possibly building here (which also they have moved out and decided not to)
I have given up hope waiting for Openreach. Seems a waste to install all the infrastructure in the streets only to abandon but there you go.
I’m on Openreach FTTP, but it seemed that my area (West Redditch) only became of interest to OR when altnet Lit announced plans for a rollout, and then suddenly OR pulled this area 2 years forward against their announced roll out programme.
If Openreach are prioritising areas where they believe altnets are planning to build, then I’m pretty sure that would be of interest to the Competition and Markets Authority. Can other readers name examples where an altnet announced build plans, and the appearance is that Openreach suddenly brought forward the rollout?
I’m pretty sure if it were a violation of competition rules the altnets themselves would’ve raised it.
It’s legitimate for Openreach to build in response to altnets. The altnets are building on top of Openreach copper, Openreach upgrade in response. They were already going to compete anyway.
Openreach did the same in Haywards Heath. We were on their “between now and 2026” list for a while, then Swish started work to bring their network to the town. All of a sudden, Openreach bucked their ideas up and about a third of the town now has access to Openreach full fibre.
We also have two extra AltNets – Lightning Fibre and Fibre & Wireless (Hey! Broadband). Le sigh, you wait for a bus…
Reality Bytes: “It’s legitimate for Openreach to build in response to altnets.”
Not necessarily, because OR have a dominant market position, and the rules are different for dominant players. If OR were seeking to hinder new market entrants by pulling forward a roll out for that purpose then they’re acting specifically to reduce competition. If I recall the competition law training correctly, then OR can be judged on the outcomes rather than even the intent.
You mentioned that if this were the case then the altnets would have raised it, maybe they have (allegations of this nature are usually investigated behind closed doors), and it maybe they haven’t because they’re mostly tiny outfits without the management time and resource to gather sufficient data and get expensive legal advice. Companies the size of VM or OR, they’d have the resource, and very small teams of policy & regulation professionals, plus their own in house legal capability, but altnets, nope. Management of those, if hindered by OR bringing forward a rollout wouldn’t sit round complaining it’s not fair, they’d put their effort either into accelerating their own roll out, or moving to another area that’s less heavily contested.
I think, given their previous legal actions, CityFibre have the resources and have chosen not to raise it.
I haven’t heard a peep from either them or VMO2, both of whom have had Openreach overbuild their full fibre.
They seem to think it’s legitimate and they’ve no legal recourse, or have decided it isn’t worth their money and time. Given the effort CityFibre went to to try and prevent hybrid fibre being advertised as ‘fibre optic’ if they thought they’d a case I imagine they’d have pursued it.
If you’ve legal training I’ll gladly defer to you on legalities. IANAL.
Openreach bringing forward deployment when an alt net appears has been standard practice since 2004, not just a recent FTTP one
They’ve done this in my street in Exmouth twice in the past 6 months.
First time was about a month after they put all the equipment on the telephone pole. The second was after they’d had the duct open nearby and was making sure all the fibres were good to go. They told me to expect FTTP availability this month, instead we’ve been taken off the list again!
Same I was on the list they did one whole side of the area the. They got to us and stopped now I got to wait from now to December 2026 like thaks openreach you were like this when fttc was just coming in I was on 1 mbps for years then the fttc came along 30 mbps then got my own place and then I got 200mbps now I have 1gbps but I still want full fiber as the uploads are laughable on virgin atm 50 up not even 100 like the biasness customers get I don’t expect openreach to install into my building useless I’ll propley have virgin full fiber before openreach pull there thump out
Replace 2023 with 2015 and every year since and it’s the situation for me.
A not spot, 2 miles from the exchange, yet everywhere around is served by FTTC cabinets since a decade ago, now all those cabinets are upgraded to FTTP, the cabinet I am served from totally overlooked.
Sign up to be notified by openreach on fibre and as regular as clockwork every few months an email will come through to say ‘it’s coming’
Yet check a few minutes later and sign up again and the immediate reply is an email stating the exact opposite
The regular failures of the cabling with repeated botches at repairs, offers to dig up my drive – even though the cable doesn’t even run under it, and I knew the standard of the repair the previous time it failed (jelly crimps and a plastic bag wrapped in electrical tape directly buried in the pavement) and endless grief from incompetent ISP’s (plusnet, Sky, EE) were enough. A special mention that plusnet were truly dire.
We and hundreds around us are truly the ‘premises passed’
Almost certainly never to get fibre whilst places in the back end of nowhere get the headlines and gigabit fibre
Migrated to 4G and now on 5G with VoIP for my landline, no doubt openreach will continue to not give a monkeys.
