FTTP Installation Charges

A year or two ago I requested FTTP via my ISP Zen. Unfortunately when the engineer came out to connect it they found the existing copper cable was direct buried with no conduit.

A planner was sent to measure out the path to the house from the kerb side but instead of a date for an install, Zen passed on that there would be excess construction charges due to the requirements for the installation. It's a fairly awkward spot they would have to come in and about as far from the house as possible due to fairly extensive tarred driveway at the shorter route where the copper cable is.

"Our suppliers have advised us that the work requires JOB IS TO RUN 8M D56 F/W & 29M D56 SOFT. PLANNING TASK NEEDED. ; ; THE COSTS ARE; ; ;ECC CHARGABLE ITEMS; ; ;SURVEY= 247.08 ; ;DUCT SOFT x29M = 910..02 ; ;DUCT F/W x1M = 68.45

They have advised us that the total costs to provide the service total £1225.55"

I would still like full fibre, but with 70Mbps FTTC I'm not in enough need to pay £1225 so declined to continue with the install at that point. It is of course a bit annoying knowing it's sitting there a stones throw away the short route.

I've a couple of questions:

Is there any scope for this charge being reduced or waived now or in the future via the existing ISP?
Would a different ISP cover (even some of) it?
Would re-requesting it result in another survey (and cost) or would they just use the previous one?

Another Openreach-based ISP is going to quote the same, and I'd be highly surprised if they offered to swallow any of the cost - Internet service provision is a low margin game as it is already.

If an Altnet comes along, they might connect you, perhaps using overhead instead of underground. But then again, if it were feasible, Openreach could have done that too.

Openreach will sort you with FTTP eventually, but you can easily expect to wait 10-15 years; it won't be until they decide to retire the entire copper network in your area.

For those of us who have paid 6-10 times that much for FTTPoD, we'd bite their hand off at that price. If you're planning to spend the next 3 years at this house, think of it as a £34 per month surcharge to get super duper broadband.

If you change your mind now and decide to proceed, then hopefully they will re-use the quote. If you leave it for a while and re-quote, there is a risk that the price quoted will be substantially higher.

29m of soft 1m FW dig is not excessive. I'd try a mass market player.

Order with Sky, they will probably swallow some of the costs.

Have you considered doing the part of the ducting on your land yourself? which would just leave the footway ducting to be done via the ISP.

A larger ISP I would expect to cover more of the cost than what Zen would do.

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Oct-22 09:14:54)

Honestly that seems pretty reasonable to me, based on costs I’ve had with Openreach over the years variously for new swept tee connections with plain copper, FTTPoD connection and EAD

Your realistic options are to:
a) accept it
b) DIY trench and install your own 54/56mm ducting, hockey stick etc on your own land (to acceptable Openreach standard and correct gear).
c) try it with another retail ISP and see if they’ll absorb the ECC*

* my gut feel is that they won’t, especially as this isn’t a high value connection like a business leased circuit/EAD - but if you’re not under time pressure, then there’s little harm in trying. Worst case is that they won’t and/or future risk in the price could increase again in the near future with inflation as it now stands.

Thanks for all the suggestions and confirmation that it's not an unreasonable quote.

Had a look this morning at the path and there's some tree roots on the surface from a big tree that I'm not sure how I'd get under/around so doubt I could DIY it to an acceptable standard. Wondering if they noticed them when doing the plan as it's looking more awkward than I thought.

Barring the unforeseen I've no plans moving from here so looking at it as a home improvement that's benefit is spread out over years does help. Waiting a decade for them to potentially do it themselves is maybe a bit long.

I'll give my current ISP another go and see if there's any change there but it sounds unlikely and it's going to be accept a charge or stick with what I have. I'll maybe talk to another ISP or two and see what they say, been happy with Zen 10+ years so wouldn't be thrilled to be moving away.

The OP also needs to consider any costs of leaving an existing contract with Zen if they choose to go elsewhere. but I would certainly test the water with another mass market ISP as its a no brainer.

In reply to a post by JustTim:

Had a look this morning at the path and there's some tree roots on the surface from a big tree that I'm not sure how I'd get under/around so doubt I could DIY it to an acceptable standard. Wondering if they noticed them when doing the plan as it's looking more awkward than I thought.

That is also a good reason for accepting the quote. Assuming they've surveyed and this is a firm quote, then once you've accepted it they won't back out (although they might change the details of how they deliver, e.g. take a different route)

Worth considering, as your property has Openreach FTTP available to it you may be affected by a future stop sell which will prevent you from making any changes to your existing copper services.