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Nexfibre - Rollout Discussion

Based on your reply @Brumski it could just happen one day lol. Openreach are very annoying lol. I’m hoping that nexfibre hit our estate soon more choice the better :)

That's literally what happened to us. Nexfibre came along and most of the residents placed orders with VMO2 and we put the OR rollout/fiasco to one side.

Then one Sunday afternoon several of us got emails from OR informing us they'd gone RFS. It just happened just like that.
 
FWIW, openreach have permits in all over colchester right now, we were in a no build planned area too. Nexfibre published their last report with Colchester 'in 2024' and I note they are building on the outskirts of colchester currently (Nexfibre) with permits referencing COLCX. I assume this has given OR a kick because suddenly there are OR vans all over Colchester mostly the past week and teams working in the pavement and putting cabinets up. The postcode checker still says between now and 2026, however just 2 weeks ago it said not planned. I wonder what the plan is.
 
That's literally what happened to us. Nexfibre came along and most of the residents placed orders with VMO2 and we put the OR rollout/fiasco to one side.

Then one Sunday afternoon several of us got emails from OR informing us they'd gone RFS. It just happened just like that.
Literally just had a OR guy outside my house, he said he works on copper but all the fibre and ducting looked to be ready & said he believes it should be August in cookoo oak exchange. Which is nice as OR checker says no plans to build.

I don’t know why it is - but it’s very annoying knowing is there lol, I get about 60mb down which isn’t bad, just struggles when kids and myself are online especially teams. Bandwidth really slows down.

How
 
I am pretty sure that is why Openreach built my street after realising Nexfibre is all over the rest of the town (We have long had VM presence here). What I now can't understand though, - all OR had to do was pull fibres and install kit into the chambers and it was suddenly live. OR's FTTP has been around a lot of the town for years, and in fact, literally if you turn right out of my cul-de-sac and drive not a few hundred yards, you come to an area where there was no room to drop a green cabinet in, hence they've had FTTP for many, many years. Why did they wait?

I guess waiting until they "had" to spend it to survive in the area, if the country had no political subsidies and no altnet rollouts I expect OR would still be limiting FTTP to new builds.
 
Its interesting to hear alt nets say they consider it a sin to go into each others areas, but OR is the opposite, someone starts rolling out, they rush in.

I am so glad no decision was made to just have OR exclusively provide FTTP everywhere, they have left most of my city alone, to clarify its not even planned for them.

My city when cityfibre have done should be 90% covered by them, then there is spotty coverage of a few streets here and there by grain, some MDUs covered by hyperoptic, and 3 exchanges (out of many more) covered by OR FTTP. So its largely one provider for the majority of the city with some areas here and there getting a 2nd provider, and some unlucky ones will have no FTTP coverage at all.
Noticed on BIDB OR doing roadworks on some edges of the city (nowhere near the middle), and googled, then found an ISPreview article listing in Dec 2023 they adding an extra few Leicester exchanges, all of these are right on the edges of the city, they do seem allergic to higher density centre of city areas, perhaps due to higher exposure in those areas to business customers.

All 3 of these locations have either very recently had CF turned on or have current CF works going on and works going on within 6 months of announcement, vulture behaviour.
 
I am pretty sure that is why Openreach built my street after realising Nexfibre is all over the rest of the town (We have long had VM presence here). What I now can't understand though, - all OR had to do was pull fibres and install kit into the chambers and it was suddenly live.
If a provider is paying to use PIA (so BT's ducts and poles) they've been paid to go clear the ducting. and ensure everything is in a fit state for the altnet to rollout. So at that point BT might as well pull fibers for themselves if they've already done the hard/awkward replacement of poles/chambers/ducting and do it whilst theres no issues with collapse/blockage etc.
 
We had fullfibre (fibre heroes) "in planning" stage for 2 years in our area with no updates at all. within 2 weeks of nexfibre digging that moved to "we are almost finished planning" on fibre heroes. quite amazed how fast nexfibre have rolled out.
 
FWIW, openreach have permits in all over colchester right now, we were in a no build planned area too. Nexfibre published their last report with Colchester 'in 2024' and I note they are building on the outskirts of colchester currently (Nexfibre) with permits referencing COLCX. I assume this has given OR a kick because suddenly there are OR vans all over Colchester mostly the past week and teams working in the pavement and putting cabinets up. The postcode checker still says between now and 2026, however just 2 weeks ago it said not planned. I wonder what the plan is.
Noticed Nexfibre have permits in for north Colchester all of a sudden so I think this is why openreach are hitting the ground running in the end now!
 
If a provider is paying to use PIA (so BT's ducts and poles) they've been paid to go clear the ducting. and ensure everything is in a fit state for the altnet to rollout. So at that point BT might as well pull fibers for themselves if they've already done the hard/awkward replacement of poles/chambers/ducting and do it whilst theres no issues with collapse/blockage etc.
Unsure where you got this from, Matt, but altnets do the repair work on the Openreach network as they go. To pay Openreach to do it is more awkward and costs more than doing it yourself. Openreach will to a very tiny amount of repair without charge them it's all costly.

