What is OpenReach's long term plans to fill the FTTP gaps

Does anyone know/understand what OpenReach's long term plans to fill the FTTP gaps ?

I know they are spending a lot of money at the moment to roll out FTTP.

If I use the search on the OR site, it says that our exchange (Wivenhoe) is "To be built between April 2021 and December 2026".

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when...

A few areas of the exchange already have FTTP, much of it funded by BDUK (possibly all of it). Does the "To be built between April 2021 and December 2026" mean that the whole exchange will actually get FTTP by December 2026 or does it just mean that by then they'll have built as much as they plan to and there will still be premises with no FTTP ?

Based on what the OR surveyor said to me when he came for R100 (paid by Scot Gov) there will possibly never be 100% FTTP. My install needs a wayleave so I asked him if it was refused when I would be getting FTTP. Reply was I would be dropped from R100 have to pay an excess build charge of £'000s to get FTTP later post R100, If I did not pay then I would continue on copper. Based on this copper will be used past 2026 on difficult lines but the voice will be VOIP.

Does the "To be built between April 2021 and December 2026" mean that the whole exchange will actually get FTTP by December 2026 or does it just mean that by then they'll have built as much as they plan to and there will still be premises with no FTTP ?

The latter.

There will be copper lines in place until well into the 2030s (and probably beyond). Saying that the FTTP rollout won’t just stop in 2026. They will keep incrementally replacing copper beyond that date.

WLR/PSTN retirement at the end of 2025 is still on track. It’s not predicated on ripping out all the copper by then though.

So basically for a group of 5 houses, where the FTTPoD install cost is around £3,000 + VAT per house, that are not passed by existing OR fibre infrastructure, OR are never going to suddenly turn up and connect us to FTTP without some extra funding from somewhere ? In the foreseeable future at least.

I think you know the answer to that rhetorical question 😀

They will try and maximise the number of property passed / served within their various budget pots.

Beyond that it’s anyone’s guess when / if they they will do it. But being realistic it will be latter rather than sooner unless some other factors come it play which change the commercials and logistics.

Correct. If it's going to cost £15k to connect the houses to a product that will generate £1750 annual revenue (assuming 100% takeup of a 550Mbps service) then some contribution from elsewhere is going to be required. You can see if any altnets are interested but unless they are reasonably close by it's unlikely they would be able to make the sums work either.

Your best bet might be to make the properties very appealing to Openreach execs who might be looking to move house.

Even in the built-up part of Wivenhoe there is no indication that Openreach are about to start deploying FTTP via a commercial rollout. Once they start deploying to the built-up part you will then have a better idea if they are coming out to you.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I think you know the answer to that rhetorical question 😀

They will try and maximise the number of property passed / served within their various budget pots.

Beyond that it’s anyone’s guess when / if they they will do it. But being realistic it will be latter rather than sooner unless some other factors come it play which change the commercials and logistics.

One such factor is that eventually they will need to close local exchanges down, in which case they'll want to remove any SOTAP that's coming from there. At that point they may swallow the cost of moving those users to FTTP. But this won't affect users who have FTTC available.

FWIW, the published goal is 25 million homes, or about 83% FTTP coverage, by Dec 2026. Clearly that will be a mix, with some areas at or close to 100%, and some considerably lower.

In reply to a post by jpm:

You can see if any altnets are interested but unless they are reasonably close by it's unlikely they would be able to make the sums work either.

It is the fact that one of the altnets (County Broadband) is supposedly interested that stopped us getting FTTP via BDUK funding.

But I don't believe there is any real prospect of them providing service. Their nearest install is over 3 miles from us and they quite reasonably are targeting areas with no other OR FTTP or altnet presence. We are surrounded by existing or on going OR FTTP or other altnet installs. It would cost County Broadband far more than £3k per house to connect our little group of houses.

I've emailed County Broadband to challenge their claim that they plan to provide service, waiting on a response.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Your best bet might be to make the properties very appealing to Openreach execs who might be looking to move house.

lol

With two separate altnets installing in Wivenhoe at the moment, one wonders whether OpenReach will ever do a commercial rollout ?