FTTPoD Survey Ordered

Hi,

I have been looking into FTTPoD. I originally ordered a desktop survey from Cerberus on the 10th February 2021 and got a price back on 22nd February 2021.

Estimated Build Cost: £8,700.00 ex VAT
Number of premises passed for FTTP: 19

I'm not sure why I was surprised by the cost being so high, given all the other high quotes! There is a new property development up the main road from me that has had FTTP installed - so there is fibre in the area. I live in a suburban type area and my current copper line is via overhead cable drop from pole (with Distribution Point on it) with ducts back to the cabinet/exchange.

It probably makes no difference to my own order but to the east of me, Uxbridge (Hillingdon) is going to be a Fibre-First Borough. And Uxbridge even on the list of the first 100 phone exchanges to be closed.

And to the west of me, Gerrards Cross is supposed to be getting both OpenReach FTTP and Swish Fibre.

I decided to go-ahead and get a Field Survey done, which I ordered on the 22nd February. It is probably pretty optimistic to think that the price may come down. I liked that Cerberus had clear and very transparent pricing. But the web-based ordering process was a little bit broken. Some CSS broken on the form and had to restart the ordering process after it got stuck - I fed this back to them but haven't heard anything back. Maybe because I wasn't using Chrome. On the 22nd February they taken payment from me (for the survey) and have now completed a credit check.

Reporting here as it might be useful to have another data point on the FTTPoD Desktop Quotes and Final Prices spreadsheet.

njh.

That will be much welcomed, thank you - we have relatively few recent quotes. I'll add it when the results are back. Fingers crossed!

At a guess you must be in Denham or Tatling End ... Which exchange are you actually on?

I am on Denham phone exchange.

I don't think there is a phone exchange at Tatling End?

I can't see anything on the Think Broadband map:
http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/broadband-map#1...

Not suggesting you were on either but the area would suggest which exchange you are on - Denham is Uxbridge and Tatling End, is generally GX although they can be Uxbridge. You may route through the building in Denham but that is still part of Uxbridge which also includes Ruislip and West Drayton.

Uxbridge is having a major FTTP roll out at present working out from the exchanges in all directions. I suggest that before you commit to any On Demand you do some digging and ask questions about the plans.

Sorry MHC, I misread your first reply.

Yes, I am really hoping that I can have a conversation with the surveyor, prior to committing to FTTPoD.

Interestingly in the new housing estate at the former Denham Film Studios, when checking in the BT Broadband Availability Checker, there appear to be some properties with both copper and FTTP, which say they are on the Denham exchange. But there are slightly-newer builds which are fibre-only, that report that they are connected to the Gerrards Cross exchange (within metres of each other).

I guess in the long-term with fibre, the distance to the exchange (or density of lines) won't matter as much as with copper - hence BT closing exchanges.

I know the area well and find it odd that some of those are supposedly on GX. The old LVNH, now the Garden Village opposite are all Uxbridge/Denham and if you wiggle through onto Slade Oak Lane those are still Uxb right up to the M25 and only become GX numbers the old side. Bringing new fibre from GX would be a massive undertaking whereas out from Uxb would use the ducting already there going through/past the daughter exchange at Denham and up to the studios and Bosch site. Coming down from West Hyde would be easier than coming from GX.

I might be wrong, but two exchanges serving one relatively small/medium development is not something that normally happens, so unless there is a longer term plan to serve the area from GX which in itself shares the 01753 code with Slough!

There will be a single GEA headend exchange serving the area. A lookup of one of the new build fibre only connected properties will tell which. Otherwise one of the Openreach folks on here could look it up or indeed Mr Saffron if one asks nicely.

For the OP it scarcely matters as it’s the infrastructure build out / distance from the aggregation node for oD rather than headend exchange that drives the excess construction costs. Unfortunately the price floor seems for all quotes since 2019 appears to have risen by around £3K from those previously. No one can seem to fathom why.

In reply to a post by njh:

Interestingly in the new housing estate at the former Denham Film Studios, when checking in the BT Broadband Availability Checker, there appear to be some properties with both copper and FTTP, which say they are on the Denham exchange. But there are slightly-newer builds which are fibre-only, that report that they are connected to the Gerrards Cross exchange (within metres of each other).

That's the expected result.

If a copper line is available then the checker will report the local copper telephone exchange.
If a line has only FTTP available (new builds) the checker will report the Head-End exchange.

The same Head-End exchange will usually serve both addresses in the above example with FTTC and FTTP. I'm not familiar with your area though and it might be right on the exchange boundary.

