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FTTP new install queries

PianSom

Casual Member
Hello all

tl/dr - how long will fttp installation take? Why are there so few 300/50 providers?

I live in a not-spot, miles from the exchange and the nearest green box. Around this time last year I co-ordinated with my neighbours to start an Openreach Community Fibre Partnerships install. In return for our DCMS vouchers plus around £1k each, about half a dozen of us were promised the ability to order fttp by the end of this year.

All did not go to plan. After a few months I stopped getting update emails. I queried and was told that Openreach had decided to cancel our order, and instead would install the wider neighbourhood some time in 2020 as part of their general build-out. I did not take this well, and launched a formal complaint process accusing them of breach of contract, prior to a proposed legal action. The upshot was that Openreach agreed to complete fttp provision to my neighbourhood by the end of this month, and have refunded our upfront payment. A small (I hope) technical issue means that they are saying that there will be a week's delay but I should now be in the position of ordering by the end of next week. All of the online tools and discussions are ignorant of our impending availability, but I have been told by my Openreach contact that my postcode will go live on ISP's systems as soon as they have completed next week. We shall see.

Now my question is this - how long will it actually take to install my service and go live? 10-20 bd is the standard response, but will it vary by ISP, or will Openreach be doing all the works so it will be fixed? This will be a 2 stage install, and I suspect that the fibre will be blown in to each of our houses (since our existing phone lines arrive via ducts). What is people's actual experience of different lead times by ISP?

I have a preference to go with a smaller/better service ISP even at a higher cost, but it seems that ones that people around here speak highly of (Aquiss, for example) don't offer fast speeds. So it looks like BT/Sky/Zen are the way forward. Any other recommendations I should be looking at?
 
Once you place your order, someone should come along and pull a cable through your duct up to the capping at the side of your properties, normally 7-10 days before your installation date, then on the day this will be run to your desired location and the ONT installed.
There are only a few providers offering services on the OR FTTP network at this time, Sky, TT and others are expected to start next year.
 
I'm curious, if Openreach effectively said they were going to do it for free but you'd have to wait a little longer into 2020, then why stick with the co-funded approach at all?

Anyway, I think Green Meanie has answered the core question but we did recently do a summary of currently active FTTP providers on Openreach's network:

 
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Thanks Green Meanie - when you say "someone" will come and pull cable and then come back and install the ONT - who? Is it ALWAYS OR, or does it depend on the ISP? (In other words, is install time not dependent on ISP?)

And my question was really how long between order and go-live (not between cable-pulling and ONT installation)?

And a suplementary - as far as I can tell, my phone line enters my house though a duct from a central point on the residential estate. Will OR (or whoever) really want to break in to the duct to put something on the ouside of my house, or will they do both the cap and ONT install inside?

Mark.J - simply because we did not want to wait any more, and we had already paid our part of the cost. Getting that back was a nice surprise. (And thanks for the link.)
 
Last edited:
Thanks Green Meanie - when you say "someone" will come and pull cable and then come back and install the ONT - who? Is it ALWAYS OR, or does it depend on the ISP? (In other words, is install time not dependent on ISP?)

And my question was really how long between order and go-live (not between cable-pulling and ONT installation)?

And a suplementary - as far as I can tell, my phone line enters my house though a duct from a central point on the residential estate. Will OR (or whoever) really want to break in to the duct to put something on the ouside of my house, or will they do both the cap and ONT install inside?

Mark.J - simply because we did not want to wait any more, and we had already paid our part of the cost. Getting that back was a nice surprise. (And thanks for the link.)
Openreach or a contractor working on their behalf pull the cables in, you may end up with a splice point by the duct mouth.
It may also be that your area was picked up in a new phase of the BDUK roll so your CF monies were no longer needed.
 
Thanks Green Meanie.

I'm sorry to labour the point, but my primary question is - what is the time between ordering and go-live? Do you have any clue?
 
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Thanks.

Hopefully I will hear direct from OR as soon as I am live; that is what they have told me, and so a checker check shouldn't be necessary. And I have already been told that when I am live on their systems then that will feed through immediately to the ISP community

Merry Xmas??
 
I guess it will depend how far away from the fibre duct your house is, and what ISP you are with. Our FTTP connection was set to "Accepting Orders" last weekend. We ordered our upgrade on Sunday, and on the Tuesday Openreach engineers were on-site pulling the fibre from the main duct to our wall. First go-live date is next Friday, i.e. 10 days after submitting the order.
 
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Hi, as Green Meanie mentioned "on the day this will be run to your desired location and the ONT installed" I have ordered FTTP, stage 1 has been completed, just waiting for the installation. My question is, do Openreach install the fibre to your favored location? my master socket is in the kitchen, but would like the fibre installed in the living room, would this be possible?
Thanks, Darren.
 
Just to feed back some first hand experience, in case anyone comes across this in future ...

Openreach contacted me this morning to tell me that most of my community are now able to order. (There are a couple of stragglers, hopefully next week.) I decided to go with BT with something of a heavy heart, given the pricing advantage, and ordered this afternoon. I have been told by email that external works will be done on 6 Jan and my go-live date is 15 Jan, both provisional dates,
 
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