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Openreach Full Fibre Build Programme vs. Community Partnership

stuartmitch

Member
My village is included in the Openreach Full Fibre Build Programme and listed as "To be built between April 2021 and December 2026". However, being rural we also qualify for DCMS Rural Gigabit vouchers which could also be used in an Openreach Community Fibre Partnership (which - in theory - will be quicker to get built).

Does anyone know if being already on Openreach's build plan means that they won't accept a Community Partnership application for any reason? Their website tells me my postcode is eligible.

Thanks!
 
I'm just waiting on that very question being answered as we were at the voucher approval stage before the new rollout plans came out.

Once I get the heads up I'll let you know
 
I'm just waiting on that very question being answered as we were at the voucher approval stage before the new rollout plans came out.

Once I get the heads up I'll let you know
if it helps... my village is a proper mess. We had an alt-net interested in rolling out and everything was going well (would have been live by now!) until someone decided to try and sabotage the project based on being "locked in to a single provider". The "village elders" are now sitting on their hands waiting for Openreach to come but I know darn well (based on our FTTC experience) we will lag a long way behind our local town which is still barely covered.

We still have a number of outstanding vouchers issued to the alt-net provider and it's also not clear to me if they can derail a "new" community application on the basis of "we were here first".

I just need to hurry things along for reliability mainly... but village politics... #facepalm
 
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I'm torn on this subject. There is no FTTP on our village, but Truespeed have put fibre into several nearby villages and say we are on their list (and we have been for a long time, with little progress that I can see). I would very much like to have fibre available; but, given the choice, I wouldn't go for Truespeed because of their router-lockdown policy:-


Being able to put your own router in their router's DMZ only partially mitigates the restriction - if my understanding is right we will be double-NATted, making it difficult to get into our own LAN from outside (please correct me if I've got that wrong).

I appreciate that's a bit of a niche problem, but my other concern is that Truespeed presumably have a record of the WiFi passwords of those customers using their routers (i.e. most of them) - I say this because the WiFi password can only be changed by Truespeed. I'm sure they are as honest as can be, but in any organisation there is a risk of data being compromised. I wonder how they, and their customers, would cope if they unexpectedly had to reset the WiFi passwords of thousands of routers because of a breach.

This approach to their customers' freedom to manage their own LANs and WiFi security makes me wary of Truespeed; but for as long as we are on their list for fibre provision, I can't see why BT would bother with us. Hobson's choice, then, but at the moment we have no FTTP at all so we'll just have to wait and see.
 
if it helps... my village is a proper mess. We had an alt-net interested in rolling out and everything was going well (would have been live by now!) until someone decided to try and sabotage the project based on being "locked in to a single provider". The "village elders" are now sitting on their hands waiting for Openreach to come but I know darn well (based on our FTTC experience) we will lag a long way behind our local town which is still barely covered.

We still have a number of outstanding vouchers issued to the alt-net provider and it's also not clear to me if they can derail a "new" community application on the basis of "we were here first".

I just need to hurry things along for reliability mainly... but village politics... #facepalm
Hi

Our's started going to pot earlier this year. Our vouchers had gone in for approval for the CFP in January but then the fact that the "old" voucher scheme ended in March ( or whenever it was ) and the new one was meant to start in April just stopped everything. Now, just to add in more confusion, these rollout plans have been released.

I have given up chasing the OR contact at the minute as I suspect he is overwhelmed at present. I havent given up quite yet though.
 
The tricky thing with Openreach's commercial deployment is that for many Area 3 (rural) communities they've given quite a wide window for deployment (most between 2022 and Dec 2026). The gigabit voucher site is a bit vague on this aspect of timescale vs eligibility:

"A gigabit capable network isn’t likely to be built to that area commercially in the near future."

In the past, "near future" might have converted to anything from 12 to 36 months, but Openreach's plans could potentially take even longer. However, I do have access to the supplier terms for the voucher scheme, and they're a bit more specific.

1. General
1.1 To be eligible for a voucher via the Scheme, a Premises must:
1.1.1 not have speeds of more than 100 Mbps available;
1.1.2 be "Rural" according to the Office for National Statistic (ONS) or equivalent: (a) ONS definitions D1 – F2 (England & Wales);
(b) NISRA definitions E – H (Northern Ireland);
(c) NRS definitions 3- 8 (Scotland);
1.1.3 not be within an "Area 2 Postcode Sector" as determined by Ofcom's Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 (WFMTR);
1.1.4 not be within an area that we anticipate commercial build based in part upon Ofcom declared Area 3 and the published list of BT exchanges where Openreach has made commitments under the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) and;
1.1.5 not be part of a planned or ongoing other UK Government subsidy initiative or programme to deliver Gigabit Capable Networks, as determined by the Authority, including premises included as part of a Public Review
2. The Authority may (at its sole discretion) treat relevant Premises as not being eligible for funding under the Scheme prior to any relevant Public Review or consultation and then treat relevant Premises as being eligible based on the outcome of the Public Review or consultation.
The fact that BT/OR's commercial deployment is specifically referenced, without imposing a timescale, tells me that communities in that plan will not be able to take a voucher.
 
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hi @sbaggs - did you mean that as a comment to this thread? While I get the issue it seems a bit... off topic?
It was prompted by your comments about perceived difficulties in your village about being "locked in to a single provider" - I've explained why I see that as a concern, but I also see that people who don't share that concern might be a bit miffed if it delayed the project. Hence I'm torn on the subject.
 
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