FTTPoD: so close, yet so far!

I ordered FTTPoD back in November 2020 and while progress couldn't be described as quick, I was still pretty pleased.

Fast forward to 9 weeks ago. The Openreach engineers were back on site to install a CSP on the outside wall of my property. This went smoothly and they confirmed that the fibre to the CSP is lit and live.

Great, not long now I thought, how wrong I was!

9 weeks on, I'm still stuck in the pre-commissioning phase (whatever that is) despite having had a final audit and being told that I just need an internal install on multiple occasions.

My order has been passed to the OR High Level Escalation Team (HLE) & Regional Jeopardy Team (Yes, apparently that actually exists!) with no success.

Has anyone experienced this before?

I'm just trying to understand what's gone so wrong with my order and how to get it back on track. If anyone can help, I'd be extremely grateful!

Oh, this is pretty par-for-course I'm afraid. There's not much you can do except keep pestering your CP to pester Openreach.

In my case, the CBT was installed in the footway box on 12th July (2019), then pulled out and installed properly on 19th July, but the internal installation didn't take place until 28th August.

In between time, the order got stuck in Openreach systems. The explanation I was given was that the SVLAN which had been originally created had been deleted, due to the order being open for so long.

Even on installation day it didn't work (apparently due to same issue - wrong SVLAN ID), but it finally came up on 30th August.

Won't make you feel any better, but that's around the timescale I had for completion of my then FTTPoD connection some years ago. Some folks have had their FTTPoD order take in excess of 14 months to deliver.

Anyhow try emailing the CEO, Clive Selley at Openreach. The executive complaints team that monitor complaints emails to his address may be able to assist and shine a spotlight on what the issue is.

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Edit: I see candlerb has replied whilst I was writing.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 22:02:48)

Thanks both, it does make me feel a bit better to hear that others had a similar experience actually.

It's just so frustrating that I've got decent internet approximately 30cm from my router but can't access it! It's just so close .

The fact that the updates from OR project management are about as transparent as a brick wall certainly don't help. Though, I have to say that all the engineers I've met have been great so far.

I'll give emailing the OR CEO a try. Who knows, maybe something will happen.

Thanks again .

Yes I know, and concur on the updates. Some I had were (in hindsight) comic genius, further misinterpreted by my (good natured but somewhat clueless) CP rep.

It is quite frustrating having the physical infrastructure there, in your face so to speak, but as candlerb has noted much of the configuration is actually software or works within the exchange, which often or not by their very nature, FTToD orders come at the pointy end of newly installed infrastructure.

Jeopardy management would receive the HLE and allocate to the next available engineering resource. To say they've had no success doesn't make sense unless there is a fallout in the order flow journey, perhaps an error that won't allow the work flow system generate an activity for the engineering visit. HLE must be able to tell you what the delay is, and what needs to be done to remedy it.

Thanks for this. The HLE team didn't actually identify any delay so perhaps it is a fallout with the order flow.

The update I received from them said that they'd get an engineer on site ahead of August 23rd. However, this hasn't happened and my carrier can't get a subsequent update from them.

The last I heard was that they'd escalated again to the jeopardy management team.