Anyone bought a new-build house with Openreach FTTP?

I'm set to move into a new-build in November connected via Openreach FTTP with FVA (no copper line whatsoever). I've read the Openreach guidance to developers, but would like to hear from someone who's experienced it for themselves.

1. Was your ONT installed and lit-up before handover?
2. Were you able to order service before you moved-in?
3. How long after your move was the service live?
4. Did you run into any problems?

I'm currently with BT and have around 12 months left on my minimum term. I'm hoping I can use the home-move service to avoid early termination charges, but I've seen reports that it requires the Openreach database has the new address correct and able to accept an order.

The address checker currently says "your address has been successfully matched; however we cannot determine availability at this address". I guess it's good news that the address exists at all! I'm hoping the developer or Openreach installs the ONT and the database updates in-time for the move.

On new builds where the fibre has been fitted at build stage, the ONT *should* be in and lit already.

Have seen customers order before they move in. ( not sure how this would work with your Home Mover idea )

With a pre lit service the order can be live in as short as 24hrs.

I've been through it all before, maybe a bad example though and is probably not normal by any means

1) In my case, no the ONT wasn't installed/lit before handover. However I think this is because there were delays on the Openreach side of things. I was told by the engineers at the time that they normally do it before the house is occupied though and this has certainly been the case in other houses on my street! We were the first houses with people in them on the street though so they had some underlying infrastructure that needed finished beforehand.

2) In my case no I couldn't, you can't order service (from what I gather!) until the ONT is in and lit with solid green lights on it. At that point, the wholesale checker will show as being able to order. When I got keys all I had was a rope tied off outside to pull the fibre through the duct, they hadn't even got as far as that. The developer had pulled the internal fibre through and was left ready for the engineer to come in and splice it. If it was installed in advance and showing on the checker as available, I assume it would be possible to place an order though. Having them recognise your address is a good start even if no service is available.

3) I got the house keys at the start of November and never had service until early January. Christmas didn't help either though in between. I was able to order just after and it took around a week to activate.

4) I know my neighbours managed to get service before Christmas, I believe when the engineer was activating the ONT at my house he used the incorrect house number....so the openreach database ended up showing another house as active and not mine (even though the other house had no ONT installed or even electric turned on at that point as it was still a shell!!). The ONT is supposed to go from flashing lights to solid within 24 hours I think, mine took about a week.

As the ONT installation was happening after the house handover, Openreach never had any way to get in contact with me to get in to actually do the install... so it was a case of speaking to the engineers when seeing them in the street and arranging it with them in person.

If it wasn't for all of that and the fact they had to finish working on man-holes in the street before they could provide service, I expect I would have been active a lot sooner after moving in!

It appears a fairly common issue, ONT serial numbers are registered against a building plot number, rather than the final house number, this can cause activation issues.

Thanks for the information; hopefully this detail will help me guide the developer to do the right thing before handover!

That'e encouraging, thanks. I'll work with the developer to help ensure it's ready for completion.

The crucial thing is for the contractors doing the installation work to actually do the job properly ........ sadly this isn�t always the case.

Hi, I'm having issues with my new build FTTP connection so thought i'd share my experience!

1.Yes it was installed and lit up before handover however the PON light never stopped flashing.

2. We ordered before we moved in, they said was ready to activate but turns out it wasn't, so an engineer came out about a week after we moved in. Messed about for abour 4 hours and for reasons unknown put in what I have since learnt was an internal "CSP", which another engineer since has said was unnecessary and "too high".

3. Service started after the engineer visit, but speeds were all over the place and generally [censored] in the evening. (3-4Mbps)

4. Problems! Well we are having a few. After I noticed speeds drop especially in the evenings a 2nd engineer came out to look. Found a fault (showed me a cable out the front spilling light out of it) and said he had fixed. Problem persists. Today a 3rd engineer visit is taking place today as I type and he has found further faults with the internal cabling, so fingers crossed 3rd time lucky this gets sorted. I'm still confused as to why, generally speeds are as expected during the day but drop in the evening due to dodgy wiring but i'll see if this finally fixers it.

