When you are waiting for fttp

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Did you repeatedly check the street works websites, or check OR etc, and did you have regular checks around your locality?

whats the most extreame thing you have in regards waiting for fttp?

I'm waiting for xmas here - I at least know when it's coming every year and can manage expectations accordingly lolololol.

There is no sign of fibre at so many locations I deal with, and that's before we even talk about the EO sites on ADSL I still have

Though I will confess with a couple of ethernet installs I've dealt with my walk to site took me along the route of the civil works so was able to keep an eye on physical progress and often knew more than our account manager!

In reply to a post by Taras:

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Did you repeatedly check the street works websites, or check OR etc, and did you have regular checks around your locality?

whats the most extreame thing you have in regards waiting for fttp?

I watched and photographed the local (City Fibre) infrastructure installation but I only knew when it was live and available for taking orders by regularly watching CF's website, which I'm doing again now I want to know when it's been upgraded to 2.5Gb.

Waiting for / following the progress of the FTTP rollout in my area felt very much like a re-run of monitoring the rollout of FTTC a decade earlier. I visited the availability checker daily and when out & about, I was always on the look out for any activity by
Openreach or their contractors. For FTTP, I also regularly checked Streetworks and the BIDB database.

Truth be told, now that I have FTTP, I kind of miss the chase (how sad!), although I still maintain an interest/follow the progress of the rollout in others areas of my home town & surrounding areas

Again, this sounds a bit sad, but I must say that the feeling of excitement when FTTP finally shows as. ‘Available’ at your home address is great. Had the same feeling when FTTC showed as ‘Available’. I was so excited & felt like a kid at Christmas 😂

Edited by NGA (Sun 04-Feb-24 17:53:25)

Move home to somewhere with FTTP

In reply to a post by Taras:

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Be prepared for disappointment. Hopefully this won't happen to you, but there have been plenty of cases reported of fibre builds being abandoned part-way through, or subject to extremely long delays due to unforeseen problems.

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

The 10 houses in my road can order from an AltNet, but the 30+ flats cannot yet. AltNet confirms they have Wayleave in place (as does landlord) its just their build teams are focusing on individual homes first. No sign of Openreach, so it leaves us with the slow FTTC or faulty DOCSIS coax… 😂

Look i annoyed OR enough ok 😂🙈😂....... fttp is coming very soon.......

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Taras:

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Be prepared for disappointment. Hopefully this won't happen to you, but there have been plenty of cases reported of fibre builds being abandoned part-way through, or subject to extremely long delays due to unforeseen problems.

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

completely agree. we've had multiple dates nearly(minus 2022) every year since 2018. Its an interesting build though.

That is painful jchamier, i hope something gets sorted out quickly for you guys

In reply to a post by NGA:

Waiting for / following the progress of the FTTP rollout in my area felt very much like a re-run of monitoring the rollout of FTTC a decade earlier. I visited the availability checker daily and when out & about, I was always on the look out for any activity by
Openreach or their contractors. For FTTP, I also regularly checked Streetworks and the BIDB database.

Truth be told, now that I have FTTP, I kind of miss the chase (how sad!), although I still maintain an interest/follow the progress of the rollout in others areas of my home town & surrounding areas

Again, this sounds a bit sad, but I must say that the feeling of excitement when FTTP finally shows as. ‘Available’ at your home address is great. Had the same feeling when FTTC showed as ‘Available’. I was so excited & felt like a kid at Christmas 😂

ok this feels normal amongst TBBers.😂

Perhaps you should try and get a life

It does get a bit silly but I was tracking roadworks and adjusting my lunchtime walk to explore where may be having work done.

Openreach changed their tracker to say build by dec 2023 (rather than 2026) around October. It became available to order early December and I had FTTP installed just before Christmas. So they did meet their planned dates.

VM is being installed in the town and they also became available late December, only to change their mind and it’s still not available to order due to some technical issue.

FTTP rolling out in my road in April 2019 caught me by surprise having resigned myself to slow FTTC as Openreach were still saying there were no plans to build in my area even up to when the build started.

In reply to a post by simon194:

FTTP rolling out in my road in April 2019 caught me by surprise having resigned myself to slow FTTC as Openreach were still saying there were no plans to build in my area even up to when the build started.

At that stage, OR wasn't really conveying to the public what really was in build and what wasn't in a timely manner ! Its alot better now thank god but still it always can be better.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Be prepared for disappointment. Hopefully this won't happen to you, but there have been plenty of cases reported of fibre builds being abandoned part-way through, or subject to extremely long delays due to unforeseen problems.

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

This doesn't fill me with joy. Four years after the first "Fibre is coming!" email from Openreach, only in the last couple of weeks have we finally had a roll of coiled up conduit appear on our pole (and this is from Netomnia / Youfibre anyway - see my other thread).