“A not spot, 2 miles from the exchange, yet everywhere around is served by FTTC cabinets since a decade ago, now all those cabinets are upgraded to FTTP, the cabinet I am served from totally overlooked.”
Just a FYI…. They do not upgrade cabinets to FTTP.
They upgrade specific addresses to FTTP. The FTTC cabinet is never touched and continues to serve everyone connected to it.
It’s extremely common for some addresses on a cabinet to get upgraded to FTTP while others on the cabinet get skipped. This is because it needs rolled out to each specific property and there can be issues with some addresses on a cabinet and no issues with others.
The fact someone is or isn’t connected to an FTTC cabinet has no logistical impact at all on whether or not FTTP is viable.
It could only effect public funding for FTTP which can be based on current speeds per property. Many on FTTC are ineligible for public funds for FTTP.
@John And what happens to those skipped properties? Limbo, it seems. Damned to limbo for all eternity/who knows how long/until you find £30k down the back of the sofa.
Once an area gets to that magical 75% to 85% covered target, the people left behind just get to watch as… nothing more happens. But don’t worry, you’re “under review.” Well, that’s a relief.
In our area they said they were bringing it in July 2020. Then said nothing. Early last year a contractor fixed an issue with a route due to trees (we live in a Boulevard) by going around them, then nothing.
My expectation is that this is due to the planners who either don’t necessarily do their homework or don’t respond once something is resolved leaving a build in limbo for months or years. We’ve experienced this in my workplace as well as here.
Hence I gave up and when the school girls that were sent cackling to represent ee/bt at my doorstep I had to turn apologise that I’d given up waiting and taken on Three Home broadband.
Had exactly the same in Burton on Trent, although its just been a case of we cannot serve your address. Not a big issue as we have Virgin Media, seems BT will loose out on custom but its their loss.
Openreach have dragged their heels for 3 years in Burton. I was told it was cancelled earlier in the year and now it’s not.
I’m sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact Netomnia have just started build their own network.
Hi, I am having a similar issue which started on 20th January when I placed my order via Sky. Here is a copy of my messages from Sky (bearing in mind Openreach have pulled a cable through and is coiled up outside my friend door back in the beginning of march and I was told an engineer would be out the next day to attach a box on the wall)
08/03. £77.51
08/04. £78.00
Signed up 20th January.
Original install date. 7th March.
Vodafone cut off. 8th March.
26 Apr 2023 12:48 PM
Hi Sean, just a quick update on your order. Openreach have told us they currently don’t have equipment in place to connect your Broadband and Talk to your phone exchange. Openreach are looking at the best way to get you connected. Unfortunately, we currently don’t have any more information on how much work will be needed or how long it’ll take. But don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything – we’ll stay in touch with Openreach until your services are up and running and we’ll text you with an update on 04/05/2023
06 Apr 2023 07:42 AM
Hi, just a quick update on your order. Openreach have told us they currently don’t have equipment in place to connect your Broadband and Talk to your phone exchange. Openreach are looking at the best way to get you connected. Don’t worry, your billing for Broadband and Talk won’t start until your services have been activated. We will contact Openreach again and provide you the latest update by 14/04/2023
30 Mar 2023 15:13 PM
Hi Sean, just a quick update on your order.
Your order has been in for quite some time, and although we are aware that Openreach are dealing with complex external works we feel this is still taking far too long, as such we have raised a request to have your complaint dealt with at a higher level to ensure we are doing everything possible to push them for this work to be carried out.
You¿ll receive a text with an update on your order on 04/04/2023
28 Mar 2023 17:05 PM
Hi, just an update on your order. Openreach are planning the work and time required to connect your internet service.¿
A survey may be carried out to determine what work needs to be carried out. You¿ll receive a Text with an update on your order on 30/03/2023
21 Mar 2023 15:50 PM
Hi , Openreach need to lay the casings for the cabling to run from the telephone exchange to your property.¿ This work may require Openreach to dig up roads and/or paths. There is no set timescale for this to be completed as this is dependent on the work required to connect your property to the telephone exchange. You¿ll receive a Text with an update on your order on 28/03/2023
16 Mar 2023 12:54 PM
Hi Sean, just a quick update on your order. Openreach have advised that your order is still waiting on a suitably skilled engineer to complete external work. Once this has been completed your order will then progress. Don’t worry, your billing for broadband and talk won’t start until your services have been activated. We will contact Openreach again and provide you the latest update on 21/03/2023.
15/03/2023
Hi , just a quick update on your order.
We’ve contacted Openreach and even though work’s been taking place to get your services up and running, we haven’t received a further update.