Best of luck all goes OKk with your move and broadband connection!

If the issue is light based i.e. in the local fibre then should be 24/7 rather than just in evenings

Poor speeds at night suggest the VLAN may be under sized and congestion is a problem, good time and bad time speed test links from https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest will help people say one way or another.

Thanks for the feedback, sorry to hear about your issues and I hope they're resolved soonest.

May I ask whereabouts you're located?

Thanks Andrew, i'll try a couple of the TB speed tests when i'm home this evening and share results if still any issues. I've been using BTWS speed tests and speedof.me so far.

Thanks Doug, i'm located on a new build estate in Basingstoke, Hampshire

Vyne Park, perchance?

Yes! Is that where you are moving into?

Just a note on your �point 1� ...

By �already lit up� I would have taken that to mean with a steady PON light on the ONT.

Yep, just about to exchange contracts on a property in Lattimo Walk for a move in early December. Currently living in Reading Road around a mile away.

Yes that makes more sense, in that case no it wasn't.

I did notice the PON light flashing when I viewed the house a week or so before I moved in and did point that out to the developer. I think they then tried to reload the bar code with Openreach a few times but it didn't work. I did notice after the first engineer visit we had a new bar code so I think he possibly swapped out the ONT box assuming that was the issue.

Is that the estate almost opposite the hospital, along the road heading (eventually) to Tadley ?

A flashing PON will often indicate that fibre feeding the ONT is routed to the wrong tray in the head end at the exchange.

It would seem that this has been corrected now.

With the speed issues, I�m with Mr.S, a busy virtual path to the internet. If it was a high splice, then the issue would be pretty much permanent.

Trouble is, the CP�s will keep taking the �soft option� and calling out Openreach, when it�s them and BT Wholesale who need to fix this.

Good luck, and please keep the thread updated with a resolution.

Wow I live in the same street, given that there are only a few empty houses on the road, the chances are you will be moving in pretty much opposite!

The houses are great, well built and nice area. Just the internet causing us issues at the moment.

Hopefully I get my issues sorted by the time you move in and you don't encounter the same issues. A few other residents have had some issues but none of the immediate neighbors so fingers crossed!

Ah I know where you mean, no this is the estate at the north end of Chineham business park.

I'll keep you posted on any resolution!

Ah, I know the rough area. Not worked that way for a couple of years now.

Fingers crossed for you.

I hope it's not too rough

I may have to steal some wifi from you

LOL. Nah, that�s them mean streets of Popley innit.

No joy after the engineer visit Speeds now looking like this...



On the phone to BT again, going to try and get this escalated

Can you double check what the various LAN port speeds are? 10 Mbps symmetric is almost like an Ethernet port is limiting things down to 10 Mbps

If the speeds are better during the day then not a LAN port speed issue obviously.

Congestion should have a bit of a ramp before it gets bad, but the upload looks very limited unless you are on a 40/10 service.

Sure, here are the results from each port on the router, plus one on wifi for good measure:

1.

2.

3.

Wifi:

I should have said, i'm on a 40/10 service. Couldn't justify the costs of the faster service at the moment! Frustratingly i'm actually paying more now than my old FTTC connection at a slower speed profile.

So i'm fairly sure its a time of day thing but working during the day means its hard to test. I got home at about 17:50 did a test and it was at 38mbps. Issues start around 20:00. What I don't get is that the engineers keep finding faults or bad cabling then think they have solved it.

As a result of another phone call with BT this evening they can still see the speed issue their end and have escalated with openreach. Another "multi skilled" engineer is coming Monday. Should I insist they check the connection to the local node etc or should they do that as a matter of course?

