Openreach fibre build confusion

A couple months ago I noticed that the openreach checker showed this message after inputting my address 'We're starting to build our ultra-fast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband in your area.'.

I messaged openreach using their contact form shortly after and was told we would be getting an FTTP upgrade in 3-12 months. All good so far.

I sent them another form a few days ago for an update and was replied to with a message saying that the address was not in the build plan and to look at FTTPoD providers to be connected. The checker still shows the same as above so it's pretty confusing. Are we getting connected or not?


Wondering if anyone else has heard about this happening before and what happened in the end

We have heard from some forum members who have been told they are out of scope by Openreach then suddenly their streets are awash with activity and they quickly get FTTP. Nobody can tell you for certain when you will 100% have it as plans change along the way. No idea why you have been told you're out of scope but the Openreach fibre checker says you're in scope, one is clearly right and the other wrong

Hoping it is actually planned as I'm currently on a virgin FTTP connection with a fault that they have been unable to fix for a month (intermittent packet loss up to 20% at random times).

I entered my details into the form on the checker page and got an email within a few minutes that i've not seen before even though i've signed up to this before.

'Great news. Your area is in our plans for Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband, with speeds of up to 1Gbps†. (That’s 1,000Mbps!) '

I'll send them another message and check if the last one was mistake, fingers crossed

My town appeared in OR’s FTTP plan last year. There was some activity in December last year when CASS pulled through some fibre. Things went very quiet for a couple of months, and then last week OR appeared on site to check ducts and house points. FTTP went live yesterday afternoon, Throughout this time, the OR website didn’t change: ie, we were in the plans but no date.

I think there is not much point chasing Openreach. It will go live when it goes live. That could be in a month, or a year, or two years or more.

All the fibre providers are now very cagey about giving any sort of estimated dates, because the estimates are often wrong - there are many reasons for them to slip - and it only causes bad feelings and resentment when they do.

Openreach's published plans now only give three delivery date ranges:
- April 2021 to April 2024
- April 2022 to April 2025
- April 2021 to December 2026

They aim to cover 80% of the country by December 2026, so unless you're really in the sticks, the chances are you'll have it by then.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Openreach's published plans now only give three delivery date ranges:
- April 2021 to April 2024
- April 2022 to April 2025
- April 2021 to December 2026

The plans in my area seems to be a bit of a one off thing, the surrounding village doesn't appear to be in any plans but a few estates (built in 2014) are. The where and when maps with these dates don't show anything for the area.

My guess is that connecting these estates would be a cost effective way for them to add more properties because the ducts are ready for it and a nearby business park has had openreach FTTP for some time, while the surrounding village is older and probably would require much more work.

I'm guessing either the build was cancelled or the email I got back just looked at plans in the Fibre First etc programs which I don't think this is part of

Absolutely, it works the other way too: FTTP just appears almost overnight in areas which are not in the published build plans. And sometimes they start and then change their minds.

I've got a feeling our town might go forward in a similar way. Currently showing as due by December 2026. The checker says no plans. But a few days ago a van from Opal Group pulled up in our street, 2 guys got out and walked down the road looking at the telegraph poles etc, got back into the van and then drove off after about 15 mins. I would have gone out to see of they were looking at any other roads but I down with Covid

Got another email back from them saying there are no plans to upgrade to FTTP but the website still says otherwise

Guess I will just have to wait and see

I had a similar experience, the checker said yes, all around me had CBTs up on poles, seen work being carried out, then after a few weeks asked OR, they said I had a DiG feed, and now wasn't in scope, fast forward around a year and they came and done my street..