We have now raised a complaint case with Openreach to request further information.
You¿ll receive a Text with an update on your order on 15/03/2023
Sky Expert’s Notes
09 Mar 2023 09:21 AM
Hi Sean, Openreach need to lay the casings for the cabling to run from the telephone exchange to your property.¿ This work may require Openreach to dig up roads and/or paths. There is no set timescale for this to be completed as this is dependent on the work required to connect your property to the telephone exchange. You¿ll receive a Text with an update on your order on 10/03/2023
Sky Expert’s Notes
28 Feb 2023 12:20 PM
Hi it’s Sky, Quick update on your order. There are currently resource issues with Openreach engineers causing lengthy delays. The engineer will need to visit your property to establish the best way to connect your services. You don’t need to do anything – we’ll stay in touch with Openreach until your services are up and running and we’ll text you with an update on 09/03/2023
30 Jan 2023 15:53 PM
Hi it’s Sky, Quick update on your order. There are currently resource issues with Openreach engineers causing lengthy delays. The engineer will need to visit your property to establish the best way to connect your services. You don’t need to do anything – we’ll stay in touch with Openreach until your services are up and running and we’ll text you with an update on 28/02/2023
26 Jan 2023 05:55 AM
Hi, just a quick update on your order. Openreach have told us there may be a delay with activating your services. We are working closely with Openreach to identify the work required to provide you with a working service. Don’t worry, your billing for Broadband and Talk won’t start until your services have been activated. You do not need to contact Sky, we will contact you with a further update on 30/01/2023.
Just the same In barrow in furness
They started the job 18 months ago,
Now a quarter of the street has fibre and the rest has to wait again, which I have complained and openreach did contact me regarding this but their excuse is their is no fibre to the area yet. Lol
Then how come a quarter of the street is connected?
Also houses a lot further away from the exchange which the fibre has to pass by my house to reach them are also connected.
It’s just a joke to them,
Latest info from them is it’s due to be started in October hmmmm .
Whenever you complain it’s always someone els fault, ie it’s not our equipment (which maybe it ain’t) but it’s your fibre their equipment is connected to.
“a finite communication” – do you mean a final communication?
However, it looks like the series of messages you were getting could well be infinite 🙂
I too have had these “yes we are installing in your area”, “no we’re not” emails. I raised it with our Rural engagement manager and his reply was “System error I’m afraid … Lots of people have been receiving these emails today. Apologies for the confusion. Please ignore it”
I’m the community lead for a CFP and even more confusing were the congratulations I received from a local on sorting out FTTP – he’d just placed an order with Sky, and I hadn’t been told the service had gone live. 2 months early! I know I shouldn’t complain but OR have been a PITA to deal with from start (3+ years ago) to finish
How many PON’s is your build broken down in to?
I’m not sure what’s going on here at the moment. Apparently after asking they said it’s basically there and in place but the testing hasn’t been carried out.
A shortage of staff has meant it takes longer to get people to test and sign it off as live. I reckon as CityFibre are building here in late June, they are waiting for that to make it live!
Open reach email , unfortunately we can’t bring Fibre to your premises right now. They are literally outside our flats pulling in the cables. Spoke with cartaker of our flats OR have done survey and can’t get firbe into our flats. Now firbe boxes above all our flat doors have appeared. No updates from OR still saying we can’t bring firbe to you right now.
At lest you got that far no boxes hear the build from now to 2026 it doesn’t take that long. Considering they did harf the area in few months lazy
Thanks for flagging with OR and getting it sorted
Yeah similar happend here in Shrewsbury,
October last year had email to say address party of build plans with build expected to start April this year.
13/4/23- had email from OR to say we had been removed form build plans …
Also at same time the Openreach FTTP planned went from Bidb.Uk as the OR data set the flag to No and also reflected on the Openreach website. This was the case for a number of Shrewsbury address.
28/4/23 – noticed mine and others in Shrewsbury set back to planned
29/4/23- had the apology email confirming we’re still very much in their build plans.
IT is pretty typical of the Openreach shambolic rill out and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing and the Openreach database being full of areas and inconsistencies
It is pretty normal for the map and list of exchanges to say the build is in progress whilst the postcodes say no plans
Basically it is a mess
Yes, same here. Our town is set for build this year, even wrote to my local councillor wanting to ensure they will build my street, was told yes, definitely it will be. Email from OR came in last week stating that I am no longer part of the build plans.
Today, received further communique contrary to the previous, and in fact I was informed in error that I was removed.