Edited by j0hn83 (Mon 01-Mar-21 02:03:32)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

That's the expected result.

If a copper line is available then the checker will report the local copper telephone exchange.
If a line has only FTTP available (new builds) the checker will report the Head-End exchange.

The same Head-End exchange will usually serve both addresses in the above example with FTTC and FTTP. I'm not familiar with your area though and it might be right on the exchange boundary.

That is the odd thing ... and if the OP is where I believe he is, then it is 2 miles from the exchange boundary and all the businesses I deal with in that area are connected back to Uxbridge for voice, and data albeit via Denham exchange bulding

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

That's the expected result.

If a copper line is available then the checker will report the local copper telephone exchange.
If a line has only FTTP available (new builds) the checker will report the Head-End exchange.

The same Head-End exchange will usually serve both addresses in the above example with FTTC and FTTP. I'm not familiar with your area though and it might be right on the exchange boundary.

That is the odd thing ... and if the OP is where I believe he is, then it is 2 miles from the exchange boundary and all the businesses I deal with in that area are connected back to Uxbridge for voice, and data albeit via Denham exchange bulding

Is Uxbridge a GEA Headend exchange? Sounds like GX is.

In reply to a post by MHC:

I might be wrong, but two exchanges serving one relatively small/medium development is not something that normally happens, so unless there is a longer term plan to serve the area from GX which in itself shares the 01753 code with Slough!

I guess the parent-child exchange relationship might be completely different for the BT 21CN IP based network, compared to the old switched telephone network (which could be inferred by dialling codes)?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

For the OP it scarcely matters as it’s the infrastructure build out / distance from the aggregation node for oD rather than headend exchange that drives the excess construction costs.

I just find the differing exchanges an interesting quirk, rather than an indication of cost.

But hopefully it helps that there is fibre passing the top of my road? - even if it is just that ducts have been cleared relatively recently?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Unfortunately the price floor seems for all quotes since 2019 appears to have risen by around £3K from those previously. No one can seem to fathom why.

Because demand is higher than available resources to meet that demand?

There is ducted fibre literally all over London. Knowing what that fibre actually is used for is an entirely different kettle of fish. It could be anything not just FTTP. Don't get your hopes up.

Even if it were fibre serving FTTP then it could be spine fibre which you can't simply tap into. The point of connection for FTTPoD is from the Aggregation Node in Openreach FTTP speak. The surveyor will know where that is and is usually quite happy to oblige if asked at the survey.

There are far fewer exchanges that are the headends for FTTP/FTTC. Something like 5000 copper exchanges in the network, but a small fraction of that are used for FTTP. These are what is known as the GEA Headend exchange.

Is Uxbridge a GEA Headend exchange?

No

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Is Uxbridge a GEA Headend exchange?

No

Thanks. Gerrards Cross must clearly be.

What are the neighbouring GEA HE exchanges then?

GX and West Drayton

Thanks again. 👍

there a nuance its the aggregation node that takes you back to the headend , in some smaller exchnagere there might be ethernet back to the local serviing exchnage , this is no not good if the local servicing exchange does not got back to right headend or in some cased even a headend (that is more likely if your exchange is small

"Uxbridge" as the dialling code/area has several physical exchanges connected on the old copper network - Uxbridge, West Drayton, Ruislip and Denham so just surprising especially knowing the route from Denham to GX would be difficult.

In reply to a post by Fastman3:

there a nuance its the aggregation node that takes you back to the headend , in some smaller exchnagere there might be ethernet back to the local serviing exchnage , this is no not good if the local servicing exchange does not got back to right headend or in some cased even a headend (that is more likely if your exchange is small

Sorry I'm not sure I really follow what you're trying to say there. What is the nuance exactly?

I always have trouble trying to decipher Fastman's posts, sounds like total drivel to me.

With expectations of taking at least 4 weeks to perform a survey, to my surprise, I had a phone call from Openreach this morning to book in an appointment to inspect/photograph the installation location. He is coming tomorrow!

Any suggestions of things I should ask him?

Ask about the local network topology and especially how they route back to GX. And will it be all part of Denham or just some - Higher, Lower, Village, Green, New ...

Thought I'd post on this thread too. I'm moving house in a couple of weeks, and the FTTC situation is pretty average, predicting 40-50 down / 7-10 up. There's also a waiting list, so it would mean 17/1.5 ADSL2+ while waiting for a free port. Coming from full 80/20 with a high usage household, it doesn't look appealing either way. No VM or other fibre providers available (zone 2 south london), and 4G is pretty variable at busy times.

