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Openreach checker

Have openreach decided to jack in the idea of updating their full fibre rollout checker on a regular basis? Last update was the one where they changed the map in May, and apart from a couple of news posts for some areas in the intervening period [almost all locations in England], nothing whatsoever has been updated on it. This is despite the extensive build happening across Scotland for R100%, and several areas now have full fibre, which is not being reported whatsoever by Openreach, even in news posts or map updates.

To put that into some local context for me: Exchanges like that of Fairmilehead have been largely built in over the last couple of months [thanks to both the road works commissioner website and thinkbroadbands’ interactive maps showing plenty of openreach fttp in the area compared to May], but the map still says “we’re building here soon”. Dalkeith still shows “we’re building in this area”, but pretty much everywhere in the exchange area now has Openreach FTTP, barring maybe a small number of isolated streets and such, but that would qualify as “has now been built to most locations”

Its reached the point where they might as well not have a checker if they’re not even going to do “regular updates throughout the year” as they promised. Incredibly annoying: i get they don’t want to reveal their plans, but if they’re going to reveal anything, they might as well do it properly [even if its just like a monthly or two-monthly update], rather than half-assing it and benefiting few people.

I don’t expect exact dates for a rollout, not at all. But the least i’d expect is… communication of any kind, even if its just “openreach are about to start work on building a new full fibre network in <my_exchange_name_here>” with the usual copypasta texts.
 
Have openreach decided to jack in the idea of updating their full fibre rollout checker on a regular basis?
I'd say they're about due for a new one: the linked PDF download is also from May 2024.

But as you say, it's not very useful these days, given that there are now only three categories for each exchange area:
  • We've built to, or will be building to, the majority of this area. Translation: "We're not saying how much we've already done, and we're not going to give any indication of when we plan to start or finish, but we do plan to build out this area, if we haven't done so already"
  • We've built to many parts of this area. Translation: "We've stopped building here and we're not doing any more. We've left substantial parts undone."
  • We've built to some parts of this area. Translation: "We've never done anything here, and we're not going to either. Any FTTP you do find is mostly random pockets of new-builds and FTTPoD"
I guess it makes Openreach management happy to see large swathes of the UK now covered in green - even though some green areas are more-or-less complete and others are not even started.

I think you'd need to combine this map with third-party sources like Thinkbroadband to get any meaningful idea of the status and progress of each area.

Dalkeith still shows “we’re building in this area”, but pretty much everywhere in the exchange area now has Openreach FTTP, barring maybe a small number of isolated streets and such, but that would qualify as “has now been built to most locations”
That's not one of the categories. It would still remain in the first one (green): "We've built to, or will be building to, the majority of this area". It won't change from that category unless they decide to abandon a substantial part of the area.

The second category is for areas which are substantially incomplete and are likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
 
I'd say they're about due for a new one: the linked PDF download is also from May 2024.

But as you say, it's not very useful these days, given that there are now only three categories for each exchange area:
  • We've built to, or will be building to, the majority of this area. Translation: "We're not saying how much we've already done, and we're not going to give any indication of when we plan to start or finish, but we do plan to build out this area, if we haven't done so already"
  • We've built to many parts of this area. Translation: "We've stopped building here and we're not doing any more. We've left substantial parts undone."
  • We've built to some parts of this area. Translation: "We've never done anything here, and we're not going to either. Any FTTP you do find is mostly random pockets of new-builds and FTTPoD"
I guess it makes Openreach management happy to see large swathes of the UK now covered in green - even though some green areas are more-or-less complete and others are not even started.

I think you'd need to combine this map with third-party sources like Thinkbroadband to get any meaningful idea of the status and progress of each area.


That's not one of the categories. It would still remain in the first one (green): "We've built to, or will be building to, the majority of this area". It won't change from that category unless they decide to abandon a substantial part of the area.

The second category is for areas which are substantially incomplete and are likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
FTTP was rolled out in our exchange area this year and is complete, including some very rural nooks and crannies - it was funded by the voucher scheme so theyhad to cover the whole area.

