FTTP Installation Issue

Just wanted to give you an update on my FTTP Installation, and see if anyone has experienced similar issues. Also a caveat the ISP has been great in trying to get things resolved.

Here's the backstory....

I received an e-mail from Openreach in late November 2024 advising FTTP "Ultrafast Full Fibre" was available to order at my address. Knowing that I needed to have some electrics upgraded and that I wanted a socket for the ONT I held off until February this year.

Whilst I waited I looked into all the deals for a 12 month plan, and decided on Aquiss, who I had used before in 2016. Martin @ Aquiss was great, and advised me when to place the order for installation in March.

Roll forwards to Tuesday 18th March 2025 and I receive an SMS from OR regarding the appointment on the 19th March, which I confirm, then I get further updates on the expected time via a series of SMS messages.

Wednesday 19th March the engineer from MJ Quinn arrives and the "fun" starts. After a brief chat he goes out to the DP and then walks down the road, he then comes back to my house and askes where a certain pole is, I direct him to it's location, and about 5 mins later he reappears.

It turns out OR have given him the wrong DP to connect me to. Instead of the pole which is within 100ft of my front door they want to use one that's not even visible from my house. Obviously this isn't an option and the engineer offers to part complete the installation, however he seems a bit vague as this is a good idea, so I decline. He then leaves for his next appointment.

About 30 mins later he calls and suggests that IF I go ahead with the partial install he can contact another team and have the DP correctly reassigned. I agree and 5 mins or so later he calls back to inform me the job has been cancelled and I have to rebook.

The next suitable appointment I can book is Friday 11th April!

Has anyone else had a similar issue? If so what was the outcome and how quick did OR resolve it?

I have not had similar. But understanding the install process might have helped you.

The installation works 2 ways from the CSP [Customer Splice Point]. One leg goes inside to the ONT and the other leg goes out to the pole in your case. When MJ Quinn's bloke offered a partial install, he was almost certainly offering to do the inside work, ONT to CSP. Firstly there might have been a chance that the correct DP could have been sorted out quickly. And secondly, the other leg would be completely outside the house and could possibly be completed without requiring access to the house, apart from 5 minutes to check light levels.

A lot depends if the other cbt is on the same headend. If it is then my understanding is should be able to reroute on the day ..if it isn't then it probably has to go back to the CP as they may not have capacity on a different headend.

Hard to see how this can have occurred unless it’s something as simple as both the CBT’s in question , the quoted CBT to use , apparently on the wrong pole and the CBT on the correct pole but apparently with the ‘wrong’ CBT number may have been installed at the same time by the same ‘team’ who simply transposed the CBT reference numbers when labelling the CBTs ( done at the build stage ) this error causing a problem for the installer …
It’s entirely possible that an Openreach installer may have connected to the CBT on the most appropriate pole and then tried to authenticate the service, as stated , if both CBTs were on the same splitter the ONT would authenticate without any intervention, even if on the wrong splitter the ‘Tiger Team’ can sort these things out with data changes , a contractor more likely to consider it too much a hassle and move into the next hopefully straightforward installation

Edited by Iniltous (Sat 22-Mar-25 19:36:28)

It would be interesting to know if the nearest CBT and the other one they wanted to connect you too have any customers connecting to them already. If they do then the labels on them are likely to be right and its looking more likely to be some mistake with allocating of the CBTs. Worth saying not all ports on a CBT are always lit so that also needs to be considered.

Had something similar when I had FTTP installed. Openreach engineer told me my installation had been requested on the wrong pole. He phoned his support line and corrected the error and went on to do the install.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Worth saying not all ports on a CBT are always lit so that also needs to be considered.

normally thought thats either due to less properties than on the cbt (so an 8 port cbt and only 6 premises to cover), and or damage to one of the connectors.

but the OPs situation makes no sense unless its a db mistake from the team who built the pon and did the backend work

In reply to a post by Taras:

the OPs situation makes no sense unless its a db mistake from the team who built the pon and did the backend work

Until all the facts are known we are all just guessing fella

Edited by PCJM40 (Sun 23-Mar-25 13:47:02)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Taras:

the OPs situation makes no sense unless its a db mistake from the team who built the pon and did the backend work

Until all the facts are known we are all just guessing fella

yup thats us 80% of the time

In reply to a post by DFScale:

I have not had similar. But understanding the install process might have helped you.