Ok ignore my 10 Mbps comments now.

http://tbb.st/1538672432410291755 one of your 'good' tests but still not great assuming connected via ethernet the downloads should look very similar shape to the upload

This other persons test (on VDSL2) shows the shape of download for the two tests you ideally are looking for

No optical fault I believe, but as the people sent out are trained for that and a lot less on the other parts, e.g. what BT Wholesale is doing with traffic once it picks it up at the exchange then no surprise you are stuck in a loop

Thanks for your help, for reference here is a test from first thing this morning, from my mobile on WiFi upstairs.



This is what I should be expecting pretty much 24/7 right?

Going to ring again today and try and explain what I think they should be looking for. Wish me luck!

Incidentally, the BTW performance test just gave my speed as 71mbps! Guessing it's not that accurate?

Also when I click on further diagnostics it asks for my address but then displays "No Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) services have been found at this address"

Could this have any bearing on the issues, something not right in the system their end?

I appreciate you�ve only just moved in, but worth asking neighbours if they are having issues too ?

Out of interest, do you recall the name of the Openreach bod who visited ?

One of my Immediate neighbors reports no issues although I haven't specifically asked if he had checked his speeds in the evening. I might give him a knock tonight actually and ask if he minds checking.

I wasn't around for the first Openreach guy, the second one to attend was called Jazbir and the third guy I forget his name but he had a South African accent and said he lived locally.

That speed test is what I'd expect,

IMPORTANT For the slow speed testing in the evening you MUST use Ethernet to rule out congestion in the Wi-Fi radio spectrum locally.

On the BT Wholesale tester - it is broken in various ways, am sure we could do a deal for a reasonable price

Ah good to know the BT wholesale tester isn't worth the trouble.

My speeds are just starting to go down the pan now, anyone clues if you click through to see the graph on this test? It looks odd to me

Looks pretty abysmal to be frank

If you have a neighbour with FTTP too on a BT connection it would be interesting to see how theirs looks, both at a slightly different time to you and then doing to the at precisely the same time, i.e. synced with a 3,2,1 over the phone

Going to try and catch my next door neighbour to ask tomorrow, in the meantime I've discovered a Facebook group for the estate and will ask there.


For completeness this is where I usually end up

A neighbour a few doors down just sent me this screengrab:

https://imgur.com/Yi79JgQ

They say they are usually at 75/24 so down 10mb, wired connection.

That is probably within the expected range for the peak time drop i.e. not brilliant but within spec

In theory if you get enough people to do a 3,2,1 test during the good time of day it might be possible to see how much capacity is actually available

i am surprised that this is really an issue, thought it should just work or not on FTTP and only thing been limiting factor is the internet itself (peak time but that rarely affects a VDSL/FTTP connection, but does affect DOCSIS virgin media typically )

seems more a fault than anything else you should get near max speed most of the time like your next door neighbor (can't expect to get flat max speed all the time but should be more or less close to it like next door)

if you don't mind leaving your computer on say for 24 hours (turn sleep to none) you can use this https://testmy.net/auto and run say 15 minute for 100 tests for 25 hours, you have to make an account if you want to do upto 200 tests, no login is 50 tests is so pick 30 min test slots (make sure wired system as wireless sometimes can't do much better than 30mb)

and you can submit that to BT if they want it

Engineer no.2, rather a �brusque� manner and a Leeds accent ? Sound as a pound, known him 20 plus years.

Makes me even more sure the issue is at Wholesale level .... quite how you persuade BT Retail to progress this to the correct department, I am unsure.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Makes me even more sure the issue is at Wholesale level .... quite how you persuade BT Retail to progress this to the correct department, I am unsure.

Like Dball85 my speeds on FTTP also slow down at peak times - though it is still a very respectable 120 Mb/s (down from 310 Mbps). Despite having my circuit reset by BTW and an Openreach Engineer home visit (to check light loss), the issue still persists. The latest I've been told by my ISP is that this has been passed onto BT Wholesale's "complex faults team", so maybe they're the ones who can change the line routing path (SVLAN) on my circuit. According to the Openreach bod, BTW can remotely change the line routing, ie no need for an exchange visit by the Engineer. But he said line routing is down to BT/BTW, not Openreach.

