FTTC backtracking conundrum

Hi, i'm really quite confused by what's happened with our FTTC upgrade and was hoping someone here might be able to help me understand what's what.

We were told FTTC was available, agreed a new contract with our provider, and the connection was scheduled for late December/early January. Then followed a series of delays, bad communication, missed appointments and excuses, which the provider did a very poor job of chasing on our behalf.

At one stage, an openreach engineer (subbie) fixed a new wire from a different pole on the street to our house (as the pole closest to us was a 'd-pole' that needed replacing), fitted the wire into a box on the outside of the property, and we were told he had done all the external work and the internal work would come later. This internal appointment was then delayed we were told because of covid, then booked in, cancelled, then finally we were told it had 'dropped off' the system.

Having chased repeatedly with the provider to try to get it set up again to be completed, we are now being told that we cannot get FTTC after all! The provider implied that there was a problem with the cabinet we were connected to (that something had gone wrong with that cabinet upgrade). From here it gets odd. From checking extensively here https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/ it appears we sit at a boundary on the street between two cabinets, one with FTTC available (cab 28) and one not (cab 3). Us and our immediate neighbour and house opposite, are connected to cab 3, whilst the houses either side show as connected to cab 28.

I've done a quick street check - I cannot find any FTTC cabinet installed near cab 3, whereas one is clearly installed by cab 28. Additionally, the telecom tariffs CodeLook shows that FTTC is not available at cab 3.

So is there anyone here who can shed any light on this for us?

- I don't understand if there was no FTTC cabinet for cab 3 how we were acccepted for fibre in the first place and set up with an external wire? They wouldn't have done that surely until there was an FTTC cabinet available with space?

- Might they have been expecting to re-wire the houses on the street that signed up to fibre so they connect to cab 28? Could the delay or increased demand have now meant they aren't willing to do that any more? properties served by cab 28 are still showing FTTC availability, rather than the waiting list.

- I understand the most obvious explanation is there could have been a small FTTC cabinet near cab 3 that due to the delays has now run out of space, but wouldn't that show up in the broadband checker/ CodeLook/ physically on the street?

- It was a broadband only deal not a phone+broadband, does this make a difference?

Secondly (and this is my hoped for route out) is there any chance that since the new external wire has been connected, we are actually connected to an FTTC slot (in cab 28 or in cab 3) ready to connect our house, but the system has lost sight of that? I do know that all the other houses connected from the pole our new line comes from are served by cab 28. But i don't understand how the tech works so might this might be a hopeless fantasy, and understand that you aren't officially able to change cabinets.

I don't trust the provider or openreach to give me accurate information about what's gone on or what's possible, i think they are in 'computer says no' territory.

Thanks for any help!

That's all very confusing. Did you have a phone line before this 'upgrade' and if so why was a new line provided, or was that to reroute you to the FTTC enabled cabinet?
What exchange are these cabinets connected to?

Yes, we have a current phone line (though no actual phone). I just assumed naively that fibre used different wires! I don’t know for sure, it crossed my mind (now I’ve read up a bit) that it was to shift us over to the FTTC cabinet but also maybe
- they wanted to do it in two stages
- we were moving to internet-only package so they didn’t need to worry about it being a different line (??)

Both cabinets are on the EASTON exchange in Bristol. The FTTC roll out to the cabinets appears patchy. The one without FTTC is tucked off the high street so I can see how it was a harder proposition to add another unit there.

Most of the area is getting FTTP installed at some point. could it be that the new cable is for FTTP and you are waiting for the 2nd stage (internal connection) to be arranged or that there is network problem that needs to be corrected ?
that would make more sense given what you have stated ,and the cabinet has no relevance in that case.

Edited by witchunt (Wed 28-Apr-21 08:19:57)

Well we went for EE fibre+ which is FTTC speeds (advertised as av. 67Mbps ) but the note on the EE website does say 'also available as FTTP' so they might have opted for that?

The EE person who rang up to tell us we couldn't get it after all did say it was related to the cabinet, but that would be consistent with her accessing the same availability check.

In an extra bit of oddity i didn't raise earlier, she said she had asked about direct to the property and openreach had said that wasn't possible. And, curiously, we are the only property in the street that shows up as not being able to get FTTP either on https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/ which i just don't understand.

If they did half-connect us up via FTTP but have now lost the details of the case, when they try to set us up 'fresh' we'd be showing as unavailable for FTTC, but don't know why we would not show as not available for FTTP.

I very much doubt they would "half-connect" you to FTTP. If you're on FTTP you would know as an ONT would've been installed in your property.

Thanks - I'm not familiar with the tech. They connected a line to a grey service point box on the outside of our property (the other side to our existing line). The 'internal' work appointment is the one they were going to come back and do, delayed, and now say they can't do after all.

In reply to a post by marktcordle:

Thanks - I'm not familiar with the tech. They connected a line to a grey service point box on the outside of our property (the other side to our existing line). The 'internal' work appointment is the one they were going to come back and do, delayed, and now say they can't do after all.

Is there any chance you could take a picture of this Grey Service Point Box & The Telephone Distribution pole you're fed from?

May help clear up what the issue is and if we can utilise some of the helpful 'In the know' people on this forum (one who has already answered included).

Thanks - sorry can't remember enough code to insert images, here are the links:

The grey box

The telephone pole (or do you need identifying information from a close up?).

There was some debate from the engineers during the day of the wiring as to which end of the street to bring the wire from.

In reply to a post by marktcordle:

Thanks - sorry can't remember enough code to insert images, here are the links:

The grey box

The telephone pole (or do you need identifying information from a close up?).

There was some debate from the engineers during the day of the wiring as to which end of the street to bring the wire from.

That's an FTTP CSP box.

