Openreach skipped our house for FTTP, what can i do?

Hi,

Need some help understanding the Openreach installation process. Over half our street has FTTP (according to their website https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker/my-products) installed i think about 12-18 months ago, my neighbour told me

For some reason they skipped the houses at one end of the street, of which i'm one. We have FTTC

How do i find out why our houses were skipped, as Openreach won't talk to me? Is there a way to check the status, i read in some other posts people were able to raise queries with OR, how is that done?

Any help gratefully received, thanks

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

Hi,

Need some help understanding the Openreach installation process. Over half our street has FTTP (according to their website https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker/my-products) installed i think about 12-18 months ago, my neighbour told me

For some reason they skipped the houses at one end of the street, of which i'm one. We have FTTC

How do i find out why our houses were skipped, as Openreach won't talk to me? Is there a way to check the status, i read in some other posts people were able to raise queries with OR, how is that done?

Any help gratefully received, thanks

This form might help, it has the option "I can't get FTTP but my neighbour can".

https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-avai...

HT to @candlerb

Usually when these posts are made it turns out that there's more at play. You haven't been skipped if the deployment has simply stopped before getting to you.

What marks the houses that have FTTP out as being different to the ones that don't have FTTP? Are they obviously built in different eras, is the road ownership status different? Is the network underground instead of overhead?

We had a similar experience, albeit only two properties were missed. I ended up emailing the CEO at BT, and this thankfully started the process of investigating. The houses in this area were DIG and OR had dug the footpath from the nearest Cab and proceed ducting in one direction. Of course our two houses were the opposite direction. So it took 6 months of emails and phone calls, but in the end the last 25 meters or so of ducting in the opposite direction was done, and FTTP installed.

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

Hi,

Need some help understanding the Openreach installation process. Over half our street has FTTP (according to their website https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker/my-products) installed i think about 12-18 months ago, my neighbour told me

For some reason they skipped the houses at one end of the street, of which i'm one. We have FTTC

How do i find out why our houses were skipped, as Openreach won't talk to me? Is there a way to check the status, i read in some other posts people were able to raise queries with OR, how is that done?

Any help gratefully received, thanks

Step 1 - fill in the Openreach form above as said. Wait a few days for the response. Hopefully it will provide some colour as to the issue, and possibly even a solution.

Step 2 - if the response above is inconclusive or otherwise really does not further your cause then take it up with the Openreach CEO directly (actually the executive level complaints handing team - a direct escalation path).

But definitely try Step 1 one first. 😉

Thanks Ripped, this was exactly what i was after!

In reply to a post by jpm:

Usually when these posts are made it turns out that there's more at play. You haven't been skipped if the deployment has simply stopped before getting to you.

What marks the houses that have FTTP out as being different to the ones that don't have FTTP? Are they obviously built in different eras, is the road ownership status different? Is the network underground instead of overhead?

Thanks for the reply & tips. Properties are similar, mine is a 50's house, the rest are all 60s/70s bungalows similar construction, half have FTTP the rest don't. No issues with the road

What is the standard network, isn't it standard to have the ADSL lines underground? It looks like its all underground along the length of the street

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

We had a similar experience, albeit only two properties were missed. I ended up emailing the CEO at BT, and this thankfully started the process of investigating. The houses in this area were DIG and OR had dug the footpath from the nearest Cab and proceed ducting in one direction. Of course our two houses were the opposite direction. So it took 6 months of emails and phone calls, but in the end the last 25 meters or so of ducting in the opposite direction was done, and FTTP installed.

Thanks Adduxi, thats good to know. In our case the cabinet is in an adjacent road, so its not obvious what happened. by DIG do you mean there is no existing underground duct from the pavement to the house? thanks

DiG is shorthand for direct in ground. The cable literally is buried in the ground. There is no ducting.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Step 1 - fill in the Openreach form above as said. Wait a few days for the response. Hopefully it will provide some colour as to the issue, and possibly even a solution.

Step 2 - if the response above is inconclusive or otherwise really does not further your cause then take it up with the Openreach CEO directly (actually the executive level complaints handing team - a direct escalation path).

But definitely try Step 1 one first. 😉

Thanks Pheasant, much appreciated. hadn't seen that ceo mail finder before. Thats bookmarked!

Yes. And it works. However it’s rather a ‘nuclear’ option so best not to fully abuse it (not that I’m sure you will, but for anyone reading this in a similar position) and try the less escalatory path, the Openreach form beforehand.

1950s is probably direct buried which would explain why you've not been done yet

Edited by jpm (Thu 06-Mar-25 10:33:27)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yes. And it works. However it’s rather a ‘nuclear’ option so best not to fully abuse it (not that I’m sure you will, but for anyone reading this in a similar position) and try the less escalatory path, the Openreach form beforehand.

Yes makes sense. I'll see what response i get from the form. Thanks

They’re usually pretty quick to return a response. So you shouldn’t have too long to wait.