Fingers crossed…
We’ve not had this issue in our area (Plymouth, PL3), as far as I can tell OpenReach FTTP is available. We’re on the other hand finding the RFS date for Cityfibre keeps getting pushed back. About 6 weeks ago they FINALLY started digging up our road, it was exciting to see the roadworks, and then after 2 days and only a fraction of the street and only on one side they’d gone. So about 80% of the street has been left. They ended up continuing with the main road which our road is attached to. They’ve now finished the main road and disappeared elsewhere in to the area to do some other side streets leaving us partially done. It feels like there’s no actual coordination, the date has been put back about 4 times in the past year with the current date given that we can pre-order the service as being June.
It’s frustrating, we’re with Virgin right now out of contract, if it was going to be another 18 months or so we’d either take another deal with Virgin or move to a provider using OpenReach FTTP but as it seems we’re only a couple of months away from being able to get Cityfibre (until they inevitably delay the date AGAIN) we’re reluctant to move ISPs, unless there’s a chance we could sign up with Zen on OpenReach and then move to Cityfibre once they’re up and running in the area.
I know, we should be grateful that we can get a reasonable speed connection, I’m mindful of those who can’t get anything decent (a friend of mine in the sticks gets about 1Mbit) but it is a little frustrating that to get lower prices we’ll be tied into another 18 to 24 month contract (or end up paying about the same by moving to A&A).
I have notifications set for a number of properties for either family I look after the connectivity of, or previous properties I have lived at, almost all of them have had the ‘We’ve reviewed our build plans and currently we can’t deliver to your address’ email in the last few months. Today I had a single email saying they had made a mistake… I have no idea if that’s a specific property, as unlike the previous email they haven’t bothered to tell me which property that relates to. As with any planned build notification thus far, OR seem to be going out of it’s way to communicate poorly, even when apologising for communicating poorly.
City Fibre are passing the end of the street in the next 4 months, I know who i’d rather wait for, even if OR could actually install today.
Had the same for my street in Weymouth. Openreach have been deploying to streets with existing telephone poles, but totally skip my street with no poles.
It’s not uncommon for OR to pull forward areas VM and altnets are hitting. They’ve done it several times in Scotland and from what I’ve heard done it loads in England too.
Just curious: Why would you even want to go with a potential future Openreach-based fibre (it may never come to the ISPReview premise) when CityFibre is available and offers a better service?
I’d be grateful for anyone to bring full fibre.
Given the choice, I would NOT take OR, would much rather be on an altnet. However, beggars can’t be choosers.
I must be fortunate then, I’ve had very accurate and consistent information from Openreach since the very first Government/BDUK rollouts for FTTC , You’re not on the plan were not building in your area you’re not commercially viable neither are all your neighbours and you’re not getting Government funding from either SGov or Westminster.
All in all I’m confident Openreach will stick to their schedule for us in rural Aberdeenshire/Moray.
They’ve done this in Harwich. OpenReach waited until Lightspeed started rolling out to roll out themselves. Both have spent a huge sum on doing cabling spans, ducting for roadworks etc, but OR sent an email out saying they’ve reviewed the build plan and I’m not in it. I checked about 20 different postcodes and it’s the same for everyone so I’m guessing it’s a glitch.
harwich was in a commercial plan for 2025 — why why openreach spend it own commercial money in a small exchange where there is an active altnet now operational
openreach press release a few months ago said as much thinner overall coverage deepers build coverage (so that means in openreach speak — we wont do as many exchanges as we first though but we will do more (greater coverage) of the exisiting exchanges we either started on and done a percentage (so might go back and so some more — for openreach its all about the number and the mix (where is neither here or there)
@Fastman: Please be aware there are no proper published rollout plans available on the Openreach website, all it says for most places, including for example Harwich, is this: ‘Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband: Not yet available’. It used to say something like ‘between now and 2026’. If you have more details, as you claim to be a network specialist, why not share it here with us on ISPReview.
In all seriousness: With such vague, or non-existing rollout plans, who in the right mind would go with such a dodgy company when it comes to planning for future network connectivity needs. Openreach doesn’t even do symmetric FTTP (except for leased lines, which is a gamble in itself of whether it can be ordered in a timely manner or not).
OR have a budget that they have to stick to. If an area previously surveyed and deemed fit to build, suddenly has problems with new duct needed it will be shelved. What does shock me is areas where everyone wants to build at the same time. In North London we have OR, community fibre, Openinfra and Virgin all building FTTP networks in the same roads. Madness.
The truly maddening thing is what happens next, for those skipped properties.
BDUK are targeting primarily rural areas that don’t have FTTC. Skipped properties in urban areas aren’t in scope.