It sounds very much like a database error is preventing you getting FTTP, particularly if everyone else in the street can get FTTP.

I was also under the impression the type of pole you are fed from can sometimes be an issue (metal hollow poles) for FTTP.

Can you pop open the grey CSP box and take a pic of the inside?

In reply to a post by marktcordle:

Thanks - sorry can't remember enough code to insert images, here are the links:

The grey box

The telephone pole (or do you need identifying information from a close up?).

There was some debate from the engineers during the day of the wiring as to which end of the street to bring the wire from.

Yup that's a full fibre install! - The grey box is a fibre CSP.

Nothing to do with FTTC, but FTTP - I think there must of been some confusion with what service you requested, because that is a fibre enabled DP.

My advice is now to ring EE back up, explain that the second half of the install for FTTP has not been completed, and get them to arrange the appointment. Failing that, it might need the order cancelling and restarting to get the order pushed through .

Failing that, we may need to go down the route of escalating it through OR, but best to stick to EE channels for now.

Thank you both, that's really helpful, i'll get back to EE.

They did cancel it with openreach (they needed to as it had fallen off the system due to all the delays) and the problem came when they tried to restart the process. We have only requested the fibre+ package from EE, the system showed correctly we can't connect to FTTC, and maybe a database error is showing we can't get FTTP now even though they've already run it to the property. So i'll see if EE can restart it again now armed with a little more knowledge!

My remaining concern is that somehow that EE are not willing now to get openreach to finish the job of connecting us up via FTTP for a lower band fibre package, when they had committed to before, but hopefully that is ungrounded.

For completeness then here's the inside

As it stands if the database says you can't get FTTP then EE won't be able to place the order again, as it isn't showing available.

It is technically the responsibility of your ISP to get OpenReach to correct the database, but ISP's aren't always the best at this.

An email to the appropriate person at OpenReach might help.
There's also a staff member here who can prod the right people to fix these database issues.

Good luck!

So according to EE, openreach have withdrawn several addresses on the street from being available to FTTP due to the lines being too long. The EE manager said when she checked it looked like the ones on the street which are served by cabinet 3.
They say they have already raised the issue with openreach to confirm it is accurate.

(It was the reference to the cabinets (and the speed we were ordering) that made me assume we were getting the 'cabinet' version of fibre, sorry for confusing everyone earlier. )

The withdrawing of FTTP from a wider group of addresses doesn't show up to me at all when i check the wholesale broadband checker - it's just our house showing as not connectable by FTTP. It's possible that it hasn't been updated for the other properties? (and presumably a wider area round us or would it really miss out just a few houses in the street?)

I'm still trying to piece it together. Openreach have now decided the FTTP network now won't quite stretch to our houses, despite having started to physically connect it up earlier in the year. Maybe they are using the cabinet cut off point to determine the limits of the FTTP network, and we are right on the boundary? But the wholesale checker in that case is way off.

If it's a provision decision rather than a physical connection potential question, then i guess my hopes about being connected up anyway from a different direction meaning we could get it after all fade a little, and I would be left with the frustration of FTTP being offered and then withdrawn.

If that's accurate, then if they had finished connecting us up in January/ February, would they have pulled the plug on us now?

Hi Mark

None of that makes any sense whatsoever unfortunately. Distance to cabinets is a complete red herring. Unlike FTTC, the nature of FTTP means that it is in no way reliant on the cabinet for connectivity.

FTTP service is fed from either the nearest pole in the case of aerial distribution or footpath chamber in the case of underground distribution, to a common distribution point known as the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT). The CBT would typically serve anywhere from 4 to 12 premises directly, depending one the number of ports it is furnished with.

I think you're best best is writing directly to the chief exec at Openreach, Clive Selley. This usually get the tree sufficiently shook and matters like yours can get resolved. His email address is [removed by tbb]

Keep it reasonably short, sharp and factual and hopefully his team will assist in resolving matters.

Good luck.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:58:55)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Hi Mark

None of that makes any sense whatsoever unfortunately. Distance to cabinets is a complete red herring. Unlike FTTC, the nature of FTTP means that it is in no way reliant on the cabinet for connectivity.

FTTP service is fed from either the nearest pole in the case of aerial distribution or footpath chamber in the case of underground distribution, to a common distribution point known as the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT). The CBT would typically serve anywhere from 4 to 12 premises directly, depending one the number of ports it is furnished with.

I think you're best best is writing directly to the chief exec at Openreach, Clive Selley. This usually get the tree sufficiently shook and matters like yours can get resolved. His email address is [removed by tbb]

Keep it reasonably short, sharp and factual and hopefully his team will assist in resolving matters.

Good luck.

Totally Echo what John and Pheasant have said.

The exec complaints at OR through the Clive Selley email should get this resolved quite quick - I'd make it clear as well that they have already completed part 1 of the install!

Good luck and keep us updated!

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:59:05)

Are EE so incompetent that they can't talk to the right people at Openreach and stress that FTTP has already been installed to the premises and just needs the internal stage 2 to be done.
As for all the nonsense about lines being too long it seems they are still talking about FTTC connections. It just seems unbelievable that such confusion could happen, however until the checker says FTTP is available no order can be placed , so as others have said get onto the openreach CEO.

I was going to say, it sounds crazy that somehow FTTP isn't available when the external CSP has been installed? Ah well, probably weirder things have happened!

Hi again,

The team at the executive complaints channel were really helpful, came back really quickly and I've now been told its been sorted by them. Our property is showing as available for fibre again, and I've replaced the order through EE.

So, its still a month away from the actual engineer appointment but all seems resolved.

So a massive thanks for your willingness to help, and for giving me the confidence and the email address to take it up the chain. Having faced another indeterminable amount of time in the slow lane, we're now back on track.

The next round is on me. Are there NFTs for pints yet?