The installation works 2 ways from the CSP [Customer Splice Point]. One leg goes inside to the ONT and the other leg goes out to the pole in your case. When MJ Quinn's bloke offered a partial install, he was almost certainly offering to do the inside work, ONT to CSP. Firstly there might have been a chance that the correct DP could have been sorted out quickly. And secondly, the other leg would be completely outside the house and could possibly be completed without requiring access to the house, apart from 5 minutes to check light levels.

Thanks for the info, sadly the MJ Quinn engineer didn't explain that as an option. When I spoke to the ISP they asked if the engineer was able to install the ONT and the cabling up to the DP and then the routing could be sorted, however by that time the engineer called back and advised the job has been closed.

In reply to a post by witchunt:

A lot depends if the other cbt is on the same headend. If it is then my understanding is should be able to reroute on the day ..if it isn't then it probably has to go back to the CP as they may not have capacity on a different headend.

I have asked the ISP to chase this up with OR for me in the hops it can be resolved quicker... fortunately I still have an internet service at home

In reply to a post by iannewson:

Had something similar when I had FTTP installed. Openreach engineer told me my installation had been requested on the wrong pole. He phoned his support line and corrected the error and went on to do the install.

Was it an Openreach engineer you had or one of the contractor's?

Mine was an engineer from MJ Quinn.

In my experience, OR works in mysterious ways. When I had FTTP installed, a team of 3 arrived 3 days before the booking date to run fibre from the street to my property. They installed a CSP. When the engineer came to make the connection he expressed surprise at the work that had already been done.

I have also seen cases in my street where the installation engineer has failed to get fibre through an existing duct. A few days later a new team arrived and did what the original installer failed to do. They left without establishing a service. Another engineer arrived 10 days later to complete the installation.

Mine was an Openreach engineer.

He explained that it was provisioned on the wrong pole but not to worry as would ring up technical support to sort it.

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by iannewson:

Had something similar when I had FTTP installed. Openreach engineer told me my installation had been requested on the wrong pole. He phoned his support line and corrected the error and went on to do the install.

Was it an Openreach engineer you had or one of the contractor's?

Mine was an engineer from MJ Quinn.

I had a just as odd experience back when we first got FTTC. An engineer turned up, got it all installed and running. A day or 2 later I got an email from my ISP saying that I would be charged as it was a missed appointment. I called them up to tell them that it wasn't missed and that it's all up and running. Thankfully they cancelled the charged straight away. 2 weeks later, completely out of the blue and engineer turns up to install our FTTC connection. He was totally confused when he was it was already up and running.

Wow that does sound strange tbh. Was that an OR engineer?

In reply to a post by No_One:

I had a just as odd experience back when we first got FTTC. An engineer turned up, got it all installed and running. A day or 2 later I got an email from my ISP saying that I would be charged as it was a missed appointment. I called them up to tell them that it wasn't missed and that it's all up and running. Thankfully they cancelled the charged straight away. 2 weeks later, completely out of the blue and engineer turns up to install our FTTC connection. He was totally confused when he was it was already up and running.

Sounds like one hand not talking to the other!

The first engineer was probably there to do a survey as your property was KCI 2 Assure this is when they send an engineer to see what work needs doing if its straight forward that engineer will do the outside work and then the engineer booked for install day will just do the internal work. if its more complicated the first engineer will advise the install day team what equipment they may need to complete install. sounds yours was simple so the 1st engineer installed to the csp he will then make other properties as 1 stage installs.

It may be sooner that they will return. In any event 11 April really isn’t that far off in the grand scheme of things.

Chase up with your ISP for updates, so they then chase up Openreach.