When a single street in a FTTP build area is skipped because of some “engineering challenge”, then that street just gets added to a pile called “under review.” And sits there, with no defined timescale for any further action. Nobody knows what will happen to them, now or in future.
You just wouldn’t believe it, would you? It’s a massive gaping whole in the national rollout plan.
Get their fibre in 1st before the duct space runs out, then it becomes unviable unless operators have the funds to overlay their own ducts.
Sigh, oh for a time machine, and I could have changed history, and got fibre started 25 years ago (for the unbelievers, google cochran thatcher bt fibre).
Ive had the will we wont/ we emails from OR, I just ignore them, first to the door with fibre gets my dosh.
Like most projects in this country it goes via DOFU’s to impede progress.
Privatisation of core infrastructure is a hoot, isn’t it. Especially when you create a de facto monopoly position for the newly private company, giving it the power to do whatever it wants, or decide it would rather just sit on its hands raking in the cash.
It’s been such a successful model. I just can’t understand why other countries having copied our approach…?
“Sigh, oh for a time machine, and I could have changed history, and got fibre started 25 years ago (for the unbelievers, google cochran thatcher bt fibre).”
Nobody has prevented BT from deploying fibre for well over a decade now! This has nothing to do with the long-gone Thatcher era. It’s more down to the incompetence and past Can’t Do culture of BT itself.
Why the obsession with why BT has not fibrered the country when the supporters of altnets should be asking why they have been so slow.
Maybe because the demand wasn’t there.
@TheFacts: Stop twisting facts here. No altnet inherited the vast network of existing poles, ducts, exchanges etc. Altnets had to start from scratch. There wasn’t even a working PIA around in the past.
Companies like BT/Openreach aren’t even able to publish plausible rollout plans for fibre, still too much speculation and a postcode-lottery mentality involved here. Who of the end users in their right mind would want to do business with companies like them?
I bet when OR decides that it can’t deliver to a specific address, that UPRN is still counted in its “premises passed” numbers
depends if that premise is on a live CBT and that CBT is live but one of the UPRNS that is connected to the Live CBT is out of Distance
Openreach laid fibre here 4 years ago, said that people would get connected quite shortly. 9 months passed, tried to flag it with ISP as Openreach don’t talk to anyone, and eventually found out Openreach had no records of doing anything, even with cables on poles etc. Eventually had to setup a community fibre project to get them to instal. Even that they were 6 months after their promised completion date.
Truly useless company.
so if your did a openreach fibre community project that means Openreach were never coming either commercially or under BDUK , as that is one of the governing rules of being part of a fibre community project — there is not ability (or should not be) any ability to jump the build queue by a Fibre communtiy project from Openreach — (PS before anyone asks i know more about that programme than probably anyone else in the county givbe or take)
As you push the fibre in,
And you pull the fibre out,
And the price goes up and up just the same. (*2)
The Broadband you’re receiving,
Could be faster I am sure(*2)
(Tune -The damper song)
Is it now time that people were automatically migrated to FTTP as it becomes available at no extra cost ?
The cost difference between FTTC and FTTP is large down to just marketing
Due you really mean forcibly moved to FTTP?
Would be problematic
Why ?
Many would be in contract, their provider may not have the network or capacity to provide FTTP. They may not be in a position to have a new service installed, wayleaves, PTDs , rented accommodation, non adopted roads. They may simply not want to have a new service into their property. Forcing people at this stage is not viable or necessary
Would it not be more sensible to just have Openeach and one other company installing fibre. THe ducts and poles have finite capacity
For Market 2 a sensible funding model would be for a loan to be made to enable fibre to be rolled out but this funding would be in the form of a loan. It would have to be repaid one take up reaches a certain level
The above model may not work for Market 3 as these may never be fully commercially viable
Whose money is going to be handed over for these loans?
Funny, energy companies don’t have this problem with “Smart meters”
When you get the letter saying “We’ve got a smart meter in our depot who is dying to meet you” or “Smart meter representatives are in your area”, tintinabulations usually occur in short order afterwards at the door portal orifice (That’s unless you’ve already progressed to the “Your meter has reached the end of its useful life stage” . . By which time the victim’s (Sorry, customer !) Usual response, do the “Fluff-off” two step . . Again !)
If the Broadband Installation had been let as a series of exclusive sub-regional contracts, Open Breach wouldn’t have been able to play the game as described above, with all the dissing of the customer it involves and delayed national achievement.
And the differences in comparative installation rateswould have been as plain as day in the stats.
Thank you commercial department of the relevant ministry and OFCOM for that one