Openreach certainly will take advantage of the repairs though, much as altnets will when Openreach do them. Openreach often start builds in areas shortly after altnets do and will sometimes make repairs that weren't worth it for the altnet.

Openreach took advantage of altnet repairs in the west of this city, altnet taking advantage of Openreach repairs in the east.
 
Suprised Nexfibre choose to build here, most people are fed up of VM here, just going around my end of Colchester shows a lot of people having Open Infra boxes outside now.

Openreach is very slow to deploy here, although I did check on BIDB and it shows everywhere is planned but my street.
 
but altnets do the repair work on the Openreach network as they go. To pay Openreach to do it is more awkward and costs more than doing it yourself.
This is very interesting? is this part of the PIA "certification" (Training?) that altnets' engineers end up going through?
(like this: https://twinscommunications.co.uk/physical-infrastructure-access/#1598921799256-afc152ca-33a5 - though note it covers clearing blockages it doesn't cover repair work from what I can see? unless they cover that off on the new installation part)

Assuming there's limited scope to what works they can do before it gets flagged to BT? I can only go on what I've seen where altnets are rolling out but BT are duct clearing, repairing poles etc. The instances I've seen the BT FTTP rollout comes months after the initial clearing / repair work. Assumed BTOR had been told what was being ran where, and they'd cleared the way so the ducting was usable.

Though in fairness I can only see locations I'm near/have friends & family at. One of the locations an altnet rolled, there's still no BT available at those properties even though plenty of work was done on ducting etc. by BT for their rollout. (Gigaclear, for a rollout in Essex).
Though the houses in question are pole fed for power & telecom (in peoples back gardens....), and I believe Gigaclear are putting Tobys in footpaths near driveways so must be splitting off from the nearest OR point before it diverges to poles?

This is common from what I've seen, where duct/pole work happens when a provider starts using PIA. I get what you're saying that BT are taking the opportunity to use it, but I also think they're maximizing their return on PIA, by making sure altnets can use it.
 
Suprised Nexfibre choose to build here, most people are fed up of VM here, just going around my end of Colchester shows a lot of people having Open Infra boxes outside now.

Openreach is very slow to deploy here, although I did check on BIDB and it shows everywhere is planned but my street.
They can use virgins already ducted infra, I noticed OR permits fly up shortly after the report for Nexfibre shows Colchester planned. I saw they deployed in Braintree and coggeshall with references to COLCHX so I knew it was coming, I guess they had the heads up.

OR have at lighting pace been splicing, I spoke to an engineer yesterday on butt road and he said they have been told it’s high priority and every road needs to be connected by the end of the year… wonder why…

Looking again just now nex have got permits in for southway which is dead middle of Colchester. I strongly suspect by the end of the month there will be full town permits flying around and I suspect nex will beat OR.

I’m happy with VM, but not happy with the ritual cancellations dance, that said, you can just sign up in your partners name each year and swap between for new customer prices every time if cancellations doesn’t come through.

Very excited to see nex permits here, welcome upgrade over the horrible HFC latency. I will probably pick a OR line too if/when it becomes available.

Open Infra use Colchester Fibres network, and although lots of boxes outside not a lot are connected yet. The biggest fibre deployment is Lila but they are not expanding anymore and have low take up. They also use CFs network. I use Colchester fibres network at work and it’s 4 hops to 1.1.1.1 1ms latency. Crazy backhaul.

Edit: looking at the permit in southway its for a Point of Presence, so this would tell me that they are going to overbuild VM. I couldnt see anywhere online in a hurry for places that they have actually overbuilt HFC.
 
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They can use virgins already ducted infra, I noticed OR permits fly up shortly after the report for Nexfibre shows Colchester planned. I saw they deployed in Braintree and coggeshall with references to COLCHX so I knew it was coming, I guess they had the heads up.

OR have at lighting pace been splicing, I spoke to an engineer yesterday on butt road and he said they have been told it’s high priority and every road needs to be connected by the end of the year… wonder why…

Looking again just now nex have got permits in for southway which is dead middle of Colchester. I strongly suspect by the end of the month there will be full town permits flying around and I suspect nex will beat OR.

I’m happy with VM, but not happy with the ritual cancellations dance, that said, you can just sign up in your partners name each year and swap between for new customer prices every time if cancellations doesn’t come through.

Very excited to see nex permits here, welcome upgrade over the horrible HFC latency. I will probably pick a OR line too if/when it becomes available.

Open Infra use Colchester Fibres network, and although lots of boxes outside not a lot are connected yet. The biggest fibre deployment is Lila but they are not expanding anymore and have low take up. They also use CFs network. I use Colchester fibres network at work and it’s 4 hops to 1.1.1.1 1ms latency. Crazy backhaul.

