How long between the CBT appearing and being able to order?

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted here! Glad to see the site still going.

Anyway, I've been noticing a lot of activity around a lot of local poles while walking the doggo recently, and maybe a week or two ago it was our pole's turn. We confirmed with one of the workers that it's for fibre but all he could say in terms of availability is "soon". Let's just say I've been plugging our address into the OR availability checker every day since, only to be disappointed every time.

I wish there was some page or article that outlined the steps required before go-live. Are we at step 3 of 20 or is it actually "soon" like the guy said. Do they need to enable the entire exchange before anyone can order or is it on a street-by-street basis?

To which end, does anybody have any idea about the likely timing here? Cheers all.

Sooner rather than later. HTH

Suddenly I have that bit from Spaceballs in my head...

"When will 'then' be 'now'?"
"Soon!"

Noiz

Witchunt has inside knowledge, but without a postcode he cannot give an accurate response just a process driven one.

There may be 20 steps but many can, and are, done in parallel. Once the CBTs are up and connected to the fibre there is testing to be done, this is more complex if everything is new. If the PON Headend is already tested it is quite quick if everything works.

If new, ISPs then need to order and provide Cablelinks to the new headend before they can provide customers. If existing, orders can be placed as soon the OR checker is updated.

All of what you said is possible. They might light up one PON at a time, or they might wait until the whole area is ready to order. They may be waiting for an auditor. The auditor may find serious problems with the installation and insist on it being ripped out and redone. They may have installed the CBTs and splitters, but discover a serious problem with the route back from the splitter to the fibre aggregation node, which could take months to resolve. In some cases, they have been known to abandon the whole project due to such problems.

In short: you might get service within 1 month, you might get it within the next 6 months, or you might not get it at all. You will definitely need patience

I suggest you set your expectation as 3-4 months from CBT appearing - but you can carry on checking daily just in case. At some point you may notice a change in the checker. If it's currently showing FTTPoD 330, then it may change to FTTPoD 1000 a few days before going live. That's the only advance notice you get really.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

If it's currently showing FTTPoD 330, then it may change to FTTPoD 1000 a few days before going live. That's the only advance notice you get really.

That's interesting because it is actually showing FTTPoD 1000 now. I thought it had changed since last I checked but I chalked it up to my imagination. Must try not to get too excited.....

@witchunt mind if I DM you with my postcode?

Round my way it was about 3 weeks after Openreach's subcontractor had installed the CBT's and the work was signed off before I could order but then I had to wait 5 weeks for the install.

The whole estate is ducted and being a fairly new development there wasn't any problems and I guess the wait for the install was so Openreach could connect the CBT's to the splitters because they didn't start that until a week before my install.

In reply to a post by simon194:

Round my way it was about 3 weeks after Openreach's subcontractor had installed the CBT's and the work was signed off before I could order but then I had to wait 5 weeks for the install.

The whole estate is ducted and being a fairly new development there wasn't any problems and I guess the wait for the install was so Openreach could connect the CBT's to the splitters because they didn't start that until a week before my install.

For clarity are you saying the ports on your CBT weren't lit at the point of you placing your order as the post implies to me the CBT was connected to the splitter 4 weeks after you placed your order.

Hi All, new to the forum but long time lurker! Sorry to hijack but thought it was cleaner than another post 100% similar.

I'm in a similar boat, new development and we've have the CBT's installed in the ducting. The OR checker shows FFTPoD 1000 now available so I'm hoping it's soon!

I don't suppose you know @witchhunt any more about post code G65 0ES other than it's "soon"?

As far as I could tell the ports weren't lit because Openreach were connecting up the tails to the splitters the week before my install. Even then I don't think they did all of them because they came back a couple of weeks later and spent most of the day working in the footway box.