Delay to fibre install

Over the last six months BT have been busy in the process of upgrading our exchange only village to fttc capable lines.

About two weeks ago the checker showed as accepting orders for the cabinet that I am supplied by (cabinet 3, NI dunloy exchange), this was a bit of a shock as it had only been showing as "activate" for about four or five days previous.

I placed an order for BT infinity on the 27th of June and had an install date of the 7th of July. I also placed an order with plus net for another line at my parents house (same cabinet) on the 28th on June and got an install date of 12th of July.

Last Tuesday I checked my order with BT and saw that they hadn't received a commitment for my broadband from open reach and that it might be delayed. I contacted them for info and was told that there was a capacity issue and I should hear back from them on the fifth of July. I didn't.

Friday came and obviously the broadband wasn't switched to infinity. BT have contacted openreach who again said it was a capacity issue and they will get back to me by 12th of July with an update.

Since then the plusnet order has been delayed until 25th of July.

Has anyone seen this before? I'm guessing openreach jumped the gun by accepting orders too early? Do bt need to order a cable link for the cabinet? Has anyone any idea of how long that could take?

This isn't really a post to complain, more just to document how long it takes to get resolved for people who might find themselves in the same position. I will update as the orders progress.

Came home today and there are five bt vans arrayed around the village with a number of people pulling thick black cables with a yellow stripe from the exchange to the cabinets. I assume this is the fibre cable? I would have thought that would be done before the cabinet was activated, no?

Anyway, looks like progress

In reply to a post by McShaneDCFC:

Came home today and there are five bt vans arrayed around the village with a number of people pulling thick black cables with a yellow stripe from the exchange to the cabinets. I assume this is the fibre cable?

No, its the flexible sub-ducting that will eventually house the blown fibre tubing. However progress is being made.

Update: Openreach have advised BT that they are working on adding additional capacity to the cabinet and that they will update BT again on the 25th of July. This is interesting as I'm not sure how a newly enabled cabinet has a capacity issue... the cynic within me thinks they enabled the cabinet to accept orders before it was ready so that they could meet some internal target for having so many cabs activated within the business month or quarter.

Will update again on the 25th.

The initial card could be faulty and they're waiting on a new one.

Or, a whole bunch if people could have signed up on day 1!

1.5 months on and we are still waiting to find out what is going on with this install. No one in the village has had their order actioned and we are all delayed.

BT retail have updated me saying their supplier needs to install a cable link, but refuse to say when that will happen, they have moved from bi monthly to monthly phone updates now.

Open reach have informed me that as far as they are concerned the cab is ready and the cable link isn't their responsibility.

Can someone please tell me what division of BT needs to install the cable link? Who can I talk to to speed this up? How long does that usually take?

Thanks

BT Wholesale need to order or, if they have (which they likely will have) need to wait for Openreach to install it.

It's basically a cable that links the Openreach fibre network, to BT Wholesale's backhaul network.

Quite rare that they're not in place already, or, for cabinets going live.

It could of course be a case of there is already cable links installed but they need an additonal one to increase capacity.

Quick update on this for anyone that's interested. Phoned BT for an update today as they didn't get back to me again. Open reach saying it is a capacity issue and they have a 9 week lead time for the cable link installation. At the minute I am paying 44 pound per month for adsl which nets me about 3Mbps (despite syncing at the full 8) dl speed so I have opted to cancel my order and close my account with BT. Hopefully if enough people do this BT will take notice although I doubt they will as they are the only bb supplier in our area.

I'll keep an eye on when the others in the village get their fibre and place an order with plusnet or someone as a new customer. I would go with someone else if any non BT competition was available. Thanks everyone for the help

You're taking a massive risk if the cab fills up and there's no ports left.

I'd have simply left it as it was and ask them to reduce the billing amount.

In reply to a post by lee111s:

You're taking a massive risk if the cab fills up and there's no ports left.

I'd have simply left it as it was and ask them to reduce the billing amount.

+1

TBH I would stay with BT but give off a moan and take any good reduction in price they offer and push if its a silly reduction in price.

BT are good are dropping prices, we were getting ADSL2+ (granted it was ~5.5Mbit) unlimited for just £5 to £7.50 (BB Only) p/m and was promised if fibre become available we would be able to do a penalty free upgrade to fibre even in mid contract.

Paul