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)

what do you believe I haven't read?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

what do you believe I haven't read?

The post you replied too.

shortshrift27

It ois due to business planning.

If you take on more people than you need long term it can cost a lot to get rid of them later on. You want to smooth your resource profile as much as possible. This is had enough when planning and delivering reasonably sized areas, but dealing with odd demand scattered randomly around the whole UK is very resource hungry hence the large costs. Planning each one so that it fits in an eventualy rollout is possible but being dragged from one area to another to do all the properties passed would mean not being able to plan a programme around the country that minimises all the costs and maximises the 75% covered areas to enable stopping Copper provisions.

A similar thing happened in my area (not a million miles away from you)

OpenReach checker said no plans for FTTP. Hey! Broadband and Swish Fibre started deploying and went live shortly after. Then all of a sudden, the area was flooded with OpenReach vans. Pavements dug up, Nodes installed on Poles. 4 weeks later, BT Wholesale checker saying FTTP is available.

Coincidence? You decide!

It will be interesting to see if that happens here too, it'd be nice to have a choice of providers.

Given that Hey! have done all the hard work and cleared the ducts, it would seem like an easy win, rather than letting the ducts silt up again.

Hi AndyPandy,
I was very much in the same position as you and I am in HW. Have you contacted the team at Heybroadband? Are you sure they have not already deployed, or it might just be that their DB has not updated. I had the same issue. I saw them deploy all over HW but not to my street. Reached out and was told it was part of the plan and they would be in touch. It took me 9 month before I got it installed from register interest, and let me share with you what an amazing experience. As i write this, i am running a speed test. 948Mbit /down and 947Mbit/up.

I wish you all the best, I got also a sweet deal from them 24month / £35. I think this is a very good deal.

In terms of some other option about FTTP, Heybroadband is not Openreach, they use the Openreach ducting but the cable is theirs. What that means is that a whole new cable goes into your home. For FTTP it is going to be very expensive, i got a quote few years ago and it was £9000 including VAT.

Thanx

PS: ping me and can share more in depth details about my experience.

Edited by Feejus (Wed 23-Feb-22 00:28:11)

Thanks Feejus.

I pre-ordered in 2020, and in early 2021 was told it'd be available in a few weeks...!

All the engineering work appears to be complete, so I'll chase them yet again. Were you able to order before it showed as live on their website?

AndyPandy. I had a number of conversation with them. There are two typ of deployment, either over the poles (outside) or via BT ductings. I don't know your road or your location. In some very odd occasion it might be not possible to deploy. ( I hope not in your case).

With that said, reach out to "Nicole" either via chat on their website or call them (you might not get Nicole). She has done wonders for me. Like i said i truly felt they done a great job overall. They still got some improvement they can do yet I am happy with the outcome.

Like I said, I am happy if you directly DM me if you got any questions.

You can read my review on Trustpilot

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/heybroadband.co.uk

Thanks and wish you all the best.