My worry is that they've run this conduit back to a verge-side box on a nearby road, presumably intending to run a connection from there to a nearby main road about 100yds away. The problem is that I already know that Openreach tried and failed to do this 12 months ago and ended up taking a business fibre connection to a farm very near my house via an extremely convoluted route (right past my front door!) because it was the only way they could find to do it. I don't think Netomnia / Youfibre have discovered this yet, so I'm still half convinced that "a coil of conduit" is all the FTTP we'll ever get here :/

I'm still optimistic, but definitely dampening down my enthusiasm until it actually happens. It's a very frustrating waiting game, I can tell you!

In reply to a post by simon194:

FTTP rolling out in my road in April 2019 caught me by surprise having resigned myself to slow FTTC as Openreach were still saying there were no plans to build in my area even up to when the build started.

FTTP on our end of village caught everyone out, including OR, it was denied by OR and BDUK, that any FTTP was coming our way, it was only when I sent a photo of the fibre being installed that any of them would accept it was there.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Taras:

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Be prepared for disappointment. Hopefully this won't happen to you, but there have been plenty of cases reported of fibre builds being abandoned part-way through, or subject to extremely long delays due to unforeseen problems.

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

Our exchange build finished around October 2021, with approx 5 or 6 smaller rural and more difficult/expensive to reach/lower ROI area's left out. I have badgered the Exec complaints contact I had every 4 months since and been told it is coming, it isn't coming, and as recently as December when the build was due to start in January that it's out of the plan for this year. The checker still shows Dec 2026.

We are still listed as BDUK White which would be great if the North East Regional contract had ever gotten underway.

OR will get here eventually, just the long wait continues.

In reply to a post by burble:

In reply to a post by simon194:

FTTP rolling out in my road in April 2019 caught me by surprise having resigned myself to slow FTTC as Openreach were still saying there were no plans to build in my area even up to when the build started.

FTTP on our end of village caught everyone out, including OR, it was denied by OR and BDUK, that any FTTP was coming our way, it was only when I sent a photo of the fibre being installed that any of them would accept it was there.

If it was a bduk build then some in OR may have not known about it. I assume you were in that part of the villiage and if you have fttp now, enjoy 😊

When I first heard we were having FTTP around here I did think great for people who wanted it and I even thought that I wanted it, then as time went on, I thought why do I need it? it was 2020 when I first saw them dining up our cycle path to lay Fibre, so two years more or less before it got up here, I was not bothered and even when it came here I was still going to stay on FTTC, it was only price that got me to change.

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by burble:

In reply to a post by simon194:

FTTP rolling out in my road in April 2019 caught me by surprise having resigned myself to slow FTTC as Openreach were still saying there were no plans to build in my area even up to when the build started.

FTTP on our end of village caught everyone out, including OR, it was denied by OR and BDUK, that any FTTP was coming our way, it was only when I sent a photo of the fibre being installed that any of them would accept it was there.

If it was a bduk build then some in OR may have not known about it. I assume you were in that part of the villiage and if you have fttp now, enjoy 😊

I think my road was part of some sort of retro-build scheme because several areas that had new builds from 2014 seemed to get FTTP around the same time. I guess with everything being ducted, it makes for a straightforward build.

It created 'islands' of FTTP for quite a while where the 'new-builds' had FTTP but none of the surrounds roads did although the Covid lockdown probably played a large part in the delays.

Out of all the people, i knew your answer would be the most interesting because you wanting to stay on fttc. Of course we were all like why and not to bring that argument back up, its interesting how you got to that stance.

so thank you for sharing.

It took approx. 2 yrs between Swish saying they would install, pre-ordering and installing. I had BT 80/20 which worked fine and was at least 100% stable for me. I was keen to move away from an asymmetric PPPoE connection though and the difference in price between BT and Swish 900 was a few £ only.

I have no real critical use for a 1gbit line but it does make home cloud/VPNs and booting live Linux over the 'net easier

Fibre is currently being installed in our village, funded by the Gigabit Voucher Scheme, and there are Openreach people everywhere you look - I counted 10 vans in the village at one point. It is suggested that we should be up and running by the end of May, though looking at the amount of work involved I wouldn't be surprised to see that overrun a bit. We're fortunate to have it, though, so we can wait a little longer.

In reply to a post by stephen_b:

Fibre is currently being installed in our village, funded by the Gigabit Voucher Scheme, and there are Openreach people everywhere you look - I counted 10 vans in the village at one point. It is suggested that we should be up and running by the end of May, though looking at the amount of work involved I wouldn't be surprised to see that overrun a bit. We're fortunate to have it, though, so we can wait a little longer.