The OR site at https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when-building-ultrafast-full-fibre-broadband still says "We're planning to build in this area in the future . . .", but no dates etc etc.

When I queried this with the OR Community Partnership representative some months ago, it seemed that there is no communication between the commercial and community partnership arms of OR, so records are not updated even when a voucher-funded network is up and running. Weird.
 
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Mines is fun. When looing at the area, "We've built to the majority of this area." and when putting in the post code "We're planning...".

There are around 10% of the local population with FTTP. Majority....
 
Maybe we're not looking at the same thing.

What I see on the map key is:
1731438211140.webp


Note: "We've built to, or will be building to, the majority of this area."

Areas can go green before they've started building anything, in which case "We're planning..." is still also accurate, especially since the postcode/address checker can give more specific information than the whole exchange area summary.

There are around 10% of the local population with FTTP. Majority....
"will be building to" appears to apply here.

EDIT: ah I see, the messaging changes when you click on an exchange area.

For my exchange, which was added in the last tranche in May and no street work has been seen, it says "We're planning to build in this area in the future". But a neighbouring exchange, which I know is mostly built, says "Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband is available to most homes and businesses in this area".

Both are shown as green in the map :-(
 
EDIT: ah I see, the messaging changes when you click on an exchange area.

For my exchange, which was added in the last tranche in May and no street work has been seen, it says "We're planning to build in this area in the future". But a neighbouring exchange, which I know is mostly built, says "Ultrafast Full Fibre Broadband is available to most homes and businesses in this area".

Both are shown as green in the map :-(
Yeah I was just about to say this earlier today when you replied before: it used to mean that "green" was because they were either presently building, or had completed their build. Now, green just means "they will build" and the only indication of "stage" is the text.

Blue now seems to be used to presumably mean "a significant majority of, or all, properties have FTTP", which in effect means there are no more builds planned again (the only places being used for blue appear to be voucher/government builds). I think the overall goal is that every exchange becomes blue by the end of all build work, but right now its very confusing.

I preferred the old system: the current one is entirely dependent on reading some text in a pop-up box. If this isn't kept updated, its practically useless for reporting anything, as is the case currently.
Mines is fun. When looing at the area, "We've built to the majority of this area." and when putting in the post code "We're planning...".

There are around 10% of the local population with FTTP. Majority....
Openreach sure has a very interesting definition of the word "majority" there.... LOL
 
Blue now seems to be used to presumably mean "a significant majority of, or all, properties have FTTP"
I interpret it differently.

In my neighbouring green area, which is pretty much complete, it remains green, and this is consistent with the message "We've built to [or will be building to] the majority of this area"

Blue I take to mean:
* it's not in their commercial build plans
* therefore they won't be building any more
* but there has been some build in the past (e.g. due to voucher/government builds as you say)

And grey I take to mean:
* it's not in their commercial build plans
* therefore they won't be building
* there has been no significant build in the past

I think the overall goal is that every exchange becomes blue by the end of all build work, but right now its very confusing.
I don't expect green to change to blue. Instead, I'd expect blue to change to green, if an exchange area gets added into the main commercial build plans.

But that's just my interpretation of the text, and no doubt yours is just as valid :-)

I preferred the old system
Don't we all - they even used to give some time estimates. Although those were pretty out-of-touch with reality.
 
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I guess in all of this you have the added dimension of what needs to happen with the local copper infrastructure. In my case the local exchange is going to be closed, the local district council plan has the exchange building down to be replaced with flats, so in my exchange area they reasonably have to get fibre to every nook and cranny, and there are some very rural subscribers with lines going down footpaths and across boggy fields. All have been done as far as I can tell.
 
EDIT: ah I see, the messaging changes when you click on an exchange area.

Thought this was the easiest but to reply to - but yeah it does. Searching by exchange gives zero information, yet the same exchange links to the few who do have FTTP.

