Another "Neighbour can get FTTP but I can't" post.

So, this is a weird one.

Hey!Broadband are busy installing fibre along my road, but it's not yet available. I'm in High Wycombe, and Openreach doesn't appear to have any plans to install FTTP here, (checked here: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when...

I saw Kelly comms in the ducts today with a compressor, presumably blowing fibre. I thought maybe Hey! had contracted them.

However, I then spotted them up the wall of a neighbour's house a 2 minute walk from mine (who actually has the same postcode as me).

I had a chat with him, and they were installing native OR FTTP. I stuck his address in the OR availability checker, and sure enough, 1GB is available.

Wow, so I checked my address - Nope, no FTTP for me.

I guess maybe someone forked out for FTTPoD, and his house was passed, but Kelly were in the ducts outside his house, 2 minutes walk from mine if you turn left out of my drive, and also in ducts 2 minutes away if you turn right. So fibre must have passed my house!

I'm not sure how to make senses of this?!

If I got a quote for FTTPoD, would I be likely to get a really cheap install?

Edited by AndyPandy (Wed 16-Feb-22 16:41:21)

In reply to a post by AndyPandy:

I guess maybe someone forked out for FTTPoD, and his house was passed, but Kelly were in the ducts outside his house, 2 minutes walk from mine if you turn left out of my drive, and also in ducts 2 minutes away if you turn right. So fibre must have passed my house!

With FTTPoD they only enable properties on the same DP/CBT as the person who ordered.
That's what's meant by "passed properties". It's not literally every property the fibre passes.

If I got a quote for FTTPoD, would I be likely to get a really cheap install?

What's your definition of really cheap?

If you are within 500m of a Splitter Node, only need a CBT installed and you qualify for the "near network" FTTPoD trial then the quote would be £2,620.

If for some reason you don't qualify for the near network trial (there are certain exclusions) then it would be much higher.

That's interesting, and also a little bizarre. You'd think that it'd be an easy win for openreach to enable each pole passed by the fibre.

I didn't spot an OR CBT on the pole in question, just the Hey! white box. I'll pop back tomorrow to take a proper look.

Given that OR FTTP is limited to 115Mb upload, and expensive, I'll probably still go with Hey! but was curious about the whole situation.

In reply to a post by AndyPandy:

That's interesting, and also a little bizarre. You'd think that it'd be an easy win for openreach to enable each pole passed by the fibre.

They will usually pull in sufficient fibre spine/capacity to serve the surrounding area so that they can more easily cover it when it is eventually scheduled to be part of the fibre rollout.

However FTTPoD already diverts resources away from the main fibre build. It's time consuming work and they just don't have the necessary resources to cover every property they pass as they pass it.

"However FTTPoD already diverts resources away from the main fibre build."

Perhaps they should charge for FTTPoD. Then they could resource that work and the main build.

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

"However FTTPoD already diverts resources away from the main fibre build."

Perhaps they should charge for FTTPoD. Then they could resource that work and the main build.

I know you're somewhat joking but I'll respond anyway.

Money isn't the issue.
They have already taken on many thousands of trainee engineers as well as making extensive use of subcontractors.
They aren't the only company building a major fibre network. There's a significant shortage of labour in the telecoms sector.
Even with the large increase in staff over the last few years they aren't meeting their current rollout targets.

They have already had to place limits on the number of FTTPoD orders that can be placed because they lack the resources (labour) necessary to do the work. Covering more properties on every FTTPoD job will just make the problem worse.

As it stands they already need to increase their rollout pace to meet their coverage targets and that's with them starting on the easiest/quickest/cheapest to deploy areas.

Not really joking.

If the work is fully paid, then this is a matter of business planning (or lack thereof).

You plan for the demand a year/two years down the road and hire and train accordingly.

The net result would then be that Openreach gets paid by someone else for expanding coverage and for infrastructure they will own, and if their business planning and hiring was adequate, it would be on top of and at no detriment to the regular rollout.

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

Not really joking.

If the work is fully paid,

Sorry I also thought your below comment was tongue in cheek considering Openreach already charge a hefty price (normally at least £8k+vat and some over £40k+vat) for FTTPoD.

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

Perhaps they should charge for FTTPoD.

Edit: I am even more surprised after seeing below post from you exactly 1 year ago.

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

Similar to my quote (similar distance from agg node, existing ducts then two new poles, which from memory are about £500 each):

Labour £4,830.00
Contract Labour £649.00
Civils £924.00
Stores £3,584.00
BT Connection Charge £495.00
Deduction £-1,200.00
Field Survey charge paid £-250.00
Total £9,032.00

I had understood that FTTPoD quotes were more or less at cost.

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Feb-22 14:32:47)

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

Not really joking.

If the work is fully paid, then this is a matter of business planning (or lack thereof).

You plan for the demand a year/two years down the road and hire and train accordingly.

The net result would then be that Openreach gets paid by someone else for expanding coverage and for infrastructure they will own, and if their business planning and hiring was adequate, it would be on top of and at no detriment to the regular rollout.

I do agree, its basic common sense if you passing properties, you do the work "whilst you there" to have them able to order a service.

However there is a few odd things about Openreach's rollout, one of them been that there is many rural areas been enabled before densely populated urban areas, which suggests political and subsidy intervention. Translated to, they could do what you said, but they simply dont want to even if it costs them money in the longer term.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

In reply to a post by shortshrift27:

Not really joking.

If the work is fully paid, then this is a matter of business planning (or lack thereof).

You plan for the demand a year/two years down the road and hire and train accordingly.

The net result would then be that Openreach gets paid by someone else for expanding coverage and for infrastructure they will own, and if their business planning and hiring was adequate, it would be on top of and at no detriment to the regular rollout.

I do agree, its basic common sense if you passing properties, you do the work "whilst you there" to have them able to order a service.

However there is a few odd things about Openreach's rollout, one of them been that there is many rural areas been enabled before densely populated urban areas, which suggests political and subsidy intervention. Translated to, they could do what you said, but they simply dont want to even if it costs them money in the longer term.

I do wonder if people read other peoples posts before replying to them as a lot of the time they are so fixated on shoehorning what they want to say into the post.

Edited by deleted (Thu 17-Feb-22 15:18:11)