Similarly, Netomnia are all over my town at the moment (from https://mastdatabase.co.uk/maps/streetworks/) fixing Openreach ducts, which lets me hope that they won't be *too* long in getting us commissioned.

That said, I'm still solidly expecting "end of the year" as a realistic guess.

waiting until at least 2026 and likely longer...

In reply to a post by Fe_plus:

waiting until at least 2026 and likely longer...

Me too, soon we'll have maps showing which areas do NOT have FTTP.

In reply to a post by Fe_plus:

waiting until at least 2026 and likely longer...

Same here, Openreach say they'll connect me by end of 2025 but I'm not holding my breath, as over 2 years ago Swish said the same thing, but refuse to connect me despite having no problem with other houses in my street.

Has OR done any part of your street? Also are you overhead or ducted or Direct burried in the ground (DiG)?

In reply to a post by keith969:

In reply to a post by Fe_plus:

waiting until at least 2026 and likely longer...

Same here, Openreach say they'll connect me by end of 2025 but I'm not holding my breath, as over 2 years ago Swish said the same thing, but refuse to connect me despite having no problem with other houses in my street.

40% of UK properties already have Openreach FTTP available.

85% of UK properties are expected to have it available by December 2026.

That is: another 45% will be built by then.

So if you don't have it now, the chances are 45/60 = 75% that you'll have it by December 2026.

Our local build was in 3 parts, you could see the 3 parts on the map. One part is done and is in the testing/final commissioning part. The BTwholesale records have been touched with 1000/220 fttpod but no fttp yet nor has OR been updated. I know my pon should be live on the OR DB in the next two weeks but still i'm doing the below.

Of course i'm checking about 10 postcodes every other hour.......... WHAT HAVE I TURNED INTO......😂😂🙈

Meh, amateur

I've turned into some weird stalker. I can spot a fibre civils gang, or a fibre splicing van at 250yds and my wife genuinely thinks that I've lost my marbles. I take a different route home in the car so I can pass 2 or 3 part-installed poles to see if there has been any change in the previous 24 hours that might indicate progress.

As far as I can tell, it looks like the fibre splicing gang for Netomnia are blitzing the adjacent town to get it ready to go live. Apparently we are next, and the civils team seem to have more or less wound down now, ready for the fibre team to move up the road once they are done in their current location. Surely it can't be more than a couple more weeks now...as I've been saying for the last 4 years!

In reply to a post by daern:

Meh, amateur

I've turned into some weird stalker. I can spot a fibre civils gang, or a fibre splicing van at 250yds and my wife genuinely thinks that I've lost my marbles. I take a different route home in the car so I can pass 2 or 3 part-installed poles to see if there has been any change in the previous 24 hours that might indicate progress.

i know that feeling

In reply to a post by daern:

Surely it can't be more than a couple more weeks now...as I've been saying for the last 4 years!

My cbt will go live sometime next week or the week after...... it was up 2/4/20!!!!! And it took, 2 years for that to happen!.

I'm still very happy as OR worked thru some horrible weather.

on the 2nd of april 2020 OR, put a cbt on the telegraph pole opposite my house. last week they were rerouting fibre in the splitter/splice tray holder.

This morning it went liveeeeeeeee, no intermediate fttp on demand 1000/220 but the full fat wbc fttp .........

And just now i've finally ordered FTTP...........

JUST TAKEN 6 YEARS ........ (hampshire cc informed me that my area would get fttp in the summer of 2018 i think)

*thud*

Edited by Taras (Wed 27-Mar-24 15:26:00)

Good to hear that Taras, really pleased for you

Me too .. Contact with OR have been fab. Hopefully money allocated for project gigabit will not be used for my postcode and one other.

Good news!

The Netomnia wombles have been spotted one street over today, beavering away at splicing up a pole ready for service, so it's almost within touching distance of my house now. Annoyingly, the road in question has had OR FTTP for a year now, so will get a second provider before we get a first, but I'm still optimistic that the end of the wait is near. This calendar decade for sure!

In reply to a post by Taras:

This morning it went liveeeeeeeee, no intermediate fttp on demand 1000/220 but the full fat wbc fttp .........

And just now i've finally ordered FTTP...........

That's nice, glad you got there in the end.

FTTPoD at 1000/220? Only ever showed 330 here before actual WBC flavour arrived.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Taras:

How did you cope waiting for fibre? I've been given a date for the completion of the local fibre build, which is great to manage things and get ready for the install.

Be prepared for disappointment. Hopefully this won't happen to you, but there have been plenty of cases reported of fibre builds being abandoned part-way through, or subject to extremely long delays due to unforeseen problems.

It's nice to be given a "completion date", but in reality, it's not available until it's available.