Btw Zarjaz, is there such a thing as a 'BT Wholesale Engineer'? (in addition to an Openreach one)

Cheers

Edited by deleted (Sat 06-Oct-18 10:52:37)

Btw Zarjaz, is there such a thing as a 'BT Wholesale Engineer'?

There's BT Wholesale engineers who work at exchanges. They don't visit customers properties though.

+1

Thanks i'll try that. I've been doing regular tests through this website and plan to show the engineer the results so they get to see what is actually going on. All day today so far speeds have been absolutely fine e.g:



A few other neighbours did get in touch and had some slowdown but didn't look significant to me, nowhere near the 90% drop I get.

I did speak to BT again to ensure the engineer is aware that they may need to check the wholesale end but I get the feeling the CS operators don't really listen. I was told "they check everything". So wish me luck!

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Like Dball85 my speeds on FTTP also slow down at peak times - though it is still a very respectable 120 Mb/s (down from 310 Mbps). Despite having my circuit reset by BTW and an Openreach Engineer home visit (to check light loss), the issue still persists. The latest I've been told by my ISP is that this has been passed onto BT Wholesale's "complex faults team", so maybe they're the ones who can change the line routing path (SVLAN) on my circuit. According to the Openreach bod, BTW can remotely change the line routing, ie no need for an exchange visit by the Engineer. But he said line routing is down to BT/BTW, not Openreach.

Btw Zarjaz, is there such a thing as a 'BT Wholesale Engineer'? (in addition to an Openreach one)

Cheers

Thanks for sharing I will ask if that's a possibility if this next visit is unsuccessful.

I do wonder if I was on a faster speed package if the speeds would still drop so low?

I do wonder if I was on a faster speed package if the speeds would still drop so low?

Yes.
If congestion is slowing you down to 10Mb at peak then increasing the upper limit will have no impact l at all.

That is theory but there may be some prioritisation e.g. GEA services have more bandwidth reserved as speeds you buy go up, but what BT Wholesale and the ISPs do on their side may be different

Not me but my son did

1. Was your ONT installed and lit-up before handover? Yes / No
2. Were you able to order service before you moved-in? No
3. How long after your move was the service live? About 2-3 months
4. Did you run into any problems? No

In reply to a post by DBall85:

Thanks for sharing I will ask if that's a possibility if this next visit is unsuccessful.

It seems BT Wholesale have acknowledged that I was indeed on a congested path/node and have now put me on a different SVLAN at the exchange today. My speeds were down to 80 Mb/s last night at around 9pm which is only ~ 25% of what my line is capable of! Anyway I shall see this evening what difference the new SVLAN routing has made.

You will need to ask your CP to escalate your issue to the 'Complex Faults Team' at BT Wholesale, if not already done.

Message from my CP earlier:

Your ticket has been updated with the following comment:
Good afternoon xxxx

The carrier has confirmed that the circuit was built on an SVLAN experiencing high utilisation.

The circuit has now been moved onto a different SVLAN with lower utilisation to improve your speeds.

Can you please retest the circuit tonight and confirm if you are still experiencing the same issue?

Kind regards,
xxxx

Good luck!

Edited by deleted (Mon 08-Oct-18 12:50:26)

Thanks Ian

In reply to a post by DougM:

Thanks Ian

A pleasure, for reference I asked about it at the time as I had never seen an FTTP setup

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4556931-wha...

Some progress!

Engineer yesterday confirmed that local network and fibre in the property has been set up correctly and is working as it should. He fed back to BT that they need to fix the issue their end.

To my surprise BT actually rang me today without chasing them up (I had raised a complaint so wonder if that helped) and said they will be looking at changing the SVLAN routing and I should see an improvement by Thursday...Fingers crossed!

