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USO Launches this week!

Exchange Activate is a broadband technology for remote (long line) exchange areas. It provides a fixed rate ADSL broadband with a speed of 512Kbps.
There are still some around (mainly Scotland), beacuse it is deemed more important (i.e profitable) to upgrade areas that already have superfast broadband to FTTP than to address the shockingly slow exchange areas.
 
Just so I'm clear, is the figure quoted your portion of the overall upgrade cost or is it the total cost for 70% of the community connected to that exchange?

Our local exchange only has approx 50 lines so I've applied plus one other neighbour so far. Will they base the cost only on the people requesting a USO upgrade?

(Our exchange is exchange activate which hasn't been upgraded to 21CN so can only deliver 0.5mb fixed connections)
That's the cost to upgrade me alone. They don't say how at this stage. 60 days is the SLA
 
FTTPoD was quoted at £38700.00 + VAT
USO came back today at 10K-20K (For the same service. What gives?)
Community Fibre Partnership for 59 properties is £1189 per property, so will probably pursue that as we get rural vouchers here
 
Initial USO cost indication was £50k+ so have now asked for detailed quotation
Still not clear whether
1 - BT/OpenReach consider the overall cost for 70% of possible premises connected to the exchange or just my own application?
2 - additional applications from the community would reduce the per premise cost?
3 - is the solution offered FTTP or a 10 mb service?

(exchange activate currently only gives us max 0.5mb connection)
 
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Also estimated 20-50k here, awaiting more detailed quote; but live in a hamlet with about 15 properties willing to apply to USO. From my understanding after talking with BT, if all those properties apply, the £3,400 per household can be pooled to cover the cost of the entire installation. I wish they would be more clear on this but I think this is how it works.
 
Initial USO cost indication was £50k+ so have now asked for detailed quotation
Still not clear whether
1 - BT/OpenReach consider the overall cost for 70% of possible premises connected to the exchange or just my own application?
2 - additional applications from the community would reduce the per premise cost?
3 - is the solution offered FTTP or a 10 mb service?

(exchange activate currently only gives us max 0.5mb connection)

In the T&C's it says the USO will be achieved by either FTTC or FTTP (presumably whichever is more cost effective)
 
So I've just gone through this - we are not far from the M5 and only a mile and a half from the nearest town but it means we cross from the FTTC enabled town exchange to one that very much isn't (Greenham). Probably about 50 residences in the immediate area. Rang the USO number last Friday and registered. Had a couple of voice text messages on the landline to say they would have to build a network and got a phone call yesterday to discuss it which I missed so rang back today.

Sum total of the information was £2-5k (over and above the £3400) and 18 months to build, which was the lowest he'd ever seen (but still more than I'd expect to pay!). They couldn't tell me if that was FTTC or FTTP and every house in my area would have to pay similar if they also wanted to connect. So that makes me think there are other people who have already registered. you don't get any credit for paying to have it installed either - so you have to pay a monthly fee afterwards even though you paid for the line!

So my thinking now is that I don't really see why I should pay this, Connecting Devon and Somerset should have connected us via Gigaclear last year and if the costs are around £2k-£5k per house they should sort that out. Even though we don't get 4g it makes more sense to use 3g on an unlimited data sim as that's still faster than the 5.5mb I get from BT adsl.

So I haven't progressed with a more detailed quote and I'm thinking I'll have to wait for a long time to get a decent connection. So really the USO is a load of b******s as all it does is say you can have a decent connection if you pay to build it yourself!
 
So I've just gone through this - we are not far from the M5 and only a mile and a half from the nearest town but it means we cross from the FTTC enabled town exchange to one that very much isn't (Greenham). Probably about 50 residences in the immediate area. Rang the USO number last Friday and registered. Had a couple of voice text messages on the landline to say they would have to build a network and got a phone call yesterday to discuss it which I missed so rang back today.

Sum total of the information was £2-5k (over and above the £3400) and 18 months to build, which was the lowest he'd ever seen (but still more than I'd expect to pay!). They couldn't tell me if that was FTTC or FTTP and every house in my area would have to pay similar if they also wanted to connect. So that makes me think there are other people who have already registered. you don't get any credit for paying to have it installed either - so you have to pay a monthly fee afterwards even though you paid for the line!

