My installation took place on Saturday bringing my rollout to a conclusion. As a result, I thought I'd provide an update, if anyone is interested, chronicling dates and events.
For context, our estate (built in 2016/2017) is UG-fed and Openreach has been deploying its GPON rollout very slowly over the last two years. As a result, I'd gotten into the habit of checking One.Network and BIDB for any Openreach roadworks which is where my NexFibre story begins -
11th December 2023 - Upon checking One.Network I see for the first time work permits associated with "Nexfibre" in the vicinity of our estate. I conducted further research and their September 2023 rollout update/plan confirms our village was in the build plan for 2024.
12th to 15th December 2023 - Nexfibre (Svella) engineers are on the estate lifting lids and checking ducts. They then install their own straws across the estate. At the same time, they are working on the road connecting our estate to the rest of the village.
18th December 2023 - They install a small grey "cab" at the entrance to the estate.
22nd December 2023 - More UG work takes place.
8th January 2024 - Engineers are on the estate moving existing (but unused) Openreach CBTs to one side before adding their own infrastructure.
9th - 19th January 2024 - Sporadic engineer visits to the estate. Towards the end of this date range they appear to be mostly testing the deployment.
31st January 2024 - This is the final time we see any rollout activity and we're told by the contractors they are performing final tests.
1st February 2024 9 AM - The VM address checker confirms availability and residents begin to place orders. I place my own order for "Gig1" later that day. I chose 17th Feb as my installation date.
1st to 9th February 2024 - VM representatives conduct sales calls to residents across the estate.
6th February 2024 - My pre-installation work is carried out externally. They did knock the door out of courtesy and this enabled me to discuss where I preferred the brown external box. They proceed to blow fibre from the house to a DP down the road.
16th February 2024 AM - A VM engineer turns up to perform last checks at the external box before my installation the next day.
16th February PM - I get a cryptic text from a mobile number informing me that my "cable re-pull appointment" has been moved forward to 8am the next morning.
17th February 9 AM - Comex2000 engineers arrive and inform me the initial pre-install was done incorrectly and they need to blow new fibre to a different DP in the other direction.
17th February 2 PM - My internal installation takes place.
TL;DR - From the very first indication Nexfibre were deploying XGS-PON on our estate to being able to place orders with VM took 52 days (including the break for Christmas and New Year)
If that's bored you then apologies, I know we get a lot of questions about timelines and while I fully appreciate every rollout is different I figured someone might find the above interesting.