What to do when openreach abandons an entire area?

We got as far as being told that the build would start in July 24, then open reach walked away, its now not before 26, maybe not even after due to pole or re ducting required.

This isnt a few houses, or streets, its the entire area of town covering multiple roads across multiple cabinets.

My plan is to get the whole area formally switched in the government database to no service to be built, then get bduk involved and get a grant awarded, hopefully there are ways to accelerate the process based on openreach lying, as this could have been done years ago if they had told the truth.

Anyone got any better ideas?

You won't want to hear this but OpenReach didn't lie. They would have planned to do the area but subsequently would have discovered something that changed those plans. Nothing is ever guaranteed until it is delivered, up to that point it is a plan.

I am not sure you will be able to get BDUK involved in it but worth a try. In the end OpenReach have set targets based on coverage across the country and are doing well to meet those targets - that sometimes means abandoning more complex or costly builds to concentrate on areas that have a faster rate to hit the overall target.

You may find other operators could move in to provide service and fill the gaps but equally they may find similar issues to OpenReach.

Depending on what your current service is like then mobile broadband or satellite may be options in the meantime.

In reply to a post by phead:

We got as far as being told that the build would start in July 24, then open reach walked away, its now not before 26, maybe not even after due to pole or re ducting required.

This isnt a few houses, or streets, its the entire area of town covering multiple roads across multiple cabinets.

My plan is to get the whole area formally switched in the government database to no service to be built, then get bduk involved and get a grant awarded, hopefully there are ways to accelerate the process based on openreach lying, as this could have been done years ago if they had told the truth.

Anyone got any better ideas?

OR don't lie, but they may shift project dates around. Also check on this lovely page which will give you some indication of where your area stands https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/project-...

The main virgin trunk line is metres away, but they haven't expanded in years. One of the alt nets wired up the next village, less than 500 metres away, but they wont move without a grant. We get one bar of 3g, so no chance there, and starlink is showing red with frequent disconnections when tested on their app.

Meanwhile Im watching someone on TV in the middle of a forest with no water or sewage getting fibre fitted abroad, and here we are 30 minutes from central london with nothing!

In reply to a post by phead:

maybe not even after due to pole or re ducting required.

Keep an eye on the discussions in parliament about poles being installed in built up areas. Openreach or any Alt Net are stuck with the FTTP rollout if there are either no ducts at all, or the locals protest against poles.

We have two alt nets in my town, (Toob, and FW networks) and neither of them have been able to build in the late 1960s/early 1970s eatate the other side of the motorway as Openreach have no ducts, and the locals have complained about poles being installed. Other parts of town with existing poles (e.g. the 1910 to 1950's areas) or those where OR ducts exist, now have good choice of two alt nets and VM coax cable. (Unless you're in an MDU block of flats when everything stops).

I feel your pain. Virgin cabled my whole town *apart* from my estate because they apparently considered "the houses too far apart and the cost per residence too high". OR have also poked around, slung fibre on the existing poles for a few houses and declared the rest to be "not economical". We were lucky - an altnet decided our street was worth a go and cleared out the "not economical" ducts to get fibre through to us, but 2/3 of the estate is still sat in the large bucket of "not planned" and, I suspect, will be there for many years to come.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Openreach or any Alt Net are stuck with the FTTP rollout if there are either no ducts at all, or the locals protest against poles.

I'm kinda in two minds about this. Poles look like they'll be the only way that the uneconomical 2/3 of our estate will ever get fibre (current copper is all DIG, and OR seem very reluctant in general to break out the shovels), but there's already been significant rumblings about the impact of poles. I suspect, enough will complain such that they will never happen. Tough on those that live there and are stuck on copper for the long term.

That said, in the adjacent town, there are now OR, VM and two altnets, three of which are loading kit onto poles so that the whole situation has got a bit comical. Were I one of the houses that lived in the (admittedly rather pleasantly pole-free) part of the estate that had no fibre options, I think I'd also be rather concerned about the impact that poles will have in the long term, especially as, once they're there, there's pretty much nothing to stop them being loaded up like a naff telecoms-edition of Buckaroo.

Edited by daern (Mon 30-Dec-24 19:11:15)

We are actually surrounded by loads of amenity land they could stick poles in, hell I even own a few slices they could use!

In reply to a post by daern:

Tough on those that live there and are stuck on copper for the long term.

I assume at some point the Govt will broker an agreement with Virgin Media to sell access to VM ducts where available. That may help OR and Alt Nets in parts of my town, and other towns where n the 1990s older cable firms installed ducts where OR are DIG. But unless that happens, the “gigabit nation” is going to have to be via some 5G and with current growth rates, that can’t remain unlimited. (Look at the FUP’s on most of the mobile networks).

I think I'd also be rather concerned about the impact that poles will have in the long term, especially as, once they're there, there's pretty much nothing to stop them being loaded up like a naff telecoms-edition of Buckaroo.

Just one strong hurricane force wind; which we seem to get more of these days, and I can see lots of poles coming down loaded up like that.

In reply to a post by phead:

We are actually surrounded by loads of amenity land they could stick poles in, hell I even own a few slices they could use!

Good news; hopefully the relevant parts of OR or alt nets are aware.