So my thinking now is that I don't really see why I should pay this, Connecting Devon and Somerset should have connected us via Gigaclear last year and if the costs are around £2k-£5k per house they should sort that out. Even though we don't get 4g it makes more sense to use 3g on an unlimited data sim as that's still faster than the 5.5mb I get from BT adsl.

So I haven't progressed with a more detailed quote and I'm thinking I'll have to wait for a long time to get a decent connection. So really the USO is a load of b******s as all it does is say you can have a decent connection if you pay to build it yourself!

were'nt you able to use any of the rural gigabit grants to reduce the cost even further?
 
I hadn't seen that and openreach didn't mention it. I would need to club together with some other residents then and potentially I would still need to find £500 to £4500 I think? I'll look into it in more detail!
 
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So I've just gone through this - we are not far from the M5 and only a mile and a half from the nearest town but it means we cross from the FTTC enabled town exchange to one that very much isn't (Greenham). Probably about 50 residences in the immediate area. Rang the USO number last Friday and registered. Had a couple of voice text messages on the landline to say they would have to build a network and got a phone call yesterday to discuss it which I missed so rang back today.

Sum total of the information was £2-5k (over and above the £3400) and 18 months to build, which was the lowest he'd ever seen (but still more than I'd expect to pay!). They couldn't tell me if that was FTTC or FTTP and every house in my area would have to pay similar if they also wanted to connect. So that makes me think there are other people who have already registered. you don't get any credit for paying to have it installed either - so you have to pay a monthly fee afterwards even though you paid for the line!

So my thinking now is that I don't really see why I should pay this, Connecting Devon and Somerset should have connected us via Gigaclear last year and if the costs are around £2k-£5k per house they should sort that out. Even though we don't get 4g it makes more sense to use 3g on an unlimited data sim as that's still faster than the 5.5mb I get from BT adsl.

So I haven't progressed with a more detailed quote and I'm thinking I'll have to wait for a long time to get a decent connection. So really the USO is a load of b******s as all it does is say you can have a decent connection if you pay to build it yourself!
Could you not contact other local residents in order to encourage them to apply for USO and thus lower the individual cost further?
 
Could you not contact other local residents in order to encourage them to apply for USO and thus lower the individual cost further?
I could but they said that would be the cost for each house so I don't think it would help overly much. Also Connecting Devon and Somerset are supposed to have done this in Q2 2019 so I do wonder why I should have to when they have been funded to do it? Why can't they just pay Openreach (like they we're going to originally!)?
 
I'm surprised by some of the replies in this thread saying that BT are only going to pool USO connections if people apply. according to the USO framework they are meant to assume an uptake forecast and apply that instead of the actual number of applications. The first person to raise the USO request should trigger that process for those already flagged as USO eligible in the same area. That being said, the accuracy of the list of eligible properties in the area appears to be wildly inaccurate in our area.

In the Ofcom documentation, item 5.86 states:
We remain of the view that the best approach for ensuring a proper and effective implementation of the Order is to use a forecast take-up for demand aggregation. This is primarily because it allows the USO to be delivered more quickly than if shared connection costs were assessed, based on actual demand for USO connections at a given point in time.

ANDDDDD more importently
5.107
When assessing whether a customer is eligible for the USO, as set out in the Order, we are interested in the costs that directly arise from provision of the broadband connection to the premises. We agree with BT that this can include both network costs and downstream costs which are incremental to the provision of USO connections (i.e. it should not be limited to infrastructure costs).151 In particular, we agree that labour and capital costs and project management costs should in principle also be included as part of estimated connection costs, so long as: first, they are genuinely incremental to USO connections; and, second, are appropriately spread over all USO premises to which these costs apply.


With this in mind, I would ask for a breakdown of the spread across any quotes received if it isn't clear. The information should make up part of the quote as it's a fundamental reducing factor in the per property connection.

Ofcom made it clear that a detailed quote should be provided with a detailed break down of each cost. This way, you can challenge any part of the quote if you feel it is incorrect.

5.139
We expect that detailed quotations for consumers should clearly explain the work required to deliver the specific connection and an explanation of the various costs involved.
 