Sadly this has just happened to me & 8 neighbours. FTTP has been completed for the majority of the road but our phone pole in the middle of the road hasn't had it's fibre connected up and it's just hanging off the pole. It's been like this for nearly 2 years in a forgotten state with OpenReach saying that April 24 is the completion date. Now they've just stated that it's been cancelled and there are further plans and no reason given.

Edited by sudman (Wed 10-Apr-24 12:57:01)

I got email yesterday to say my property is in full fibre in plan until I go to Openreach website enter my post code it saying Build planned between now and Dec-2026

It's a waiting game now as I knew already that Full Fibre already layed fibre optic cables in my area they did it here few weeks now by large of Openreach vans and engineers in my area.

sometimes that happens max..

I hope you get fttp soon 🎉

In reply to a post by sudman:

Sadly this has just happened to me & 8 neighbours. FTTP has been completed for the majority of the road but our phone pole in the middle of the road hasn't had it's fibre connected up and it's just hanging off the pole. It's been like this for nearly 2 years in a forgotten state with OpenReach saying that April 24 is the completion date. Now they've just stated that it's been cancelled and there are further plans and no reason given.

That is the most frustrating part of any rollout. We had CBTs waiting to be connected, when OR came along in the last month, many of the original work had to be changed due to the new fibre spine (stop calling them splines Taras) routes. How long had they been there, since 2/4/20! so I understand your emotions and frustrations. I hope it gets finished quickly.

Yet i'm championing OR for their work to get this done, that I and many others can now have fttp ahead of time(relatively speaking).

In reply to a post by Taras:

sometimes that happens max..

I hope you get fttp soon 🎉

Same to you too. Hope u get FTTP soon.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by Taras:

sometimes that happens max..

I hope you get fttp soon 🎉

Same to you too. Hope u get FTTP soon.

This Friday afternoon! It was meant to be this afternoon but i moved it, hilariously one of the neighbours grabbed that spot!. I never felt so happy that somebody else got fttp .

I have to say I am not coping that well. After having been at my parents, they have had Openreach FTTP for the last 2 years I lived there until I moved out with my fiancée to a place with slow VDSL and slow 4G. We have had to resort to Starlink which is great but very expensive. Airband had us in their plans but now they don't, so I am pushing them and they are hoping to be able to sort something out (a property is live about 100 meters up the road, so hopefully it's just a glitch). If we didn't have Starlink, then we'd be struggling on either ~10 Mb/s 4G or ~15 Mb/s VDSL.

Edited by Grimers (Thu 11-Apr-24 08:51:21)

Fairly simple. Dump your fiancée and move back with your parents.

Priorities

In reply to a post by Grimers:

I have to say I am not coping that well. After having been at my parents, they have had Openreach FTTP for the last 2 years I lived there until I moved out with my fiancée to a place with slow VDSL and slow 4G. We have had to resort to Starlink which is great but very expensive. Airband had us in their plans but now they don't, so I am pushing them and they are hoping to be able to sort something out (a property is live about 100 meters up the road, so hopefully it's just a glitch). If we didn't have Starlink, then we'd be struggling on either ~10 Mb/s 4G or ~15 Mb/s VDSL.

I'm not a huge fan of starlink, and musk in general. That aside. You are right to use starlink, i do hope Airbnb can sort something out for you.

In reply to a post by Taras:

I'm not a huge fan of starlink, and musk in general. That aside. You are right to use starlink, i do hope Airbnb can sort something out for you.

Airbnb ?

and musk in general

You and me both

Hahaha, good try! We also have a little one

Fair enough. I have read one of his books and found it quite interesting, but I do understand why some people are not a fan. I hope so too, we are able to afford it but it's not a long term solution or we hope not anyway.

Post deleted by zyborg47

I'd ignore all the hate for Musk and Starlink. If someone doesn't like it, don't buy it. Simple! Starlnk is a fantastic solution, I'm never below 100Mbps on it, latency isn't that bad and for most cases, it works just fine.

I've been using Starlink full time for quite some time now because the last outlook I had for OR FTTP was October 2025.

Last month I then received an e-mail telling me I was in plan, and then last week I placed my AAISP FTTP order. Starlink will stay up on the house though, going to be moving to roaming and pausing in case FTTP ever goes down.

Two ont's later

What was wrong with the other ones?

Yeah, I'm not sure how long we will have to use Starlink for. Airband are very slow at calling back and giving updates, I will chase them next week if I don't hear anything. The most frustrating thing is that Openreach have withdrawn for the time being, as I would've waited a bit longer for them to go live even if Airband had. I am just so thankful for Starlink as we would be struggling!

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

What was wrong with the other ones?

Probably a subcontractor with the wrong vendor of ONT

Two Nokia 1g onts.