It may just be that I've gotten unlucky but the last couple of times I've used that form it's been misinterpreted (I assume, maybe it's intentional) as though I was saying I was having issues ordering FTTC and they sent back a fairly stock response about how your chosen CP can order service to a silver address which will then make it gold.

In both cases I made it very clear my issue was about FTTP availability and reporting an issue where one location had access and then another next door didn't.

Ours is late 60s and is direct buried from the underground chamber.

The copper wiring to my home was buried. It ran from an underground chamber, about 30 metres from my home, and emerged at the base of a pole. Consequently, I had an overhead connection from the pole to my home.

When Openreach installed fibre throughout the area, I received an invitation to apply for FTTP. That is when the fun started.

BT accepted my order and confirmed the installation date. But when Openreach arrived to complete the work, they discovered that the fibre cabling was incomplete and ended about 50 metres from my home. Openreach had to install an additional pole, next to the underground chamber. They paid me to sign a wayleave agreement and returned a few weeks later to complete the installation. Then, BT paid me compensation for the delayed installation.

So basically, OR replaced the buried copper wiring with overhead fibre.

FTTP cabling in overhead areas can and often does use DILOR ( dropwires in line of route ) many rules exist for this , but basically if a pole can ‘see’ ( have a line of sight ) to the next pole down the road , it’s cheap and easy to string wires between the poles rather than build new infrastructure to the base of each one ( in the case of DIG ) or even trust the existing ducts are viable in ducted areas that use poles for the last span .

In areas where poles have been used for years ( so the residents can hardly complain about overhead service ) these extra wires in line of route of which there can be many , especially if an Alt Net is also available can have a significant visual impact making an already ‘ugly’ method of service , even uglier.

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 08-Mar-25 11:43:04)

so i got a response back from the online form:

"We've receievd resposne from our team and can see that the fibre equipment from which your property will fed full fibre is full to capacity.

Currently, our capacity team is working on restoring capacity on the fibre equipment from which your property can be served fibre.

The estimate was raised, and the engineering team is working on building the whole network from the exchange to the last node from which you will be served.

As per our checks any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change. The current completion date is end of April 2025 for additional capacity to be provided, but again this can change(earlier or later).

As I’m sure you can appreciate, installing fibre is a technical complex civil engineering project. Therefore, any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change."

This feels to me like a fob off, they're basically saying it'll be ready when its ready. I'm sceptical of the April 2025 date as their online fibre checker still says Not Available, which in their own words means "your address isn’t in our build plans at the moment"

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

This feels to me like a fob off, they're basically saying it'll be ready when its ready. I'm sceptical of the April 2025 date as their online fibre checker still says Not Available, which in their own words means "your address isn’t in our build plans at the moment"

Yeah, you're probably right to be a bit cynical of this. I've been round and round in circles with OR for 5 years now, getting all sorts of mixed-message answers as to why they've not come the rest of the way up our street. In the end, Youfibre did what OR couldn't be bothered to do - cleared the ducts, repaired where needed and slung in fibre. No regrets as their XGS-PON service is superior to the GPON from OR and has been stable and fast for the last 9 months.

OR have recently been sighted digging holes at the very far end of the street (maybe 200yds away) and the team working on it said that they were "installing a new spine" although weren't sure what it was for, or where it would feed. As of today, we're still "not yet available" on the checker, and I don't expect this to change any time soon.

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

so i got a response back from the online form:

"We've receievd resposne from our team and can see that the fibre equipment from which your property will fed full fibre is full to capacity.

Currently, our capacity team is working on restoring capacity on the fibre equipment from which your property can be served fibre.

The estimate was raised, and the engineering team is working on building the whole network from the exchange to the last node from which you will be served.

As per our checks any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change. The current completion date is end of April 2025 for additional capacity to be provided, but again this can change(earlier or later).

As I’m sure you can appreciate, installing fibre is a technical complex civil engineering project. Therefore, any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change."

This feels to me like a fob off, they're basically saying it'll be ready when its ready. I'm sceptical of the April 2025 date as their online fibre checker still says Not Available, which in their own words means "your address isn’t in our build plans at the moment"

It actually really isn't, after seeing a build from start to end, what they are saying is fair. If you have any ducting to deal with there can be delays if new fibre has to be blown thru. There is likely to be spare capacity in what they already have done. sometimes one side of a road or towards the end of a street may be left off due other units not being available and contracted to do other or work. Sometimes a group of houses have a higher cost to build even if they are next to each other. That may mean its left to next funding round.

I agree, I think the response was fair, they can't give guaranteed timescales in these deployments, I would take the positives out of the response although the timescale given seems fairly soon so may not be realistic.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I agree, I think the response was fair, they can't give guaranteed timescales in these deployments, I would take the positives out of the response although the timescale given seems fairly soon so may not be realistic.

its doable. our rebuild was started in dec, initial checks in jan and then build in march, completed 27th march last year. That was a build up from the village and it was mostly overhead.. even from agg node to agg node.

