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Community Fibre Partnership, Rural Kent, Monkton Village - Progress Diary.

Noticed the Openreach address checker for my location has now changed from 'No plans...' to 'We're starting to build our ultra-fast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband in your area'.

One step closer. :)
 
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Nothing too exciting to report as yet as not seen any build activity, but received the 'standard' email about progress...

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I’m writing to give you an update on your community funded FTTP Project in Monkton and I am pleased to say that we are making good progress and the survey and planning work is complete. We are now in the build stage of our deployment where we can actually start to install the fibre network and associated infrastructure. You might see our engineers working nearby but they could also be working anywhere on the route from your community back to the local telephone exchange.

We will be in touch with you again in the next few months as we get nearer to the go live date, however I just wanted to let you know that as it stands, we are on track for your go live date in January 2022.

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Separate to this, some of the 'poorly served' part of the village has had the FTTP infrastructure installed and is now live. We also have Orbital/VFast rolling out their AltNet FTTP service in parts of the village (not to my postcode however but not too fussed).
 
Slightly off topic but potentially relevant - has anyone any DIRECT experience of OR (or DCMS) pursuing people who have pledged a voucher in a Demand Led CFP but then changing their mind when FTTP actually arrives and not taking a service ? (and is this why the target on a DLCFP is 50% higher than the actual cost ?)
 
Nothing too exciting to report as yet as not seen any build activity, but received the 'standard' email about progress...

---

I’m writing to give you an update on your community funded FTTP Project in Monkton and I am pleased to say that we are making good progress and the survey and planning work is complete. We are now in the build stage of our deployment where we can actually start to install the fibre network and associated infrastructure. You might see our engineers working nearby but they could also be working anywhere on the route from your community back to the local telephone exchange.

We will be in touch with you again in the next few months as we get nearer to the go live date, however I just wanted to let you know that as it stands, we are on track for your go live date in January 2022.

---

Separate to this, some of the 'poorly served' part of the village has had the FTTP infrastructure installed and is now live. We also have Orbital/VFast rolling out their AltNet FTTP service in parts of the village (not to my postcode however but not too fussed).
Interested by your experience, I'm in West Kent & have had a similar experience (& I suspect the same OR community manager), started getting ball park figure April last year having to increaser the size of the project to try & get overall costs down, ended up at £450k for 280 properties, just about doable with the KCC topup. Our project was added to the "going to happen" list on the 15th Feb as well - (well timed as KCC announced that the top up funding had run out on the 16th), & the latest update message also sent on the 10th Sept had almost identical wording :-), though they apparently tried calling me by phone as well.

We have seen some signs of progress locally - the fibre connectors have appeared on a couple of local poles & some blue rope around the base of others
 
Latest Update:

Had a call (missed) and email on 31st December advising our project was on target for completion by end of January and I'll likely receive a follow up in the next couple of weeks (19th January advised).

Personally feels like they are cutting it very fine as I have not seen any signs of any progress for this project area as yet. The most I have seen is some roadworks (3 days of work) scheduled for mid-December around my postcode. I assumed this was for running cabling overhead and fitting CBTs to poles - unfortunately it looks like absolutely nothing has happened! No new cabling or any CBTs visible.

I realise our area could probably be completed within 1-2 weeks as the area is small, but I guess I'm used to seeing coiled up fibre and CBTs on poles awaiting splicing for months if not years before being commissioned. :rolleyes:

Lets see what happens in January.
 
Interested by your experience, I'm in West Kent & have had a similar experience (& I suspect the same OR community manager), started getting ball park figure April last year having to increaser the size of the project to try & get overall costs down, ended up at £450k for 280 properties, just about doable with the KCC topup. Our project was added to the "going to happen" list on the 15th Feb as well - (well timed as KCC announced that the top up funding had run out on the 16th), & the latest update message also sent on the 10th Sept had almost identical wording :), though they apparently tried calling me by phone as well.

We have seen some signs of progress locally - the fibre connectors have appeared on a couple of local poles & some blue rope around the base of others

Yes, I think many of the emails are automated and sent at certain periods (perhaps when a task is completed). The email recently received was more personal, I guess this is because they are actively working on this project!

Looks like you have more visible progress than us, that's for sure! How is your project going now? What area of West Kent are you in?
 
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Finally, a good news update, engineers (NPS) have been running fibre cabling outside my property so we now have a CBT on our pole (can't quite see it properly but it looks like an 8 port).

There is an existing joint just down the road with fibre cabling running through for the next village. I'm interested to see whether they just use this joint box without running a new cable back to the Agg node.

Hopefully the rest of the area will be quick to cable up.
 
Yes, I think many of the emails are automated and sent at certain periods (perhaps when a task is completed). The email recently received was more personal, I guess this is because they are actively working on this project!

Looks like you have more visible progress than us, that's for sure! How is your project going now? What area of West Kent are you in?
Only just seen this update, we're out by Marden (on a larger scale between Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells) & our project has just started to go live - 3 of 5 PONS (about 160 properties) are now in & taking orders as of last week. 1 of the PONS that is live was only finished earlier last week so the commissioning process *can* be quick (my PON was apparently ready before Christmas but only went live for ordering on the 18th). If you can see the CBT then it's on it's way.
Communications from OR are appalling (to say the least) even when I chase the fibre team they don't appear to have any info from the PM & I've seen mails begging the PM for info.
 
