OpenReach upgraded my local cabinet to FTTP ground works etc missed my street stuck in the dark ages!

[2RRM]

@drevilbob
Morning,

With all due respect, the engineers have been more knowledgeable and helpful then the executive team IMHO. One of the two engineers from OR that visited our estate to survey recently, told me he had built the spine needed for our area, even told me the route it had taken, executive team cannot even confirm this.

Last year, the PM for our area didn't even know the cables, CBT had already been installed over 12 months prior. The executive team commented, "......the cables and CBT's have to be installed according to the project manager" even after I told them that I have physically seen them being installed with my own eyes and spoken to engineers fitting them, I even suggested the PM should walk around our estate and lift a few manholes!

Like I said, all the executive team seem to do, is ask the useless PM who hasn't got a clue and fob you off, generally adding months or years to date of delivery and always with the non-committal caveat, "thing could always change, but at the moment.....".

The executive team have no bearing or weight, can't help get any issue resolved. They are simply glorified customer service agents.


R

 

[drevilbob]

@drevilbob
Morning,

With all due respect, the engineers have been more knowledgeable and helpful then the executive team IMHO. One of the two engineers from OR that visited our estate to survey recently, told me he had built the spine needed for our area, even told me the route it had taken, executive team cannot even confirm this.

Last year, the PM for our area didn't even know the cables, CBT had already been installed over 12 months prior. The executive team commented, "......the cables and CBT's have to be installed according to the project manager" even after I told them that I have physically seen them being installed with my own eyes and spoken to engineers fitting them, I even suggested the PM should walk around our estate and lift a few manholes!

Like I said, all the executive team seem to do, is ask the useless PM who hasn't got a clue and fob you off, generally adding months or years to date of delivery and always with the non-committal caveat, "thing could always change, but at the moment.....".

The executive team have no bearing or weight, can't help get any issue resolved. They are simply glorified customer service agents.


R

You would be surprised with what they can resolve as I've worked with them to get my own street cabled as I was left out of Openreach's original plans, yes they are a customer service team as would be most other complaints team of any other company. The reason they ask the Project Manager because they would know the area's plans as they work with the design team to build the fibre out.

CBTs can be installed and left for a while whilst issues building the spine are being sorted isn't uncommon it happened to me, my CBT was installed 9 months before it was commissioned for service.

Patence is a virtue in these situations as a CBT being fitted is a good sign that you will get fibre going forward but they may be having issues elsewhere building the network.

 

[2RRM]

Hi @drevilbob

My personal experience is the executive team are pretty useless, non-committal and cannot help. If they could, then they should be able to push through the 2 -3 days work needed to complete our area now and get it scheduled in.

I have been given at least 4 dates by the "executive complaints team" all of which failed and now we are on the fifth one, end of April 2024, which was given over 12 months ago. Will they deliver then?

I feel that waiting 2, now almost 3 years is being plenty patient enough, especially as we were advised to cancel the Community Fibre Program that I started by the PM allocated at the time (cost advised £286.18 per household). Our CBT's have been in just over 2 years now and no progress made.

The area suffers from poor FTTC connectivity, being over 2KM from our green box, with numerous joints that are prone to corrosion and water ingress issues causing intermittent problems (high line resistance faults), that get resolved and re-occur in cold / heavy rain conditions, some of my neighbours have given up calling their ISP and simply been putting up with intermittent connectivity issues.

My neighbours further into the estate had barely usable connections and now have FTTP, which the contractors installed over 12 months ago. My understanding is that this fibre should have also served the remaining properties on our estate, but instead went to another new (<10 years old) estate opposite that had very good (80/20) FTTC already. No idea who and why that decision was made, again something the executive committee could have interjected with but didn't.

I'm glad you had a better experience, but everything I have had to do with trying to get FTTP in our area has been fraught with problems and disappointment, especially where OR and the executive complaints team are concerned.

Wish we had an alternative provider and VM would cable our street.

R

 

[plunet]

We do see plenty feedback on the forum where the executive complaints team at OR have managed to unblock stuff to enable orders to be placed....

But my perception is that the success stories are limited to correcting data errors (i.e. the property should be ready to reorder FTTP but due to duff data it isn't) or if it needs boots or hands on the ground the intervention is pretty limited and is probably limited to half or day or maybe a day and I guess is drawing on BAU resources to do whatever is necessary at a physical level.

What the executive team do not seem to do often do is influence the project plan for building out FTTP or reallocate their resources; they likely make the area manager aware that there's an area they have overlooked or forgotten only to be told that they know about it and it's in the too hard to do at the moment list.

OR are obviously trying to execute a significant build program delivering a maximum number of connections as quickly as possible, and whilst it's very cold comfort for those who have local issues that mean their FTTP build is deprioritised, it probably is for the greater benefit that awkward builds that take an excessive amount of time and/or resource per connection are revisited at a later date.

 

[2RRM]

Ours is, IMHO a very, very simple build, all underground ducting, one blocked duct, which was cleared December ‘21. No planning permissions needed, no roadworks, no lampposts to erect.

The guys that pulled the blue rope round the entire estate did so in less than 2 days, and cablers in a similar time. CBT's were then installed in 1 day.

The estate is about 100 homes, just over 30 years old now and has always had poor connectivity with no choice of provider other than those using OR network.

I'm just disgusted at the delays, failed deadlines and lack of authority the executive complaints team have, it would not be acceptable from any other company.

