not my line of work, but I dont recall seeing previous quotes that expensive per metre. Native FTTP isnt that expensive per metre either.

Sounds about right when 30 odd metres is in carriageway, carriageway is around £120 a metre to a civics contractors.

Openreach is a business and it isn�t making a penny out of the connection, why should they pay for the works? Keep ADSL1 connection at no extra cost other than monthly rental and broadband cost.

The ECCs are set in stone - https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/prici...

The cost to lay new ducting in a carriage way is currently £112.05 a metre. This might seem like a lot, but when you consider the cost of getting a wayleave, permission to dig, closing a road/restricting access, doing the underground survey, digging 0.5m underground, the cost of the new ducting and then re-tarmacing, it's an expensive process.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Native FTTP isn't that expensive per metre". If the infrastructure to lay the fibre does not exist, it has to be built and the cost can be considerable.

In reply to a post by unknown101:

Openreach is a business and it isn�t making a penny out of the connection, why should they pay for the works? Keep ADSL1 connection at no extra cost other than monthly rental and broadband cost.

In the case there appears to be a claim that FTTP is available, presumably at the regular price.

Openreach do claim to be deploying FTTP. It is quite ridiculous, if having said that it is available, they then turn round and say 'but only if you pay £3500 to fix some problem' that they have. I suspect that broadband has kept the BT group solvent given the widespread availability of mobile phones.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

In reply to a post by unknown101:

Openreach is a business and it isn�t making a penny out of the connection, why should they pay for the works? Keep ADSL1 connection at no extra cost other than monthly rental and broadband cost.

In the case there appears to be a claim that FTTP is available, presumably at the regular price.

Openreach do claim to be deploying FTTP. It is quite ridiculous, if having said that it is available, they then turn round and say 'but only if you pay £3500 to fix some problem' that they have. I suspect that broadband has kept the BT group solvent given the widespread availability of mobile phones.

It is available at the regular price.
There have always been ECC's with WBC FTTP, they just don't always apply. The average user has ducted/overhead wiring.

As pointed out above digging that deep for over 30m on a live carriageway is an expensive process.
Complaints should bemade to the BDUK scheme provider for doing half a job.

Why should Openreach get the bill? Why not force Virgin Media to come along and dig it up. Openreach is a profit making company like any other and absolutely shouldn't have to swallow this for every buried EO line.

I suspect that broadband has kept the BT group solvent given the widespread availability of mobile phones.

Covering ones costs is what keeps a company solvent hence their charge unreasonably large as it appears to be. With BT "swallowing" £1,000 of the cost it would still take paying for infinity 4 for six or seven years to cover just BT's installation costs let alone the cost of servicing the connection.

Perhaps rather than moaning at BT we should have a go at those carrying out the civils.

Using BT's logic the first person to use a new train has to pay for the carriage!

Report this to the regulator and to your MP, it's an absolute disgrace (and always has been) that BT charge any form of 'connection' charge.

Most businesses accept that they need to provide and pay for the infrastructure before they can start recouping that by charging customers. This sort of thing started when BT was a state-owned monopoly and should have been sorted out when the company was sold off.

If this is WBC FTTP and part of BDUK funding then there should be absolutely no charge for any work done up to the person's property. It would be reasonable to charge for the connection crossing the person's property. That's how I see it.

I am not quite sure why you find it a disgrace that BT charge any form of a 'connection' charge. This has been standard practice for decades and it is regulated by OFCOM. Most connection charges are absorbed by the Communication Provider.

In this case, the issue is not the connection charge. It is the Excess Construction Charges, which are there when additional infrastructure is required to be built to provide a new service to a premises. Openreach will cover the first £1,000.00 of ECCs for Brownfield FTTP. Beyond that, it is chargeable to the CP who places the order.

If the FTTP was completed as part of BDUK Scotland, then it is something that they need to raise with BT. If it was commercial deployment, I would place an order with BT Consumer who would most likely absorb the ECCs themselves.

Edited by deleted (Sat 13-Jan-18 10:26:57)

Its not just Openreach at this game...

Gigaclear have distance based install charges, DIY £100 but someone doing it starts at £200

NOTE: For those saying BDUK project should cover it, they usually have a £1700 budget limit per premise, though this is changing in some phase II projects

In this case the key is whether the ducting would be used by others, and if that is the case a combined order by getting a provider to cluster the orders, or some pestering by someone like me or personal to CEO might help.