FTTP rollout missed peroperties on estate

My estate had FTTP rolled out about a year ago. There is just over 120 properties, but about 16 were missed (including mine). I contacted openreach and the reason they gave was something about a capacity and complications of a particular duct (everything is underground not overhead). The date I was given was 2026.

A couple of weeks ago there was a lot of openreach activity, possibly 12 vans arriving over a week. Sometimes 3 at once, and a van labeled lastmilefibre.co.uk.

When the engineers were here, one of the neighbours spoke to them and were told they were putting it in for all the properties that had FTTP missing. Although I take this with a pinch of salt, as I was told my property was included an engineer a year ago at the time of the first rollout.

I was hopeful that the plans had been brought forward. But the wholesale checker is still showing as unavailable. I've checked surrounding properties and can see some of them have 'KCI2 assure'. I'm pretty sure these have been added recently.

Is there any way to tell when the availability status changed (e.g. a date of going from unavailable to KCI2 Assure?)


[img]https://i.ibb.co/4KTLsB7/Untitled.png[/img]

In reply to a post by nickm85:

When the engineers were here, one of the neighbours spoke to them and were told they were putting it in for all the properties that had FTTP missing.

Does this neighbour's property now show FTTP available?

There will probably be a splitter installed in the ground ready do the street connections to be connected up

There is a ‘sweeper’ programme that looks to pickup property’s that have nearby network but were omitted from the initial build programme.
As a relatively modern fully ducted area , it’s odd so many properties are currently showing as not having FTTP availability , as usually the ‘test rod and rope ‘ stage would discover any unserviceable ducts between footway joint boxes and repair/replace any that were no good , before the cabling team provide the CBT’s etc, it’s very unlikely that the PON capacity was an insufficient size to service every property so splitter node capacity is not going to be an issue, individual house ducts are not checked for serviceability until an order is made by that property

…how old is the development ? , it’s not likely but if it were in the transition between developer and the local authority adopting the roads/paths , perhaps any excavation necessary would be problematic, or it could be they simply encountered some issues and rather that address them , they simply moved those problem addresses into the ‘ultimate build’ pot , the problems to be addressed later .

Edited by Iniltous (Wed 18-Oct-23 10:21:44)

looking at streetmap it looks fairly new, and its underground feed. Suprising amount of chambers though.

Thanks for all the replies.

The estate is about 20 years old.

When I realised we weren't originally included in the FTTP rollout a year ago I opened a complaint. Openreach were very quick to respond - someone called me without a hour or two. They took some information and told me they would speak to the local project managers to find out what was happening.
A few days later they called with an update. The conversation was over the phone so unfortunately I dont have the exact reason in writing. I do remember they said something about a PON, nodes, and difficulty with some ducting. They also said they programme we came under was some sort of 'fast rollout' where the team identified areas that can be connected quickly and easily. They said it will likely be 2026 before any further work was done.

fired over an email to the person who dealt with the complaint to see if he could give an update.

Hi Nick,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, however I’ve been speaking to the local field teams to understand the work that has been carried out.

At present, we still don’t have any immediate plans to roll out FTTP to your address. Within the estate we have already completed some build but the build programme these properties where completed under has finished, the work that has been carried out that you have seen has been to fulfil customer order that have already got the ability to order FTTP.

If you’d like to come back to me in 6 to 12 months’ time, the situation may have changed and I can review with the project management team.

It's very frustrating that the houses opposite, and next door but one neighbour can get FTTP, but we're stuck on 25Mbps FTTC.

Looking at your map , most of those properties were probably allocated to 1 of 3 CBT ‘s , those properties ducted back to one of 3 footway boxes , if these boxes were inaccessible because the ducts into them were blocked , presumably those CBT were omitted from the build and consequently the addresses from those boxes have no availability.
The ‘weird’ properties ( it’s not clear from the map that there are 4 properties) are No’s 18-24 Blackbrook Road , these could be serviced from the same footway box as No 16 and No 26 Blackbrook Road , and those 2 can order FTTP , curiosity got the better of me and I looked on Street View, those 4 ( 18-24) are accessed via the private drive of No 18 , so an order for ( for arguments sake ) No 24 could be problematic if the service duct were blocked underneath No18’s driveway, basically it would require asking No18 if their drive can be excavated for No 24’s benefit, if Openreach we’re avoiding all potential problems, those 4 may have been omitted for a different reason to the others , however that means No 18 incorrectly excluded, as I said those 4 are difficult to explain.

On further reflection, the only other thing I could think of for those 4 houses , is that they are served from their own footway box ( so not the same one as 16 and 26 ) and that box couldn’t be located , possibly buried under some landscaping, or under the driveway surface itself , if they can’t find the box they can’t put a CBT in it, same as if the duct into a box is blocked , without unblocking the duct , they can’t fit the CBT

Edited by Iniltous (Wed 18-Oct-23 16:54:10)

Hmm thats interesting. thanks for taking the time to investigate.

I know the neighbour at 18, the install wasn't straightforward and took a while. I think this is what initated the recent work openreach were doing.
It seemed to involve some ground work between 16 and 26 (pic below). Shortly after that work was done, both 16 and 26 had visits from openreach which lasted quite a few hours.
26 originally had FTTP connected in Feb.

The image shows a hole they dug and filled, plus markings made on the path. The holes were open for 2-3 days. Shortly after there were two openreach teams at opposite ends of Blackbrook (I've indicated on the map with green squares). I presume they were working together to feed fibre between two footway boxes.

https://ibb.co/jrLf3kb

Edited by nickm85 (Wed 18-Oct-23 18:42:16)

it’s only speculation, but I think the reinstatement in the footpath is where a duct tee existed to spur off the rider duct from the box outside No 16 that feeds No 26 and No 28 , the spur from the duct tee serves No 18 to 24 .
The footway box outside No 16 is ( I think ) the last box on that particular duct track , and that the CBT for No’s 16-28 is in the box outside No 16 , either at survey or at test rod and rope it was discovered that the duct towards 18-24 was not serviceable, hence those addresses being vetoed, but OK towards 26 and 28 so in effect 18-24 were removed , and 16 , 26 and 28 were OK so shown as FTTP available.
The excavation/reinstatement scar is evidence of some work , if that work has now cleared the duct route towards 18-24 they may soon be able to order FTTP , and will using the same existing CBT that No 16 , 26 and 28 are already able to use ( in the box outside No 16 ) I’m not suggesting taking a peek, but it could possibly be an 8 port CBT with a demand of 7 ,for No’s 16-28

Edited by Iniltous (Wed 18-Oct-23 21:35:56)

In reply to a post by nickm85:

Hi Nick,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, however I’ve been speaking to the local field teams to understand the work that has been carried out.

At present, we still don’t have any immediate plans to roll out FTTP to your address. Within the estate we have already completed some build but the build programme these properties where completed under has finished, the work that has been carried out that you have seen has been to fulfil customer order that have already got the ability to order FTTP.

If you’d like to come back to me in 6 to 12 months’ time, the situation may have changed and I can review with the project management team.

That's shocking! Shouldn't be any reason to do it?

I think it totally load of con talk from Openreach. They just too lazy to do the job to finished off. Waste of time and waste of space. More like cherry picker from Openreach some get it, some don't get it! If I were you, get in writing to your local MPs.