OpenReach has let me down

I received an email from Openreach last week giving me an update on their Ultrafast Full Fibre build. They’ve said they have reviewed their build plans and they can’t deliver Full Fibre to my address. They haven’t given a reason or provided any way for me to contact them to ask what the issue was or what I could do to resolve it.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get information from Openreach? Their website just sends me round in circles.

Thanks

Interesting title to your thread but is it really true? did they promise you full fibre at any cost as normally thats what it will boil down too. Solution is to throw money at it via a CFP or FTTPod.

They haven’t given a reason or provided any way for me to contact them to ask what the issue was or what I could do to resolve it.

Were they supposed to then ??

Yes its most frustrating isn't it, they let me down as well They've installed fibre in surrounding areas outside of our estate, but not in our estate.

Except I know why, our estate is DIG, translated in to English that means direct in ground (no ducts or poles), and therefore considered too costly, in other words they can cover twice as many properties somewhere else for the same cost. How do I know, because I've spent many years following the broadband roll out, and have picked up things, and I know that our phone line is an armoured cable that's buried, it was considered cheaper to do away with ducts, but surely a standard cable in a duct is cheaper than an armoured cable???

Openreach are a business, they are not there for you, or to give you a reason as to why their plans have changed, they change for many reasons, which we can only make guesses at, educated or otherwise.

It could be anything from a blocked duct on a busy road, crossing a river or railway track, increased unforeseen costs, problems getting way leaves and difficulties, the list would be almost endless.

I'm lucky if you can call it lucky, as Virgin Media managed to install on our estate, and they started from scratch.

it was considered cheaper to do away with ducts, but surely a standard cable in a duct is cheaper than an armoured cable???

It is cheaper, quicker, ‘easier’ to run in armoured … it still is.

That does surprise me, but I guess it comes down to the difference in cost per meter between standard cable and armoured cable, the cost of the duct, and I expect the deciding factor the cost of labour to install the duct.

Back in the day the builders didn't want poles on their development so the PO gave them a drum of armoured and let them get on with it.

It's always a mistake to shallow bury stuff direct in ground rather than in ducts and it is a mistake that Altnets, Virgin and to some extent BT are still making today.

Edited by FibreBubble (Wed 26-Apr-23 21:31:36)

It's always a mistake to shallow bury stuff direct in ground rather than in ducts and it is a mistake that Altnets, Virgin and to some extent BT are still making today.

Completely agree

I think the CityFibre thing where they direct bury microduct bundles is mad, you could conceivably see one tube getting damaged during civils work and because it only affects one house it would never get fixed because nobody would want to pay for it.

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

Back in the day the builders didn't want poles on their development so the PO gave them a drum of armoured and let them get on with it.

It's always a mistake to shallow bury stuff direct in ground rather than in ducts and it is a mistake that Altnets, Virgin and to some extent BT are still making today.

A pothole has opened up in the middle of our road, and exposed a nice green Virgin fibre tube, buried just 40mm below the surface. Why would anybody use these muppets for their internet service !