I could but they said that would be the cost for each house so I don't think it would help overly much. Also Connecting Devon and Somerset are supposed to have done this in Q2 2019 so I do wonder why I should have to when they have been funded to do it? Why can't they just pay Openreach (like they we're going to originally!)?

Having spoken to CDS before, they do not fill me with any confidence... last year I enquired about what the plans are for our small community to which they thought it was already sorted by AirBand... who say they can't provide us a service... so there is a disconnect between what CDS think is covered and reality. My follow up questions about roadmap to improvements all went unanswered... I did get a follow up call from Airband 4 months later saying that had been asked to contact me, and they couldn't help.. so was pretty pointless.

I've got this horrible feeling the USO is going to be a massive failure for the target audience :(
 
Having spoken to CDS before, they do not fill me with any confidence... last year I enquired about what the plans are for our small community to which they thought it was already sorted by AirBand... who say they can't provide us a service... so there is a disconnect between what CDS think is covered and reality. My follow up questions about roadmap to improvements all went unanswered... I did get a follow up call from Airband 4 months later saying that had been asked to contact me, and they couldn't help.. so was pretty pointless.

I've got this horrible feeling the USO is going to be a massive failure for the target audience :(
I agree on that last point!
Surely CDS have been provided funds to link us up if we were originally on the plan. So if openreach can link us up the simplest thing would be for CDS to fund it. But they ballsed that up twice now and the USO actually doesn't change anything. There was no discussion of 4g either, which is supposed to be an alternative. £2-5k for something to be delivered in 18 months is a lot, I'd be annoyed if I spent that and 4g coverage improved in the meantime.
 
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It may be the case that in my application my property was treated as an exception as BT thinks that my property can get Airband when in fact it can't and nor can most of the houses in my hamlet. Therefore, as according to the Airband database, all the other houses in village can get Airband (when the majority cannot), I imagine BT's estimate for my property did not take into account the connection to other properties as they are assumed to not be eligible for USO. Hence, if all the houses apply individually, I'm hoping that the individual cost should come down.
 
Sadly I feel for you all.

Unfortunately I am in the middle os a tussle between BT and Plusnet at the moment.

Plusnet put an FTTC line in for me and advised I will get between 5Mbps and 11Mbps (I know this would never be possible owing to the length of the line from the Cab to my premises but went with it anyway). Plusnet also advised that my minimum speed gurantee would be 4.2Mbps down and 1Mbps up.

The line went in, 10 days of 'training' conducted, ahem, hmm ok... Low and behold the max speed being recorded is 3.2Mbps, circa 25% down on the minimum speed guarantee!

Plusnet contacted me to advise that I was below the speed guarantee and as such to contact the BT USO department to conduct a USO assesment and to follow the USO up. I contacted the BT USO department and they are refusing to help me as apparently I can receive over 10Mbps! Right, ok. I advised of the testing and results conducted by Plusnet and BT said if this info was inaccurate then Plusnet would need to prove this to be the case (well why they are telling me this I have no idea, its nothing to do with me). Plusnet are stating that the facts are in the recorded data, BT are having none of it, so both of them have left it with me to sort out.

What the hell I am supposed to do I don't know.

I have had this before with OR, whereas the BTw database was showing an inaccurate figure for FTTC which took me 3 years to get addressed, when it was resolved the checker showed the correct figure, funnily as reflected above, circa 2.4Mbps ~ 3.4Mbps. How on earth BT's figures have changed to something above 10Mbps is beyond me.

Looks like another 3 year fight in the making, at least I can cancel my contract with Plusnet without quibble, owing to their inability to provide me with the minimum speed guarantee, that may be a 'Plus' indeed.
 
I had a similar thing with FTTC and long line due to a glitch in the BT Wholesale system. Entertained it "just in case", when it went live I was able to get a whopping download speed of 0.01 BITS after it spent 3 days trying to sync. It took 2 weeks to "install another new DSL connection" and put it back and I never got compensated for it either.

See what this is reporting for your new line:

I've noted the last test date seems to update periodically and make the data more viable (just my observation, not 100% sure how this works in the back end)

For reference, here is our crappy one
1588168694206.webp
 
Hi, just asked BT for a more detailed quote, does anyone know if you can use USO money in combination with rural broadband gigabit vouchers to further bring the cost down, or are these two schemes mutually exclusive?
 
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