Fiber run to pole - how long to order

Yesterday I saw openreach contractors running fiber to the poles behind my mid-terrace house in north Bolton.

I was surprised because I didn’t think they were building here yet. We only have ADSL2 or virgin media (so most people use VM).

Does anyone know how long until the service will be live to order?

The VM cable runs to the front of the house but presume OR will only put the ONT at the back where the poles are (my kitchen is at the back) which is a shame as it’ll make WiFi a bit more difficult.

How long from fibre being run to ordering? for us it was about 6 months, but there was a lot of work laying fibre along several km of road, plus testing and re-running some which probably got kinked while pulling. Probably yours will be quicker if the fibre run is reasonably short and none gets kinked.

In reply to a post by Exharris:

Yesterday I saw openreach contractors running fiber to the poles behind my mid-terrace house in north Bolton.

OOI, are you sure it's residential fibre? I ask this because we got excited a few years back when we received notification that OR were bringing FTTP up the street. After 2 years, they started pulling through fibre but only after it was done was it apparent that this wasn't residential fibre but some sort of FTTPoD provision for a small business on the farm at the end of the road. OR said that residential fibre would "follow soon after", but two more years have passed and there's still no sign of OR bringing fibre up the street. As of now, we're currently mid-altnet provision, which should go live later this year.

What does the Openreach website say for your address? It might even be worth reaching out to them via their chat thing to see if you can get more information direct.

In reply to a post by Exharris:

Yesterday I saw openreach contractors running fiber to the poles behind my mid-terrace house in north Bolton.

I was surprised because I didn’t think they were building here yet. We only have ADSL2 or virgin media (so most people use VM).

Does anyone know how long until the service will be live to order?

The VM cable runs to the front of the house but presume OR will only put the ONT at the back where the poles are (my kitchen is at the back) which is a shame as it’ll make WiFi a bit more difficult.

re the ONT being at the back of the house, the router doesn't have to be near the ONT as they are connected with a cat5/6 cable so if the ONT does indeed end up at the back simply run a cable to where you want the router. Or ask the installer to put the ONT at the front assuming there is a route round the house for the fibre cable

In reply to a post by Exharris:

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The VM cable runs to the front of the house but presume OR will only put the ONT at the back where the poles are (my kitchen is at the back) which is a shame as it’ll make WiFi a bit more difficult.

With Openreach you should be able to choose your own Router, so I wouldn't overly worry about Wifi. Anything from a decent supplier, e.g. Asus, TP-Link etc will be better than a VM Hub IMHO.

Hi, the contractor is doing work all over...on the other side of the houses (corner of a666 and Longworth road, BL7) they have dug up the pavement in several places. They have done work on an all the poles at the rear of the houses, and I asked the guy doing the work and he said that it was for OpenReach, I think its definitely residential FTTP because the checker site says that work is ongoing in my area. I was very surprised because last time I checked they suggested 2025.

Sounds very promising! Keep an eye out for CBTs going up on poles as these are definitely a residential service indicator, but it does sound like things are moving on for you. Hopefully if other streets near you are already live then you'll be ready to order in just a few weeks.

In our case, we actually went the wrong way and went from "coming soon" to "not planned" (which it still is today) when they discovered that some of the ducts weren't in great condition and might need some digging to fix. Annoyingly, the ducts were mostly cleared when the business fibre service was put through, but the black mark remained for the residential service and I think we got bumped to the "a bit tricky, do it next year" pile. Having watched the altnet civils guys working earlier this year, it took around 2 days of digging and rodding to sort the underground ducts, so it's mildly frustrating that we've been left on hold for almost 5 years for want of a couple of days of work.

Good luck to you!

thanks, yes both poles ive looked at near me have those black things on them - at varying heights. one pole has them at the very top, but another pole has a black thing halfway down.

If it's a cylindrical thing, and doesn't have "teats" on it, then it's probably a track joint.

both poles near me have two black things on each...one of the black things of definitely a CTB and located toward the very top of both poles.

the second thing is smoother and sticks out slightly from the pole with wires coming out the bottom, its at the top of one pole, but at the middle of the other. perhaps this is the 'track joint'.

there is also a guy also sat nearby sat in an odd location, maybe on a bench, not directly next to a pole.. working on some kind board that has lights on it. I wonder if there is a duct opening there and he is doing something with the fiber. he appears to be using his mouth to bite things and spit thing out. its all a bit odd.