Good to hear Al-T! :)

Yes my postcode (as per image on initial post) of 10 properties has been cabled up and CBT's put in place, we're just awaiting the jointing team to come and finish the job ready for commissioning. I note there is some roadworks for 26-27th Jan on the main road so hoping this is part of the final push - Excited to be getting away from our 20/1Mbps flaky FTTC service!!

Other postcodes just along the road from where I live that are also part of the project area (the main bulk of the 60 total properties) don't appear to have any fibre cabling done yet. Hoping this will be started in the next week or so for completion by mid-February (1 year since project go ahead date).
 
As it's a couple of weeks later, thought I'd add another post to this.

Having checked the project area this morning, all CBTs appear to be in place with cable coiled in various places. Looks like we're just awaiting the jointing team to come and do the associated splicing and final bits.

I emailed Openreach as I hadn't had any update. Quite a confusing response as they basically said the build had been completed and that the network just required final testing and visual audit before going live - to me, seeing cable coiled up (as pictured) and not connected does not equal 'completed'! :rolleyes:

I think one of the biggest issues I have had with the Openreach Fibre Team 'email support' is that whenever you email and get a response it's always from a different person. Unsure why they cannot assign a project with an agent to ensure communication and correspondence is always consistent, that would improve the process massively in my book.

Anyway, hopefully this will all be completed in the next couple of weeks.

EDIT: As I'm at work I've been informed that engineers are in our area 'finishing up'. Hopefully I'll come home to see a joint box on my pole instead of coiled fibre! :)
 

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As it's a couple of weeks later, thought I'd add another post to this.

Having checked the project area this morning, all CBTs appear to be in place with cable coiled in various places. Looks like we're just awaiting the jointing team to come and do the associated splicing and final bits.

I emailed Openreach as I hadn't had any update. Quite a confusing response as they basically said the build had been completed and that the network just required final testing and visual audit before going live - to me, seeing cable coiled up (as pictured) and not connected does not equal 'completed'! :rolleyes:

I think one of the biggest issues I have had with the Openreach Fibre Team 'email support' is that whenever you email and get a response it's always from a different person. Unsure why they cannot assign a project with an agent to ensure communication and correspondence is always consistent, that would improve the process massively in my book.

Anyway, hopefully this will all be completed in the next couple of weeks.

EDIT: As I'm at work I've been informed that engineers are in our area 'finishing up'. Hopefully I'll come home to see a joint box on my pole instead of coiled fibre! :)
that's good :-) I suspect the problem is the people that communicate out to us Community Leads get b****r all communications from the PMs, I've seen a couple of emails begging the PM to give them something to tell me ;-). When you do go live I'd be interested in the installation timescales especially if you are using ISPs outside the BT group (I've got a thread else where on ispreview complaining about apparent discrimination against non BT group companies)
 
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A bit more activity yesterday and today. My local postcode with 4 x CBTs has been jointed and the cables tidied up. More work is progressing from our area back towards the village today it seems.

Hopefully just another week or so to go before we can order.
 
that's good :) I suspect the problem is the people that communicate out to us Community Leads get b****r all communications from the PMs, I've seen a couple of emails begging the PM to give them something to tell me ;-). When you do go live I'd be interested in the installation timescales especially if you are using ISPs outside the BT group (I've got a thread else where on ispreview complaining about apparent discrimination against non BT group companies)

I agree. I think they have so much going on and are perhaps underresourced from an admin/support level so it makes it difficult to get proper accurate updates all the time. While it would be great if you could call them for a chat and update, I do prefer that the majority of the resource is placed at an 'on the ground' level to speed up the network rollout.

Will post further updates going forwards, including installation, etc.
 
Well that was quick. Our postcode has gone live this morning so we can now order. Just awaiting the rest of the village to go live.

Placed an order this morning for EE Fibre Max 100 which works out around £25 after discounts for 24 months.

While I wouldn't mind trying the 900Mbps package, I simply do not have a need for such colossal amounts of bandwidth at this time!! :ROFLMAO:

Scheduled for installation on the 22nd February.
 
Excellent news, be *really* interested in other installation timescales (my isp has been told 5 weeks, all BT group installs locally are happening in 3 or less)
 
Excellent news, be *really* interested in other installation timescales (my isp has been told 5 weeks, all BT group installs locally are happening in 3 or less)

Had an update regarding installation, and the date has now been moved to the 1st March. Unfortunate but not a big deal.
 
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EE Fibre Max 100 installed just now. While the speeds are within spec, I guess I was expecting speeds of around 145/30Mbps in line with the BT Fibre 100.

From this this morning...

IMG_6014.jpg


To this just after installation.

IMG_6015.jpg


Happy with the result and happy with the installation - it's also nice knowing I can regrade to a faster package at a click of a button too! ONT situated exactly where I wanted it under my stairs next to my ethernet router for the rest of the house. Next is to install and set up my Netgear Orbi for improved Wifi. :)
 
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As of yesterday, 8th March 2022, the final postcodes for this CFP project went live - within approximately 18 months of the initial enquiry.

While communication could have been improved, I'm generally happy with the result of the project.

Now the fun begins with everyone getting connections installed! :)
 
You will quickly forgive/forget the frustration of the experience (trust me I’ve been there) and be very pleased with connection. Good result 👍
 
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