I do get the ambiguity of there being plans, but that entire area switched back to the grey from green a year ago (when they seemingly indicated different things?) and Openreach have been fairly hopeless when contacting them.

At first they said there was no fibre laid anywhere nearby. Then they said there was, after showing them in photos and screenshots, but no plans to return as it wasn't commercially viable to do more than 20 houses....

It's an OR only area so it's no surprise they've started projects then suddenly switched to neighbouring villiages with Nextfibre/Virgin works.
 
I guess in all of this you have the added dimension of what needs to happen with the local copper infrastructure. In my case the local exchange is going to be closed, the local district council plan has the exchange building down to be replaced with flats, so in my exchange area they reasonably have to get fibre to every nook and cranny
Not necessarily. Users who are being served by FTTC can continue indefinitely, even when the local exchange is decommissioned or even demolished.

The fibre from the FTTC cabinets goes back to the head-end exchange (a main exchange covering a larger area), and the D-side copper from FTTC cabinets to homes remains unaffected.

I suspect Openreach won't even bother to pull out the E-side copper (between exchange and cabinets), given that the ducts are probably already blocked and/or full, and given the risk of damaging other cables, some of which may not even be theirs.
 
Maybe someone from Openreach was reading this forum and decided to post some updates lol:

Although lately, they have been posting a LOT of updates along the lines of these:
I hope Openreach ramps up the comms soon and starts to tell us more about where they are about to start building next. In particular, for Scotland, where a lot of build is happening in rural areas (just look at thinkbroadband with the Openreach FTTP and Exchange Locations options enabled: then look at roadworks on the roadworksscotland.org website with the date range of 01/01/2000 to 31/12/2029, and just observe the large numbers of Openreach-related works in rural places), which is not being announced anywhere at all.
 
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which is not being announced anywhere at all.
Looking at just the blogging, part of me wondered if its intentional, like telling you 6-12+ months in advance of where BT plan to rollout is just giving Virgin/Altnets time to prepare/beat them to it/follow them round and be immediately competitive.

Though, I would imagine most of its available anyway to partners due to what PIA is available for use etc. also they don't really need the media momentum telling people what FTTP is, the ISPs are a lot better at getting people signed up / switched over now than they were.

But I started poking around the site and I think the main thing is, I think it's a whoopsie. If you go here you can see pretty consistent posting:

(note the "/news" link - which is the same as you've found above)
if you click "news" at the top right, it takes you here:
Which looks like it stopped having anything added in April.

They seem to have updated the "regular" checker, because my options are FTTP or ADSL only, no VDSL speed-services are suggested. (Which I'm guessing is also a mistake, as it should be FTTP only I think for me)

In terms of the map, it looks reasonably accurate around me though the entire surrounding area is almost complete (1 blue, finished but not all prem covered, small build) and 1 clear (maybe, sometime by 2026, small build)..

I wonder if there is more subcontracting in Scotland, or because its going through being subsidized, there's more hoops to jump through before they can announce (e.g. not stealing the thunder of the local voucher/money pot) so it doesn't look like a BT commercial build, but a state assisted one.
 
@Matt_2k34 Quite agree with most of your observations on this (I would click reply, but that'd be a huge quoted post lol).

As for the Scotland thing, I don't get it tbh: I can't even find any information about on-going R100% builds on even the Scottish Government website; the most I'm able to find from that side of the build is just the two identified places earlier, which are hardly a great way of discovering new FTTP build since roadworks can be cancelled at any time, be completed ahead of the expected start date -- and thus vanish -- and thinkbroadband is at least a month behind "building" and "actually active".

At the current rate of non-info, the only way I'll know if Openreach are building in my street is when I literally see them opening up manholes, which is how I discovered they were doing their initial checks here: when I saw a gaggle of them -- about 4 -- wandering around the road with a cable drum in tow, lifting up the manholes, putting their cable down it (probably to check if its blocked or not) and then wandering off after putting the manholes back lol.
 
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