4th Delay to fibre rollout in 3 years

I posted an earlier version of this on the BTwholesale DSL Implementation forum, but was told this is a better place to post.

The story so far...
My address on the AUGHTON GREEN exchange is served by Cabinet 6.

In May 2013, the expected availability of superfast broadband at my cabinet was quoted as 30 September 2013
By 30 September 2013, the expected availability was 31 May 2014
By May 2014, the expected availability was 30 September 2014
By 30 September 2014, the expected availability was 30 September 2015.
Now, 15 September 2015, the expected availability is showing as 31 March 2017, yes, 2017 !!!

That's 4 years after the originally quoted date - what's going on?

"FTTC is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete.."

This is no longer even mildly amusing. The new cabinet has been in position for over a year, and apparently awaits a connection under the roadway to the old cabinet.

It looks like the very first cabinet on the exchange to go live did so in February 2014, originally planned in the same phases as cab 6. Cabs 3 and 7 appear to be still waiting too - and all are down to be part of the commercial rollout.

Two cabs have subsequently gone live through BDUK, plus one more still waiting (ironically, the one that was planned first of the three).

The cabs that I have seen wait the longest, on the edges of the commercial rollout, have been there because of three things: power is proving to be prohibitively expensive; a proper site cannot be found (meeting both the needs for safe human accessibility above ground, and cable accessibility below ground); a lot of duct blockages with council restrictions in allowing roadworks (being near a school can play havoc, or a crucial access road).

Even though you cannot see the reason, there is likely to be one, and it is likely to be a tricky one.

However, nowadays, BT are being driven hard to meet their BDUK contract commitments - and we're in the middle of their biggest delivery period now. When they get pressured on that side, it isn't a surprise that some of their (self-funded, self-planned) commercial cabinets take something of a back seat. This is likely to mean that your cabinet is not tightly planned.

Unfortunately, BT have fallen foul of ASA in situations like yours: People have complained that BT aren't giving accurate dates, and ASA have agreed and ordered BT to do something about it.

The complainants probably expected BT to keep their plans in the same manner as before, and then pull their finger out to do something to make the cab live.

Nope. Instead, BT just publish an extremely loose plan for the problematic cabinet: "It'll be done sometime in the next two years".

Unfortunately, for BT, it is better to keep pushing forwards with the straightforward cabinets to keep meeting the coverage targets. The ones with problems take a more scenic route through the planning department. The ones with severe problems are hitch-hiking.

Thanks WWWombat. I like the analogy in your last para.

Hi Wombat,

The http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/ website confirms that I'm on Cabinet 6 of Aughton Green exchange, using postcode L39 4UJ to search.
However, the Google map shows the position of another cabinet, and Google Streetview shows this to be Cabinet 9.

Surely this can't be the explanation for a 3 year delay - that BT Openreach don't know where their cabinets are located!

Any idea how I can report this discrepancy?

In reply to a post by althetog:

Surely this can't be the explanation for a 3 year delay - that BT Openreach don't know where their cabinets are located!

Don't you mean 2 year wait?
Your exchange was only upgraded Feb 2014 and according to the BTOR Site they haven't started work on your cabinet yet.

Paul

Any idea how I can report this discrepancy?

Where's the discrepancy? Rather than focus on the location of cab 9 why not try and locate cab 6, the one to which you are connected? It could be that BT are having problems in getting a power supply for the FTTC cab or that the ducts required for the fibre feed are blocked or even, heaven forbid, someone has objected to the proposed location of the FTTC cab and its installation is being blocked by your council.

I know where cab 6 is - just round the corner from me. The new fibre Cab is directly across the road from the old one. I believe they "just" need connecting beneath the road.

Here they are: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5554308,-2.8989045...

"In May 2013, the expected availability of superfast broadband at my cabinet was quoted as 30 September 2013"

Latest info:
"FTTC is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete.."

the grey marker on the when and where pages usually indicates to exchange location.

In reply to a post by althetog:

"In May 2013, the expected availability of superfast broadband at my cabinet was quoted as 30 September 2013"

Latest info:
"FTTC is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete.."

Well your exchange is down as being upgraded on Feb 2014, it seems that they are currently doing cabinets 3 and 7 as part of the FTTC Commercial Project.