Sounds very similar to the issue you have baby_frogmella. The Openreach engineer did mention he had seen a few very similar jobs recently so I wonder if it a more common issue with FTTP?

Will report back Friday either way.

I'm now getting full line speed at peak times, happy days

http://www.speedtest.net/result/7701415110

Once you go on a different svlan it *should* improve your speeds, so hopefully this should happen very soon for you.

Yeah I also had an Openreach Engineer home visit, TBH it was a waste of time but I guess BT/OR have to follow the correct protocols.

Glad you got your speed resolved

I think BT did that on our connection back when we were on Infinity 4 and our speed would drop down to about 40Mbits.
So I made a phone call to BT reporting it and the next morning I could see the connection reset and all was good again, but it still dropped in the evening but just not as bad.

But its been great since the 5th where we have not dropped below 300Mbits at all, sure this will change over time as more and more people get faster connections.

Paul

Noticed my connection was reset last night and result! Now getting full speeds at peak times, moving SVLAN seems to have done the trick.

So a shaky start to my FTTP experience. I guess this issue was always there in the background on top of other cabling issues the openreach engineers found here... but got there in the end.

Thanks for all help and suggestions on here to help pinpoint the issue.

In reply to a post by DBall85:

Noticed my connection was reset last night and result! Now getting full speeds at peak times, moving SVLAN seems to have done the trick.

So a shaky start to my FTTP experience. I guess this issue was always there in the background on top of other cabling issues the openreach engineers found here... but got there in the end.

Thanks for all help and suggestions on here to help pinpoint the issue.

Glad you now have it all resolved and hope you enjoy your new connection.

Paul

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I've not yet moved into the property, but the online checker now shows it as available to order:

WBC FTTP Up to 330 Up to 50 -- Available 2 Stage

As soon as I exchange contracts (hopefully this week) I'll book the move and see what happens.

Good luck with the move!

Thanks!

We�ve not exchanged yet (buyer delay), but I toured the house today. The ONT is in and the PON light is solid green. I took a note of the serial and will book the broadband move immediately after exchange.

It�s getting close

The ONT serial number won�t mean anything to whomever you order from.

I�m booked for service activation on December 4. I was surprised that I need an engineer visit given the ONT is live and PON status is steady green, but it�s no skin off my nose.

BT offered me £33.99 per month fixed-price for 18 months of 80/20 WBC FTTP including voice and unlimited weekend calls.

Despite staying in the same area I was unable to keep my existing landline number; and no way to port the number to VoIP without triggering a cease and incurring 15 months of early termination penalty. Not a big deal, but the lack of option might be interesting to anyone else facing a similar move.

They absolutely could have used the same number. If you pushed they would have organised this.
It should actually still be possible.

have a read of https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/11/ofcom-...

Sadly not when moving from copper to pure FTTP:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/09/loss-p...

Presumably people could move their phone number to VOIP with a provider of their choice prior to the house move? Then migrate the VOIP to the new FTTP connection on the house move?

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 13-Nov-18 23:52:34)

Possible, but currently BT�s systems cannot port-out a number without ceasing the line and any associated broadband service. See RevK�s blog for his failed attempts to re-number a line without ceasing service.

Hence my comment about early termination charges; it would cost me around £400 to keep the number!

So I�m resigned to changing phone numbers, but I�m going to ignore the number allocated and instead use a VoIP service from day-one so that my new number is independent from my line and broadband.

In reply to a post by DougM:

Possible, but currently BT�s systems cannot port-out a number without ceasing the line and any associated broadband service.

Interesting. I currently have an order with BT to migrate from copper to FVA for my voice service (I'm already on FTTP) as part of an upgrade from a Superfast (80/20) to Ultrafast (150/30) broadband package, keeping the same number.

This has been stuck for about a month now...

Apparently there is a 'technical issue which prevented the progression of your order. Out technical team are aware of the problem and will work to resolve. When we are able to reissue your order we will update you further."