Cerberus FTTPoD estimated Build Cost is : £5,100.00 ex VAT with 5 premises passed. I've decided to go for the survey...

In reply to a post by eded2000:

Thought I'd post on this thread too. I'm moving house in a couple of weeks, and the FTTC situation is pretty average, predicting 40-50 down / 7-10 up. There's also a waiting list, so it would mean 17/1.5 ADSL2+ while waiting for a free port. Coming from full 80/20 with a high usage household, it doesn't look appealing either way. No VM or other fibre providers available (zone 2 south london), and 4G is pretty variable at busy times.

Cerberus FTTPoD estimated Build Cost is : £5,100.00 ex VAT with 5 premises passed. I've decided to go for the survey...

Wouldn't you just be better off getting two FTTC lines and wait it out (the FTTP upgrade). At the estimated cost you could buy another line (say £30 per month) for 17 years

In reply to a post by eded2000:

There's also a waiting list, so it would mean 17/1.5 ADSL2+ while waiting for a free port

Did you miss this?

In reply to a post by dect:

In reply to a post by eded2000:

There's also a waiting list, so it would mean 17/1.5 ADSL2+ while waiting for a free port

Did you miss this?

Lol, yep, i did

Maybe someone could "stir the cauldron" and check the postcode (if person can provide) and see if the port issue is long term or short term?

Cabinet 12 on Tulse Hill Exchange if there are any cauldron stirrers about...

It's been on waiting list for the best part of 6 months from what I have seen, which made me discount the load balancing or bonding routes

FTTPoD isn't a fast solution either - you could get it in 6 months, or it could be 18 months. But you may get a better idea from talking to the surveyor about any expected problems, state of ducts etc.

Yer, I know - FTTPoD is never the ideal option. I'm hoping that being relatively near the aggregation node as the £5k suggests, combined with the (likely) fully ducted route may mean it is on the quicker/cheaper end of the spectrum. All guessing on my part though

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Every quote now seems to have £4-5k in either Labour costs, or Civil stores/civil labour costs, or both.
If that trend in quotes continues as it has for the last 2 years then it's sensible to warn potential buyers that their final quote is likely to be at least £7-8k.

FYI

In reply to a post by MHC:

Ask about the local network topology and especially how they route back to GX. And will it be all part of Denham or just some - Higher, Lower, Village, Green, New ...

Well the Openreach surveyor came today (over 30 mins early!).
I was a bit disappointed to discover that he was only there to check the installation location in my house - which seems like the thing that would affect the price the least. He took photos of the inside and outside of my house and I think also a photo of the pole. He wasn't going to check the route from the aggregation node, the ducts or anything like that.

Sadly he said he wasn't from this area and didn't know the details of the work required.
But he did know that the head-end exchange would indeed be Gerrards Cross.
And that he thought that the Fibre Aggregation Node was close to the junction of the A412 and Old Rectory Lane.
And that that if there was a problem like a blocked duct, I wouldn't have to pay for the cost of working round that.

Not sure if there there is any other on-site surveying to be done by someone else. Or if the rest of the survey will be done back at the office, perhaps in a bit more detail than the original quote.

I will have to have a look for a decent cabinet there. The is one BT cabinet on the north corner of ORL, and a small one on the other side of the North Orbital - tucked away in the hedge, just where the slabs go across the verge. Who owns the very large shed size one in the corner?


From ORL there is plenty going back to Denham then Uxbridge (and onto West Drayton) but what is there up to GX - cannot remember any major works on the A40 or ORL/Slade Oak to put ducting in - what other routes are there?

Openreach FTTP doesn't go via cabinets (*). Fibre aggregation nodes and splitters are underground or on poles, and the entire network is passive (i.e. unpowered) between OLT and ONT. In the far future, when the copper network is retired, Openreach cabinets will be removed as well.

(*) Except very rarely, in ultra-rural areas, there may be small powered OLTs in cabinets, known as "subtended headends". This certainly isn't the case here.

There is no "pole network" there - just one pole serving a couple of houses. Underground, maybe, but it gets flooded regularly.

In reply to a post by MHC:

There is no "pole network" there - just one pole serving a couple of houses. Underground, maybe, but it gets flooded regularly.

Outside plant fibre infrastructure from Openreach, whether that's FTTP (GPON) or leased line is physically contained in much the same sort of infrastructure (though they are physically discrete networks). The nodes that contain the actual spice trays and splitters are IP68 rated (to 5 metres), absolutely designed to get wet and submerged as are the CBTs themselves which are fully IP rated again, gasketed on all ports.

