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.

In reply to a post by ricom831:

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"?

OMG - As of today its showing as available as a Stage 1 install. eek!

Congrats! Get that order in. My install is happening on 14th February and I've bored my wife to tears talking about it

ricom831

Better get an order in with your chosen supplier and get the first connection on the CBT..

All done Installation date is 17th Feb and I'm going with IDNet 1000/110 package. It will be some difference from the 30mbit I'm getting just now!

Nice! Mine's still showing the same as it was.

Where are you seeing the "Stage 1" bit? The Openreach checker or the BT Wholesale one (or other)?

It won't be "stage 1", it will be "1 stage", i.e. it's expected the install can be completed in a single visit. BTW checker shows that.

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Where are you seeing the "Stage 1" bit? The Openreach checker or the BT Wholesale one (or other)?

The BT Wholesale checker.

As seen here

Ah, perfect thank you.

The daily check continues....

Ah, yes - It's "1 Stage" not "Stage 1" - in I'm excitement I didn't read it properly

But as above, it was the checker and it was a week or so back that I last seen the OpenReach vans - IT will be soon no doubt

In reply to a post by ricom831:

Ah, yes - It's "1 Stage" not "Stage 1"

You're not the first to transpose it and won't be the last, its just one of those things that reads better the wrong way around

Yeah, "single stage" would be clearer.

Gah I checked a street a little over from ours where I first noticed the CBTs going in and they're live and ready for ordering. Either they're taking their sweet time getting my street connected or there's.... issues.

Meanwhile I'm starting to get the jitters!

In reply to a post by Noiz:

where I first noticed the CBTs going in

Don't panic, so they are a little in front of you, all will be good soon

*jittering intensifies*

Most likely you're on a different splitter, which means a different OLT port at the exchange; it may take a bit longer to activate yours, or there may be some splicing that needs sorting out.

Give it a full month, and then if it's still not showing, use the Openreach contact form ("my neighbours can get fibre but I can't")

You absolutely have to be patient with this sort of stuff.

Checked it just now and it's gone live! Almost had a heart attack.

It's not showing on Zen's checker yet though...

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Checked it just now and it's gone live! Almost had a heart attack.

It's not showing on Zen's checker yet though...

Congrats! I ordered from Sky the day mine went live (22nd Jan) but still doesn’t show as available with Talk Talk as an example. Might be worth calling Zen to see if they can update their database/check the wholesale checker?

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Checked it just now and it's gone live! Almost had a heart attack.

The secret is waiting and from your posts yesterday it was less than 24 hrs

Awesome! congrats

Ordered. Just waiting for an install date from Openreach now.

Noiz

Do a speed test on here when your service is live, this will help Andrew identify the area as live or drop him a list of postcodes that are live to identify the area.

Thanks

Will do.

Just got the install date of the 23rd. One day earlier it would've been my birthday!

Install wrapped up about an hour ago but I'm currently getting the exact speed of my FTTC package (70/20). I assume some sort of switch needs to flipped at Zen's end, but how long do I wait for it to happen naturally before I call them?

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Install wrapped up about an hour ago but I'm currently getting the exact speed of my FTTC package (70/20). I assume some sort of switch needs to flipped at Zen's end, but how long do I wait for it to happen naturally before I call them?

What speed did you order? and happy birthday for yesterday

Full 900 of course! And thanks.

In reply to a post by Noiz:

Full 900 of course!

If you're confident its not the router or your device then I would ring them.

Zen have a habit of leaving the old profile on when an account is upgraded from ADSL/FTTC to FTTP. Ring them up and they can get it to change overnight.

I remember seeing somebody else report the same problem with Zen recently on this forum. They were still being shaped to the old xDSL profile on the BRAS after migrating to FTTP.

Call them.

Hmmm, I plugged the Fritzbox back in just to test it and that's getting full whack (or the 400Mbps I can get via wifi at least - there's a horde of kids here for my daughter's birthday party right now so I can't wire anything up just yet). So either they flipped the switch while I was changing things over, or I need to tweak something on my Synology router.

Thanks everyone. I'll post a speedtest result once I've managed to get a wired test done.

If it's Zen, make sure you test to ensure you get the full speed.

I think a few customers have had trouble receiving the full 900Mbps, including this guy on ISPReview. He moved to BT and now receives full speeds, so it looks like Zen may have some capacity issues.

I'll bear that in mind, thanks.

In reply to a post by kommando:

Zen have a habit of leaving the old profile on when an account is upgraded from ADSL/FTTC to FTTP. Ring them up and they can get it to change overnight.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I remember seeing somebody else report the same problem with Zen recently on this forum. They were still being shaped to the old xDSL profile on the BRAS after migrating to FTTP.

Call them.

I remember the thread too, can’t find it now though. Seems too coincidental for the new service to be pegged *exactly* to the old profile speeds.

Yeah that was my fault in the end. I had "traffic control" enabled on the Synology and obviously had it set to VDSL speeds. As soon as I turned it off I got 916 Mbps down and 115 Mbps up on a wired speed test. Very pleased.

👍

Our CBT went up outside yesterday, so I naturally went out and quizzed the installers, and was told end of march. So about a month if they are correct.

In reply to a post by thesimo:

Our CBT went up outside yesterday, so I naturally went out and quizzed the installers, and was told end of march. So about a month if they are correct.

or 13 or 25 ...

The people who do the installation often aren't involved with the go-live process. Maybe *their* part of the installation will be complete by end of March, but the time you can actually order service could be some months later.

There is auditing to be done, possibly rework if the audit fails, and then processes in the exchange to connect to an OLT, enable provisioning, update the availability databases etc. These things sometimes don't go smoothly.

Not trying to put a downer on it, just saying: be realistic in your expectations, and then you may be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by thesimo:

Our CBT went up outside yesterday, so I naturally went out and quizzed the installers, and was told end of march. So about a month if they are correct.

or 13 or 25 ...

Hopefully the installer will be right for once but the general track record of installer estimating a 'go live date' hasn't been good to date

In December, openreach said April. Installer said late March so they both lined up enough for me to believe that schedule.

Fingers crossed anyway

In reply to a post by candlerb:

The people who do the installation often aren't involved with the go-live process. Maybe *their* part of the installation will be complete by end of March, but the time you can actually order service could be some months later.

There is auditing to be done, possibly rework if the audit fails, and then processes in the exchange to connect to an OLT, enable provisioning, update the availability databases etc. These things sometimes don't go smoothly.

Not trying to put a downer on it, just saying: be realistic in your expectations, and then you may be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed

I completely agree and in my case it will be just under 3 years from cbt going up to going live (april '20) to (jan-march '23) and the announcement was done in 2017..

Ok that is a screwed up bduk to project gigabit funded scheme and that wouldn't happen on a commercial rollout but none the less Candlerb is 100% right on what he said

Was able to order today. Have faith