R

 

[Duckz]

I have the same issue, I live in a reasonably new build (about 6 years old) estate and the first stage has FTTP the close i live in has been missed despite all the underground ducting already in place as there are bt man hole covers all over the place and the cabinet less than 50m away then the 3rd stage that is on the same street as the cabinet we use(I'm assuming they are on a different cabinet?)
And now they are about to complete a 4th stage of housing and I can bet they will have FTTP aswell but for some odd reason they just haven't bothered with these 36 houses.

Talking to openreach was as good as pointless and after 2 years living here I have just today emailed the local council to see if I can get things moving.

 

[2RRM]

Hi @Duckz,

Council has nothing to do with it. Councillors, MPs, Mayors have no influence on OR. They will simply email OR executive team, who will do nothing, other than collate information from your local PM, who if anything like the one allocated to our build didn’t even know cables and CBTs are installed.

Best way, I think might be to do a Community Fibre Program (CFP) for your 34 homes, if you get them all to participate.

Good luck.
R

 

[Meatball]

I'd say its simply patience. New build projects are under different budgets and obviously the housing developer(s) are probably at fault as the cost differences would have been small or there were signals another provider was to be used (cost base then).

If you have recent infrastructure providing copper then it is very likely OR will return soon, although currently their focus is on the Exchange areas based on their priorities.

A CFP or a letter to the CEO may wake up a planning team.

 

[2RRM]

Hi,

Brand new estates the developer would pay for fibre install, but your estate is 6 years old, so can’t see a developer coming back and picking up the bill.

Would have thought the developer would have signed it off and passed the development to the council asap.

A letter would probably make them aware and you may get some information back, but as I found, the executive team can’t influence any build / plans.

R

 

[meritez]

Just been informed they've done similar in Bridgwater, choice of SOGEA, SOGFAST or SOTAP only.

 

[candlerb]

Other engineers have advised that we are in a “pond” and they are having problems gaining access to other areas in the pond

Ha ha.

I think they may have been talking about a "PON" - a Passive Optical Network.

A PON comprises a group of up to 32 properties, each connected by fibre to a shared splitter, which in turn is connected via a single fibre strand all the way back to the head-end exchange, where it connects to a port on an Optical Line Termination (OLT) that lights the fibre.

I am guessing they had originally planned to serve a mix of commercial and residential properties on the same PON, but are now trying to get the plans changed to serve them from separate ones.

Having said that, a single pavement chamber can hold multiple splitters anyway. Each splitter is smaller than a matchbox, and sits in a fibre tray.

 

[2RRM]

@candlerb
Learning all the time, thanks for correcting.

Interesting, there are about 50 properties left to FTTP on our estate, but still no sign of any progress!

R

 

[XGS_Is_On]

Ha ha.

I think they may have been talking about a "PON" - a Passive Optical Network.

A PON comprises a group of up to 32 properties, each connected by fibre to a shared splitter, which in turn is connected via a single fibre strand all the way back to the head-end exchange, where it connects to a port on an Optical Line Termination (OLT) that lights the fibre.

I am guessing they had originally planned to serve a mix of commercial and residential properties on the same PON, but are now trying to get the plans changed to serve them from separate ones.

Having said that, a single pavement chamber can hold multiple splitters anyway. Each splitter is smaller than a matchbox, and sits in a fibre tray.

In Openreach speak a PON is up to 4 1:32 splitters in a SASA / Splitter Assembly so the holdup could be further up the chain and they can't get the SASA lit.

Yes: everyone else refers to a PON as what's connected to a single fibre and a single port.

 

[2RRM]

Wanted to give some more context to my frustration!

I have checked all postcodes in my surrounding area - All able to get FTTP via OpenReach (upto 1000Mb) and it has been so for over 12 months now. The area in Red (approx. 50% of our estate) still cannot order and no work has been done to complete it. As mentioned, all OR Executive Team do is add to the planned availability date totally useless IMHO. The yellow line indicates the fibre route, the yellow box is where the new spine "that was required" for our remaining properties is waiting to be connected up.

 

[unknownquantity]

If it makes you feel any better, I can share some frustration of my own. Openreach spent a few months building the FTTP network here down the main roads. New ducts. New poles. Fibre laid. But skipped the only viliage on the route.

For the tens of thoussands spent, they've managed to connect five houses. I still find it kind of funny if they're looking for any return on that investment.

I've tried to engage with them to get some answers, but like you - I'm getting nowhere but "it'll happen eventually."

 

[Al-T]

If it makes you feel any better, I can share some frustration of my own. Openreach spent a few months building the FTTP network here down the main roads. New ducts. New poles. Fibre laid. But skipped the only viliage on the route.

For the tens of thoussands spent, they've managed to connect five houses. I still find it kind of funny if they're looking for any return on that investment.

I've tried to engage with them to get some answers, but like you - I'm getting nowhere but "it'll happen eventually."

when we ran our local FTTP community partnership with Openreach I got the strong impression their internal PMs struggle to get any information from the operational guys let alone accurate info. We found that we could tell them what had happened on the ground at least 3 weeks before they could see it internally.

 

[2RRM]

That’s been one of my issues, the lazy PM can’t get their bottom out of their chair and come and have look. They don’t know what’s happening and are making decisions blind. In my case they didn’t even know cables and CBTs. had been installed, reporting to the executive team that it still had to be done !!! Executive team wouldn’t even question them when I said they have!!!!

I’ve watched, questioned and got better responses from engineers on the ground. They seem to have much more knowledge about what is going on, but aren’t unfortunately empowered to do anything.

R