This is the style of Prysmian joint enclosures used for Ag. Nodes:
https://www.comtecdirect.co.uk/documents/PG5712/PG57...

and CBTs:
http://csmedia.corning.com/opcomm/Resource_Documents...

It has been 4 weeks now since I ordered the FTTPoD survey and I haven't received an email back from Cerberus.

So I checked their NetCONNECT portal and my order has changed to KCI: Survey Complete.
I don't think there is a way to see when this transition happened.


I guess I will get in contact with them on Monday and see when I will receive the field survey results.

Netconnect doesn't really tell you much. Better off speaking with them.

To give you some context and expectations; my original survey was ordered on 9 July (2018) was carried out on 4 September and final quote came through on 24 September. Service was finally all built and handed over on 10 June 2019.

Build updates are typically received by Cerberus on a Thursday PM and shared out on Friday or Monday the following week. Some of the build updates are quite jargony and indecipherable, so a call to clarify is often needed.

Good luck.

Thanks Pheasant, useful to know.
That is a really long time just to survey!

Will give Cerberus a call on Monday and see where it is at.

It may be faster, it may be slower, but it’s safe to say you will learn the meaning of patience.

A lot depends on the state of the infrastructure, be that ducts, poles (or both!), between your premises and the node. Much of which (the known unknowns in the words of Donald Rumsfeld) unfortunately won’t be known until they begin.

Good luck!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

To give you some context and expectations; my original survey was ordered on 9 July (2018) was carried out on 4 September and final quote came through on 24 September. Service was finally all built and handed over on 10 June 2019.

My survey was ordered on 10 March 2018, it took place on 31st May 2018, final pricing received 26th June 2018, and went live 30th August 2019 - 17.5 months in total. However, hopefully that's a "worst case" scenario.

Thought I'd update on progress.

Firstly the good: the survey was really quick, and it happened within a week of me placing the order. I spoke with the surveyor the nearest node was less than 300m away, in a straight ducted line on the same road as me. I have a smallish flower bed between the road and the house where the current phone line is buried which may need some duct (around 5m), but other than that, all nice and simple apparently....

Now the bad: the quote came back at:

Labour £4,654.00
Contract Labour £0.00
Civils £1,780.00
Stores £3,370.00
BT Connection Charge £495.00
Deduction £-865.00
Field Survey charge paid £-250.00

Total £9,184.00 + VAT

Grand Total £11,020.80 (incl. VAT)

This was versus a desktop quote of £5,100 + VAT.

I know others had already said not to read much into the desktop quote, but I do think that is quite bonkers, particularly based on the simplicity of the install. From what the surveyor said we're not talking new poles, digging up roads, traffic management or anything like that which other posters have had in their installs.

I'm going to try and challenge the quote and see where that gets me, but I don't hold out much hope. £11k could pay for a lot of a different connectivity option. The main problem I face though is a full/waiting list FTTC cabinet (cabinet 12 Tulse Hill if anyone may have any insights on expansion plans), and no VM / altnet. Leased line could be an option to bridge a gap until something else comes along, but it's not a long term option, and less flexible.

What to do....

£11K buys a lot of gig EAD leased line service (as long as they cover ECCs) for the next 3 years!

Others have previously said on this board that there has been a noticeably hike in the price from FTTPoD surveys, I suspect that this is another one to add to that pile. There seems to be no correlation between what the Surveyor sees/tells you and the quote you are sent, I suspect something is going on behind the scenes that is causing all quotes to be high.

It sounds like a "we don't want your business" type of quote. Win win for Openreach. I presume they want to focus on rolling out the masses and not have the hassle or risk of FTTPoD anymore.

On linebroker, 200 on a 1gig bearer is £289 (excl. VAT) / month from Virgin on a 3 year contract. Add the VAT in, that is £12,484.80 over the 3 years.

For Cerberus, the 110/20 FTTPoD with VAT is £1,080 for the first year, then £576/yr on native FTTP for years 2 and 3 (assuming the same price for the 3 years).

That means £11,020.80 + £1,080 + £576 + £576 = £13,252.80

So £768 cheaper to get a leased line, but still spending the painful 10-11k from the FTTPoD quote, just spread over the 3 years.

Not really a slam dunk, just a different way of spending the same imo, but without native FTTP at the end.