Cabinet 6 is as far as I can see also part of the FTTC Commercial Project, but it might be completed once the other two are completed.

Paul

So I'm curious as to why you mentioned cab 9.

As I mentioned there can be many reasons for the installation of FTTC to be delayed, there's a fair bit more than putting the cabinet in position. In our case Lambeth keep objecting to BT doing the necessary work to install the fibre cable, all else is, I am told, completed. Lambeth fall back each time on section 58 in the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. This for a back street in London that hasn't been resurfaced or had other work done to it since before the Act was passed!

I mentioned Cab 9 because that's what the BT Openreach Superfast Broadband Google Map pointer points to, even though this is nowhere near my address, whereas Cab 6, which I am definitely connected to, is just around the corner.
See diagram:
https://goo.gl/photos/EequU7aHPqM6mdTe8

The pointers don't target the cabinet, but the area it serves

Yeah I think it's dropped in the middle of the postcode you search for.

If you take our example (still not connected)

Although the initial announcement was to be done by early 2014 that was never going to be achievable.

They put a new cabinet on the ground in Autumn 2014.

BT took the decision to bypass the existing exchanges and cable us directly back to the "big" exchange in Stafford, however the cable run still passes through those existing exchange buildings ! That meant two villages had to be enabled before us so the ducts were unblocked upgraded etc. Then they would start putting the fibre cable on the last leg to our village which involved more duct unblocking and updating.

So fast forward to December 2015 and after no communication about dates other than a rolling 3 month delay every time I asked, the other cabinets that were originally served by our old exchange have gone live.

However with ours it seems that they forgot about putting power to the cabinet, so although we have a fibre cable there, they can't complete as there is no power.

Now the issue is a Wayleave to enable them to dig up someone's front drive to get the power to the cabinet, and that person isn't in the country ! They won't go around this 10ft of land so we are in a bit of limbo until the paperwork is signed.

The only way I have found of moving anything along or getting any sort of useful information is to ask difficult questions of our local BDUK project, and when they gave up, as they had no answers, I got a contact within BT who was able to give a much more focused picture of what was going on.

The map pointer seems to be dropped roughly in the middle of the area served by the exchange, rather than the postcode area

Edited by deleted (Tue 01-Mar-16 20:35:43)

In reply to a post by zort70:

They put a new cabinet on the ground in Autumn 2014.

pfff, just 2014? Ours was due in 2010 and they've still done nothing. It's been 3/6 months away ever since.

Latest update says: "We're installing the new fibre cabinet and laying the fibre cables to serve your home or business. You can't order a fibre service today but typically it'll be available to your premises within the next five months."


This is more [censored], because planning permission expired years ago (it only lasts 3 years).

Update 19/9/2016: For the past 4 or 5 months, the status has been showing as "We're connecting power to the new fibre cabinet and joining the new fibre lines to the existing copper network. You can't order a fibre service today but typically it'll be available to your premises within the next four months." according to the Openreach site

There is certainly no sign of any external progress in joining fibre to copper - the cabinets are on opposite sides of the road and no tunnelling has taken place.

The btwholesale ADSL checker is still showing availability by 31 March 2017, 4 years later than originally indicated.

Which is usually more accurate - the BTOpenreach site or the BTWholesale site?

In reply to a post by althetog:

"In May 2013, the expected availability of superfast broadband at my cabinet was quoted as 30 September 2013"

Latest info:
"FTTC is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Cabinet to be enabled between Apr-16 and Mar-17. Date to be confirmed once the survey is complete.."

Update 22/12/2016:

7 or 8 months on, the status is still saying "We're connecting power to the new fibre cabinet and joining the new fibre lines to the existing copper network. You can't order a fibre service today but typically it'll be available to your premises within the next four months.", but, hey! Some real progress to report!!!

Civil engineers have just connected the new and old cabinets by running a cable under Long Lane, and reckon the BT guys will be doing their bit in the next few days/weeks.

Could this sudden burst of activity be the result of my recent letter to the local MP?

Well, well,well...Fibre Broadband arrives at last! Almost 4 years after the Openreach site gave 30 September 2013 as the date for the expected availability of superfast broadband at my cabinet, it now seems to be enabled.

Moved from PlusNet broadband to BT Infinity 1. Speed is 10 x ADSL. Will review deal in 12 months.