Getting weekly updates from BT on progress presently (progress=none yet)

Simon

Without re-reading the whole thread I can't remember if you've stated what is actually going to happen with your existing line / number / broadband service (i.e. that which you don't want to be penalised for terminating) after you move to your new FTTP enabled house?
If you could remind me, then depending on your answer, I may have a cunning plan which would enable you to keep/use the existing number.

Edit: typo

Edited by Rastus (Fri 16-Nov-18 11:29:10)

In reply to a post by DougM:

Possible, but currently BT�s systems cannot port-out a number without ceasing the line and any associated broadband service. See RevK�s blog for his failed attempts to re-number a line without ceasing service.

What his blog from 2016?
Just because you haven't pushed them doesn't mean it can't be done... it can and it has.

It's your number and you are free to do what you like with it.
With your existing copper service they can easily "Renumber with Number Export" and start your FVA with a different number. This can then be changed to your old number.

edit: many moons ago a simple renumber could cease broadband but that's no longer an issue

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 16-Nov-18 14:10:47)

In reply to a post by DougM:

Possible, but currently BT�s systems cannot port-out a number without ceasing the line and any associated broadband service. See RevK�s blog for his failed attempts to re-number a line without ceasing service.

Hence my comment about early termination charges; it would cost me around £400 to keep the number!

So I�m resigned to changing phone numbers, but I�m going to ignore the number allocated and instead use a VoIP service from day-one so that my new number is independent from my line and broadband.

Doug can I check one thing with you? Who is your OLD (or soon to be old) ISP and who is the new one?

I ws already with BT because I got such a cracking deal on their 55/10 service: £120 prepaid Mastercard, £85 cashback, service fixed at £29.99 for 18 months. That averages out to £18.60 per month including line rental.

I stuck with BT for three reasons: avoiding the early termination charges, they offered me 80/20 fixed at £33.99 for 18 months, and because there is limited choice for FTTP ISPs via Openreach.

I may flip to Andrews and Arnold when my contract ends.

As an aside, I grabbed a new local number from Andrews and Arnold which I will use as my home phone number. Their call rates are so much better than BT and the service works flawlessly with my Fritz!Box.

In reply to a post by DougM:

I ws already with BT because I got such a cracking deal on their 55/10 service: £120 prepaid Mastercard, £85 cashback, service fixed at £29.99 for 18 months. That averages out to £18.60 per month including line rental.

I stuck with BT for three reasons: avoiding the early termination charges, they offered me 80/20 fixed at £33.99 for 18 months, and because there is limited choice for FTTP ISPs via Openreach.

I may flip to Andrews and Arnold when my contract ends.

As an aside, I grabbed a new local number from Andrews and Arnold which I will use as my home phone number. Their call rates are so much better than BT and the service works flawlessly with my Fritz!Box.

That IS a cracking deal!

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by DougM:

I ws already with BT because I got such a cracking deal on their 55/10 service: £120 prepaid Mastercard, £85 cashback, service fixed at £29.99 for 18 months. That averages out to £18.60 per month including line rental.

I stuck with BT for three reasons: avoiding the early termination charges, they offered me 80/20 fixed at £33.99 for 18 months, and because there is limited choice for FTTP ISPs via Openreach.

I may flip to Andrews and Arnold when my contract ends.

As an aside, I grabbed a new local number from Andrews and Arnold which I will use as my home phone number. Their call rates are so much better than BT and the service works flawlessly with my Fritz!Box.

That IS a cracking deal!

Is it really? There's better on offer today from Quidco.
£120 rewards card, £100 cashback, £29.99/month, 55/10

I got the deal quoted above (actually £80 cashback and £125 rewards card) for less per month £26.49 and only12 months contract 55/10 service.

Quidco/Topcashback often link to deals not on BT's website for those going direct.

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 20-Nov-18 11:31:03)

Today was the big day and I took possession of the new house. The service was enabled last week but today was the first chance to test it... and it worked perfectly.