In reply to a post by Taras:

That was a build up from the village and it was mostly overhead.. even from agg node to agg node.

Sorry I may be misunderstanding what your saying above or you're using the wrong terminology but why would there be fibre connections from one agg node to another agg node?

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Taras:

That was a build up from the village and it was mostly overhead.. even from agg node to agg node.

Sorry I may be misunderstanding what your saying above or you're using the wrong terminology but why would there be fibre connections from one agg node to another agg node?

collapsed ducts ...... Most of our build was done overhead .... I was told there was overhead cabling from the nodes overhead not 100% sure if that is true but that is what i was told on a cold February morning last year

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

so i got a response back from the online form:

"We've receievd resposne from our team and can see that the fibre equipment from which your property will fed full fibre is full to capacity.

Currently, our capacity team is working on restoring capacity on the fibre equipment from which your property can be served fibre.

The estimate was raised, and the engineering team is working on building the whole network from the exchange to the last node from which you will be served.

As per our checks any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change. The current completion date is end of April 2025 for additional capacity to be provided, but again this can change(earlier or later).

As I’m sure you can appreciate, installing fibre is a technical complex civil engineering project. Therefore, any dates we give you are only estimates and are subject to change."

This feels to me like a fob off, they're basically saying it'll be ready when its ready. I'm sceptical of the April 2025 date as their online fibre checker still says Not Available, which in their own words means "your address isn’t in our build plans at the moment"

Agree with the other posters above. This seems a fair enough response, if not a bit convoluted in its explanation. I would wait to see what happens by May.

Not really that far off now, and chase them if nothing has changed.

With almost all civil works (not just fibre but anything) - patience is a virtue 😇

they're basically saying it'll be ready when its ready.

One thing is 100% certain, it won’t be ready before it’s ready will it ?

If you try and imagine just how much fibre is being rolled out at present, their reply seems more than reasonable to me.

Patience is a virtue.

Thanks for all the suggestions

I actually opened another query just to ask about the contradiction and i got a phone call the next day from a really helpful guy who said:
* ignore the fibre checker results in this case, that only shows scheduled works
* its not really a capacity issue but the fibre was only installed partway down the street, and following my query they've requested the build team to do an ad hoc installation of additional fibre nodes all the way to my house at the end of the street, should be done within 3 months

happy days!

In reply to a post by JakeSpeed:

Thanks for all the suggestions

I actually opened another query just to ask about the contradiction and i got a phone call the next day from a really helpful guy who said:
* ignore the fibre checker results in this case, that only shows scheduled works
* its not really a capacity issue but the fibre was only installed partway down the street, and following my query they've requested the build team to do an ad hoc installation of additional fibre nodes all the way to my house at the end of the street, should be done within 3 months

happy days!

if they have spare capacity in the exiting pon down your street, it should be quite a fairly quick install - touching wood (or no collapsed ducks)

In reply to a post by Taras:

(or no collapsed ducks)

Quack! Leave me alone!

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Taras:

(or no collapsed ducks)

Quack! Leave me alone!

Indeed, hunting season has ended.

so we looked into another case recently with openreach and it was as the user expected, a few houses at the end of the road have direct bury copper, so there's no ducting to put fibre, and therefore it's more complex.. and all the more for just a few houses.. it's really annoying

seb

What do you do….

In the past when the country was relatively less well off post war, there were periods of material shortages and stuff was basically done on the cheap - hence aluminium phone cabling, direct in ground buried cabling (rather than proper ducting) and outside of telecoms, things like “looped” power supply arrangements to dwellings (really [censored] if you want to install an EV charge point or move to primarily electric heating / induction hobs etc and need a proper power supply).

Unfortunately all these ‘money saving measures’ at the time saved money but in the long haul will all require significantly more investment to, let’s face it, actually do properly. 😂

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In the past when the country was relatively less well off post war, there were periods of material shortages and stuff was basically done on the cheap - hence aluminium phone cabling, direct in ground buried cabling (rather than proper ducting) and outside of telecoms, things like “looped” power supply arrangements to dwellings (really [censored] if you want to install an EV charge point or move to primarily electric heating / induction hobs etc and need a proper power supply).

I raise you Pitch Fibre drains: basically papier mache soaked with tar. Designed to last up to 40 years. Easily warped or penetrated by tree roots.

Sadly, that means that 40 years later, some poor s0d has to dig up and re-lay the drains. We found this out the hard way.

Yup, had the last of ours dug out just before the end of last year. Lasted quite well to be fair, probably more than 50 years.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I raise you Pitch Fibre drains: basically papier mache soaked with tar. Designed to last up to 40 years. Easily warped or penetrated by tree roots.

Sadly, that means that 40 years later, some poor s0d has to dig up and re-lay the drains. We found this out the hard way.

i think we are littered with stuff like that. Be it drains or electricity cable or phone cable, build it now cheaply or with no way to maintain it and leave it for the poor sod who has to do it later