I think you're right, it's very frustrating though. The process of desktop quote vs survey is totally unrelated then. IMO the purpose of a survey is *meant* to check whether there is something unexpected that couldn't have been seen from the desktop/record check that will make the original quote unviable. If openreach do want to disuade orders, I don't understand why they don't just increase the desktop quotes - £250 surveys aren't a money spinner...

Thanks for the feedback: spreadsheet updated. I've also separated out 2019 into its own summary section.

There are only 14 quotes from 2020 onwards, but of those, the median change from desktop to final price is 108.9%. That is, your final quote is now more likely to be higher than desktop, rather than less.

Meanwhile, the inter-quartile range for final quotes was £8,646 to £11,464 - a pretty narrow range.

After Openreach changed the pricing model in 2018, getting rid of distance bands and keeping prices reasonable at first to avoid complaints, they are now free to charge whatever they like.

Edited by candlerb (Thu 25-Mar-21 12:45:12)

It was a bit of a throw away remark....however it’s not complete nonsense.

The business case really depends when native FTTP could be delivered (with zero excess construction costs). So another way of looking at it is the stop gap price for service, until native FTTP is ready for delivery at which point the ECC are effectively zero for FTTP.

In the meantime a LL could deliver an SLA backed, non-contented, symmetric service that is 100% dedicated - usually with superior latency. There’s currently very small uplift from partial to full access bandwidth (the full size of the bearer) leased lines. I think BTNet for example are currently offering 1Gb for the price of 100M circuit. Then there is the provisioning time, which those of us that have experience FTTPoD know to be long and arduous.

Of course if ECC for leased line are equally horrific (you’re in the sticks) then back to square one.

Is it on a red route?

In reply to a post by gary333:

It sounds like a "we don't want your business" type of quote. Win win for Openreach. I presume they want to focus on rolling out the masses and not have the hassle or risk of FTTPoD anymore.

It's clear (to me at least) that their resources (and industry resources in general - have you seen how many AltNets are out building new nets) are stretched trying to deliver their "Business As Usual" FTTP build commitments. They are actively discouraging FTTPoD now via prohibitive pricing.

There are other areas of the Openreach business that build out fibre as part of the BAU activity. Hello EAD!!

Sorry for the very delayed reply to update you all on the result of the build costs for FTTPoD.
After they came back *more expensive* than the desktop quote, I felt rather despondent!

Desktop Quote:
- Estimated Build Cost: £8,700.00 ex VAT
- Number of premises passed for FTTP: 19

Confirmed build charge:
- Labour: £5,716.00
- Contract Labour: £0.00
- Civils: £750.00
- Stores: £3,453.00
- BT Connection Charge: £495.00
- Deduction: £-1,215.00
- Field Survey charge: £-250.00
- Total: £8,949.00
- Total Inc VAT: £10,738.80
- With 1yr of Cerberus: £12,034.80

"Deductions of £50 per premises and £615.00 per FTTPoD order."

The list of Premises Passed was reduced from 19 to 12 (including my house).
I think that was the cause of the slight increase in costs - because the deduction was reduced.
I suspect this is because they decided to specify for a 12-port Optical Termination Box on the distribution point (pole). Therefore only a random selection of 11 of my neighbours would also have been included.

Given that the Openreach surveyor (that I met) did little to investigate the route, just looked at where I wanted it in my house, I am not convinced that they did very much more work than they did for the desktop quote.

Timeline:
- 2021-02-10: Desktop survey ordered from Cerberus
- 2021-02-22: Desktop survey returned
- 2021-02-22: Field survey ordered
- 2021-03-03: Openreach surveyor inspected my house
- 2021-03-23: Survey Build Charges returned by Cerberus


(I didn't continue with the order)

Another (less depressing) way to look at it is capital cost of £10K+VAT to get FTTP there for 12 premises.

Would there be any interest from your 11 other neighbours to form a CFP? Cost per premises would be much more appealing.

Hi,

To add to the conversation, I received a desktop quote:
Estimated Build Cost: £6,000.00 ex VAT
Number of premises passed for FTTP: 6

The Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme is offering £5,000 for my address so I thought I would obtain a confirmed cost through Cerberus and paid the £250 + VAT survey fee.
I received the confirmed build charge as follows:
Confirmed build charge is £11,256.00 + VAT. (!)
Labour £7,643.00
Contract Labour £0.00
Civils £750.00
Stores £3,633.00
BT Connection Charge £495.00
Deduction £-1,015.00
Field Survey charge paid £-250.00
Total £11,256.00
(revised number of premises past: 8, including my property)

This is a residential street, built under 20 years ago. The properties are split between two VDSL cabinets, being at the tail-end I receive 17mbps, there is no Virgin Media (although its in the next street), and there are new builds in a site across the road with FTTP (so near, yet so far...).