A quick speed test (using Speedtest phone app) showed 76/19. My home move is Wednesday, at which point I'll swap the BT Smart Hub for my Fritz!Box 7490 and run some more in-depth checks.

Glad to hear it went well.

I'm in the middle of this process right now, and going through quite a world of pain...

We moved into a new build with FTTP on the 22nd November. Same day, an Openreach engineer came out and connected all the wires our developer had installed - so we got the grey box out the front and the big white one under the stairs. He said he'd scan the barcode, and within about 12 hours we'd have two steady green lights on the box and we'd be good to go.

How naive we were.

A few hours later, sure enough we have the two green lights. Next day, I call BT to order FTTP and... Nothing. Can't do it. Can't see the house. It takes 'a while' for Openreach to sort these things out. They've raised the order. I've read out the number underneath the barcode for them to send over.

Since then, the house has been in silver status, and you can't order until it's gold. No meaningful updates from Openreach. We tweeted them on Monday, and they told us we were now showing as gold on their systems. So I duly phone up BT for our order, and they say their systems haven't updated yet. We need to talk to the developer who will talk to the Openreach rep.

OK, so we do that, and they ask for a photo of the barcode and number on the box (yeah, the one I gave them three weeks ago). So we do that. Nothing back.

Latest update today is that the request was escalated again yesterday. But Openreachs' SLA to reply to these things is another week.

The problem we've found is that there's little to no information out there about how to get connectivity when you move into a new build. Openreach won't talk to end users, only developers and ISPs. Water, electric and gas is done automatically, why is broadbacnd such a PITA?

What they're saying lines up with how this works, the address can't be ordered on until it is gold, but it's for Openreach to upgrade it to gold when the new site team mark it as such, which should really have happened before the ONT was activated (ONT light lit).
There is usually a 2-3 week lag on catching up, but once it's gold you're good to go.
PM me with your address if you want us to check it's still the same, some of the delay could well be BTRetail sitting on it!

1. Was your ONT installed and lit-up before handover? Yes - when we agreed to buy the property 6 weeks before we completed, the ONT was installed and PON light was solid green.
2. Were you able to order service before you moved-in?Yes. I spoke to BT 5 weeks before we moved and arranged a home move. We were a gold address at this point so no issues at all.
3. How long after your move was the service live?Service disconnected at midnight at our old property and was live in new house before we completed on our moving day!
4. Did you run into any problems?Absolutely none, but it would seem we were incredibly lucky. Our immediate neighbours had a nightmare with theirs as they had a flashing PON light when they moved in. Took several months to sort.

For some context, I live on a greenfield new estate of approx 600 houses on the edge of a city in the East Midlands. All properties have the option of either Openreach or Virgin Media. Openreach usually install and connect before properties are complete, whereas Virgin only connect the developer installed internal cabling outside the property if you order service from them. The first two phases of our development have copper Openreach lines, with not even FTTC, therefore they are really forced to choose Virgin or be crazy slow. They then switched to FTTP which about a third of the estate has access to. From speaking to an Openreach engineer, there is no fibre headend at our local exchange, therefore they had to pull 8km of 36-fibre cable to an exchange in the city centre. Crazy.

Apparently the final properties on the estate which are just being finished are going back to copper lines as there is no more fibre capacity. The latest ones on our road, literally next door to us, have Virgin, fibre and copper installed internally and all hanging out the wall ready to connect, as if they haven�t decided what they�re doing. These people have all gone with Virgin.

In fact, most people have gone with Virgin due to price, meaning that the FTTP Service on this estate is stupidly good. I get full speed ahead 24/7 on Infinity 3 200/20 and it never ever slows down at all. We are beneficiaries of the slightly strange broadband strategy on our estate. Ping times are usually 7-9ms even over Wi-fi - don�t agree with the results from the TBB test. Test below was over Wi-fi on an iMac with the BT Hub6. Trace route shows we are only 5 hops or so from Telehouse peering at LINX.