Gigaclear - fibre complexity claim

Hmmm I have been trying to squeeze blood (aka information on delivery timelines) out of that stone Gigaclear recently.
They won't give me dates because as they say: "We make no promises because of the nature of the work. This is pretty much as complicated as the original electrification of these areas."

Considering electricity only came to these parts in "very rural" NW Essex in the mid-1950s it looks like we are in for a LONG wait. (renamed the post)

In reply to a post by SLAMDUNC:

(renamed the post)

You could just have edited the other one.

Yes I tried that but the title did not change. Must have done something wrong.

In my case work started about 6 months after Gigaclear said the project would go ahead. I was finally connected just over a year after that.

Roadworks where shown on roadworks.org The first digging and cable laying contractor did not do a good job, and some of the work had to be redone as the trench filling had not been compressed properly before tarmac was laid. Gigaclear had to find a replacement contractor.

There was an issue about the siting of the first cabinet. It is on what you might describe as a wide verge which is actually private land rather than being part of the highway. A wayleave from the land owner had to be sought.

About 6 months after work started Gigaclear had connected a local school where they held a promotional demonstration, and had information about things like Vonage VOIP and Vodafome Sure Signal. I took my laptop and was able to run speed tests. I was able to talk to the Project Engineer and discuss where the cable to my house would be laid. I sent him emails about landowners afterwards. To my surprise a 2nd cabinet was installed near where I live. It was delivered late to Gigaclear which lead to a delay in my service.

I hope that gives you some idea as to what to expect.

Thanks Michael - interesting to hear. We have not reached the digging stage yet.
It's been 18 months since Gigaclear claimed our area but frequent checks on roadworks.org has not revealed any activity by them in the immediate vicinity.
The project here is fairly big for sure; when combined with the 2 BDUK lots they have more than 1000km of trench to dig in a fairly sparsely populated but intensively farmed area; that point you have about wayleaves may be a big reason for the delay but I just wish they would tell us!

If I were you, I'd hop into the time machine and step back to 2011. Watch BT fail to give accurate times for FTTC and, when people thought they had successfully forced BT into making accurate predictions, they found BT just switched to making looser predictions.

BT stopped predicting 3 months in advance, and swapped to predicting one year away.

The truth is that it is an inherently uncertain process.