Edit: looking at the permit in southway its for a Point of Presence, so this would tell me that they are going to overbuild VM. I couldnt see anywhere online in a hurry for places that they have actually overbuilt HFC.
Thats great to hear OR expanding quite fast, probably they sense it with Nexfibre and OINF expanding. Looking at BIDB, Nexfibre have a permit on London Road near where I am but on my street specifically Openreach FTTP is not planned, unlike the rest of Colchester it seems.

I would never ever use VM once we get a FTTP alternative (either OINF or OR, whichever one shows up to my street the fastest, assuming OINF as they actually connected us to the pole and I saw people cable pulling down my street) in Lexden, their customer service is non-existant and at this point we're just fed up with them. If only Nexfibre had any other anchor ISPs I would consider, but I think we're done with VM now.
 
Thats great to hear OR expanding quite fast, probably they sense it with Nexfibre and OINF expanding. Looking at BIDB, Nexfibre have a permit on London Road near where I am but on my street specifically Openreach FTTP is not planned, unlike the rest of Colchester it seems.

I would never ever use VM once we get a FTTP alternative (either OINF or OR, whichever one shows up to my street the fastest, assuming OINF as they actually connected us to the pole and I saw people cable pulling down my street) in Lexden, their customer service is non-existant and at this point we're just fed up with them. If only Nexfibre had any other anchor ISPs I would consider, but I think we're done with VM now.
I am on Old Heath Road and just up at the junction there has been OR vans for the past 2 weeks down all the side roads, looks like they are getting ready to relay the duct up to the junction which then would feed off to my road. I strongly suspect they are racing this due to the planned and now permits-in Nexfibre build.

I agree with the customer service being non existant, and if I had the choice I would pick OINF as they use CF's backhaul which is unbelievably fantastic for residential purposes.

I will however, be for sure picking Nexfibre/Gig2 the second it becomes available to me with symmetrical. I'll probably get a cheap/low cost OR fibre line as a WAN2 fallover or for gaming traffic only lol.

Exciting times, I think once Nex are in the area I may take a walk up and look, they must think people like me are nuts :)
 
This is very interesting? is this part of the PIA "certification" (Training?) that altnets' engineers end up going through?
(like this: https://twinscommunications.co.uk/physical-infrastructure-access/#1598921799256-afc152ca-33a5 - though note it covers clearing blockages it doesn't cover repair work from what I can see? unless they cover that off on the new installation part)

Assuming there's limited scope to what works they can do before it gets flagged to BT? I can only go on what I've seen where altnets are rolling out but BT are duct clearing, repairing poles etc. The instances I've seen the BT FTTP rollout comes months after the initial clearing / repair work. Assumed BTOR had been told what was being ran where, and they'd cleared the way so the ducting was usable.

Though in fairness I can only see locations I'm near/have friends & family at. One of the locations an altnet rolled, there's still no BT available at those properties even though plenty of work was done on ducting etc. by BT for their rollout. (Gigaclear, for a rollout in Essex).
Though the houses in question are pole fed for power & telecom (in peoples back gardens....), and I believe Gigaclear are putting Tobys in footpaths near driveways so must be splitting off from the nearest OR point before it diverges to poles?

This is common from what I've seen, where duct/pole work happens when a provider starts using PIA. I get what you're saying that BT are taking the opportunity to use it, but I also think they're maximizing their return on PIA, by making sure altnets can use it.
Apologies: I'm not sure what you're asking, if anything, or what your point is here. Resolving a blockage is a repair if that helps?
 
Do you have Open Reach poles around your area? and do they have black blocks at the top or near the top?

what-are-these-new-boxes-on-phone-poles-near-my-house-in-v0-bmbjfdgnptra1.jpg
Today they have just magically appeared on all poles in my street while I was at work....so hopefully won't be long now.they are half way up the poles..not at top...so wondering how long it will be before they move them to the top :-)
 
Today they have just magically appeared on all poles in my street while I was at work....so hopefully won't be long now.they are half way up the poles..not at top...so wondering how long it will be before they move them to the top :)
they are only half way throughout my area too, such an eye sore being around 9ft up.
 
And today, finally, I can now order VM. Pity I already have Openreach - with that I now have literally zero intention of ordering VM. Maybe when it goes wholesale I might have some interest, but there we go. It's there if I decide to go for it anyway.
 
Well, finally they are in my area and I went and asked them if they are Nex, they said they are not and are virgin. I queried it a bit more and the guy said that they are told what to do by Virgin but Nex audit it. Miller telecom are the contractors.

They are overlaying entirely :).

They were pulling a big red tube which he called the the main trunk connecting the cabinets back to the exchange. They were using a BT chamber to do so interestingly too.
 
Well, finally they are in my area and I went and asked them if they are Nex, they said they are not and are virgin. I queried it a bit more and the guy said that they are told what to do by Virgin but Nex audit it. Miller telecom are the contractors.

They are overlaying entirely :).

They were pulling a big red tube which he called the the main trunk connecting the cabinets back to the exchange. They were using a BT chamber to do so interestingly too.
From when they are doing this, how long after do Virgin go live with Fiber internet?
 
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