Openreach put back FTTC by 3 months, yet again.

The date for FTTC has been put back another 3 months, less than a week before the last date. This has happened more times than I can remember. I estimate more than 4 times which makes it more than a year. So if openreach aren't going to enable my cabinet why are they still lying to me to get my hopes up only to be let down less than a week before. If they are going to enable it then why mess me around. I don't mind if its going to be a year but tell me that rather than giving me false hope.

If I'd had known a year ago I would have looked elsewhere although my only other option is Virgin Media and they can't do static IP (They are really missing a trick there but I realise that it may be due to technical reasons).

Does anyone have any idea how I can get a reliable likely date for FTTC activation?
I don't want to wait yet another 3 months to be told it will be another 3 months.

At this rate I'll have to move house or win the lottery and get a fibre lease line. At the moment the latter seems more likely than getting FTTC.

I understand that noone here is able to do anything about it, but with no mechanism for complaining to openreach this is the only avenue for expressing my annoyance and frustration.

Thank you.

Ignore the date. It's just a place holder and does not mean the date has been "pushed back".

Basically if the cab has not been enabled by the end of the quarter they just move the date on another quarter, regardless of the actual date it may be live. It could still go live tomorrow, or a year from now!

The other option is for Openreach to say 2014 for everything, and then shock people when it arrives early.

The civils part of the job means lots of variation, ask anyone who has built a house about the assorted delays in getting water, gas, electricity connected to get an idea.

Same thing happened to my exchange. I didn't expect it to go live this month as planned... we don't have any fibre cabs in our town yet.

They are not that variable and BT ought to be able to publish a provional list and firm up the date on a weekly basis against actual progress.. Far to difficult for BT but most other companies can manage schedules

Which other telco is doing this sort of scale job in the UK, to show how it should be done?

BT is far from perfect, but without spending more time which equals money on this side not sure that they can do.

Working for a house builder and dealing with services to over 400 units a year, thought I'd comment on that comparison.

Service companies can be a nightmare, depending on who you go with but The Competition Commission has meant it has opened up the elec and gas to many different providers which is good for competitive prices and good service, you can threaten to not use them again on other sites if they do not perform!

Water and Telecoms are dealt within the eastern region by Anglian Water and BT (we can use Virgin in the very small number of sites that may actually have cable to the boundary) and as such BT monopolise telecoms in this region.

Generally both have standard turn around times for the calling in of mains and services which as long as our site agents give adequate notice they can call these in ahead of the dates required.

From a personal and professional level BT have too many people not knowing what each other are doing, I hated dealing with them that much I�ve moved my line over to sky.

On a professional level the openreach engineers have just had a reshuffle in this region so they�re covering each others area locally and no one really knows what�s going on.

I am in complete agreement that communication is crucial on such installations to ensure that accurate dates for the connections are given to the end user/customer. Especially those of us who are on not so good connections waiting for the day this will go live, only to be let down again. Okay there may be slight changes due to work loads etc, but shuffling the dates back 4 times is a bit too far isn't it?

I have seen all the little green new cabs installed in Lowestoft, and I have little/no confidence that the date given of June 2012 for FTTC will be met, I'm not getting my hopes up and will face the fact that I will have 2.5mb for the foreseeable future.

Anything else is a bonus.

Edited by deleted (Tue 26-Jun-12 15:24:46)

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Ignore the date. It's just a place holder and does not mean the date has been "pushed back".

Basically if the cab has not been enabled by the end of the quarter they just move the date on another quarter, regardless of the actual date it may be live. It could still go live tomorrow, or a year from now!

explain mine then.

mine has moved back when still 3 months to go, from sept 2012 to dec 2012. not even in the quarter yet.

What ground for a complaint do you have? I would suggest none.

Have BT made a binding contract with you to provide service by a specific date? No.

they are already doing more than they need to by publishing their internal forecasts - what other company publishes their actual rollout for new products? Do Samsung state exactly when their new televisions will be launched much more than a week or two in advance? Do Apple say when the iPhone 6 and iPhone7 are to be released? NO - so why should BT for their products?

I appreciate your response MHC to Pullance and what you state is correct.

I can also understand the frustration of seeing various dates come and go with the ongoing waiting game.