In reply to a post by marty_m:

there are new builds in a site across the road with FTTP (so near, yet so far...).

Sweet talk one of the owners, pay for their connection in return for a WiFi link across the road. (And I mean a proper WiFi transmitter, not just connecting to their router!)

My desktop quote came back today from cerebus with estimate cost of £4,600 + vat with the number of properties passed being 7.

Will fttpod run above 330mb?? We have no alt nets expressing any interest, no VM and my exchange is not on the current Openreach roll out plans so very tempted to order a full survey at £250. Fttc is all eci cabs...

Thanks

In reply to a post by choppersrock:

My desktop quote came back today from cerebus with estimate cost of £4,600 + vat with the number of properties passed being 7.

It's almost a certainty that any full survey quote would be at least £8k.
If you wouldn't pay £8k then you may as well save yourself £250.

Will fttpod run above 330mb??

Yes. Cerberus sell a few tiers, including 450/75Mbps and 900/115Mbps.

https://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/connectivity-broa...

Edited by j0hn83 (Wed 02-Jun-21 12:27:32)

How come the BTw checker only advertises it as 330/30, then?

In reply to a post by Grimers:

How come the BTw checker only advertises it as 330/30, then?

As we know from those on here who have had FTTP go live it 'normally' changes to 1000/220 once the record is touched.

In reply to a post by Grimers:

How come the BTw checker only advertises it as 330/30, then?

It doesn't always.
FTTPoD at 1000/220 can be seen here:

https://ibb.co/T27Lg21

The checker shows 330/30 by default as the whole network doesn't support 1000Mb connections (ECI Head-Ends).

When an FTTP build is ongoing at an address the checker will update FTTPoD from 330/30 to 1000/220.
This change happens when a property is assigned a Huawei or Nokia Head-End/OLT.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

In reply to a post by choppersrock:

My desktop quote came back today from cerebus with estimate cost of £4,600 + vat with the number of properties passed being 7.

It's almost a certainty that any full survey quote would be at least £8k.
If you wouldn't pay £8k then you may as well save yourself £250.

Will fttpod run above 330mb??

Yes. Cerberus sell a few tiers, including 450/75Mbps and 900/115Mbps.

https://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/connectivity-broa...

Given the overwhelming evidence from recent quotes, you’d be foolish to bet against a surveyed quote these days south of the £8K floor price.

Seems Openreach no longer want to get out of bed for less.

It does seem to prove the breakdown costs from a survey are simply made up, maybe the cost to bring it up to their current minimum of £8k should be put down as a surcharge rather than one of the other categories as that is just misleading.

Edited by deleted (Wed 02-Jun-21 16:47:07)

I would imagine the effort required to assign resource to one location to deliver FTTPoD is similar to that required to enable 10-20x as many properties as part of a planned rollout. If they want to withdraw the product I'd rather they just did that, as opposed to trying to make it too expensive for most people to consider.

You may think that. Somebody running a small business from home may think differently .

Edit: I agree entirely about the costly diversion of resources, in terms of results and premises connected.

Edited by pluralist (Wed 02-Jun-21 18:54:13)

Ah ok, that makes sense.

In reply to a post by jpm:

I would imagine the effort required to assign resource to one location to deliver FTTPoD is similar to that required to enable 10-20x as many properties as part of a planned rollout. If they want to withdraw the product I'd rather they just did that, as opposed to trying to make it too expensive for most people to consider.

FWIW, when they put my FTTPoD in a couple of years back, they ran more cables than they needed to (including works with a set of traffic lights further along the main road, beyond my road and further away from the exchange - "my" FTTPoD cabling only needed to reach the end of my road).

There have also been a smattering of properties on the neighbouring exchange which have paid for FTTPoD.

This week it was announced that my exchange and that neighbouring one will have FTTP for everyone rolled out in the next five years. I suspect the fact that extra cabling / ductwork was undertaken has helped things along that bit faster - as it will doubtless show up on Openreach's records that 1km of ducting is now known clear and has cabling already running through it.

NB - I'm in one of the 1% most deprived areas of England, rural with little infrastructure. It's not the sort of area you would expect to be a priority in any rollout scheme!

Edited by deleted (Thu 03-Jun-21 07:30:20)