Trying to second guess what and why in relation to serving pole and CBT is a bit of a pointless waste of time, truth be told.

According to the BT Broadband Wholesale Checker the address is a 1 stage FTTP install.

In reply to a post by CJT:

According to the BT Broadband Wholesale Checker the address is a 1 stage FTTP install.

One of our properties is listed as '1 stage', the nearest CBT I can see is a couple of poles away.

I know that its likely to be resolved at the rescheduled installed but how many poles away from your house was the intinal cbt install going to be ? And also you were saying theres a cbt more or less next to your house?

In reply to a post by Taras:

I know that its likely to be resolved at the rescheduled installed but how many poles away from your house was the intinal cbt install going to be ? And also you were saying theres a cbt more or less next to your house?

It's all conjecture @Taras. The OP could as said be on the border line between two different FTTP handover exchanges, or the installer may have simply been handed the wrong details (or just not been competent lets face it). Better to let them resolve it in time. Its makes no odds to the OP other than getting a reasonably timely install. They reasonably can't go back to their ISP and ask whey the engineer didn't hook them up to CBT x for example,

In reply to a post by Taras:

I know that its likely to be resolved at the rescheduled installed but how many poles away from your house was the intinal cbt install going to be ? And also you were saying theres a cbt more or less next to your house?

The pole was two poles away from my property and not in line of sight, the engineer said he could see no way of taking a cable from the pole to my house. The pole is down the road from my house, where as the nearest pole is up the road.

There is a pole (and assumedly a CBT) almost diagonally opposite my house. My existing connection (FTTC) is fed from that pole.

Just a quick update.

I have been advised by Martin @ Aquiss to e-mail OR to request an update as they cannot chase them because a new appointment has been booked.

I just wanted to ensure I don't have a second failed appointment in a few weeks.

I'll update this post with as soon as I know more.

Did the contractor actually climb the poles in question , or simply took the ‘DP’ number , visible without climbing as confirming the CBT was incorrectly allocated ’ ?, FWIW , the determining factor is the CBT reference number written on the case of the CBT , it’s not likely, even with binoculars that this can be seen from ground level
If they never climbed and checked the CBT reference number and simply used the DP number as ‘proof’ the wrong CBT was allocated, there may never have actually been a problem
As far as the suggestion you contact OR yourself, were you supplied with the way to do that , an email address for an individual rather than a generic one , if your ISP can’t get information regarding if any investigation has taken place , because the job is reappointed I doubt you will get any information yourself, and FWIW , the job has probably simply been put back ‘in the pot’ , a pretty decent chance the next installer, who should be Openreach as they shouldn’t give a contractor kick back to a contractor again , won’t be aware of the history on this job

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 27-Mar-25 09:47:25)

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have been advised by Martin @ Aquiss to e-mail OR

First time I can recall hearing an ISP recommending the customer contact Openreach directly regarding an active installation request.

In reply to a post by CJT:

There is a pole (and assumedly a CBT) almost diagonally opposite my house.

I think because of all the confusion and your desire to get any issues resolved quickly (rightly so) I would have walked up and down the street as many times as was required getting all the facts straight in my head so I was equipped with all the relevant info should it be needed.

Edited by PCJM40 (Thu 27-Mar-25 14:20:39)

In reply to a post by CJT:

There is a pole (and assumedly a CBT) almost diagonally opposite my house. My existing connection (FTTC) is fed from that pole.

I wouldn't assume that at all, as I posted earlier, at one of our properties the nearest CBT is a couple of poles away, the only way to get the cable to our property is to string it between these poles before coming across the road to the property, a similar situation is down the road from where I am now, the cable was taken from one pole which had CBT's, across the road to another pole and from there goes to two houses. All these properties are/where listed as '1 stage install'.
You may be in a similar situation, or as other posts, might just be a mix up on poles.

Edited by burble (Thu 27-Mar-25 16:30:37)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

Did the contractor actually climb the poles in question , or simply took the ‘DP’ number , visible without climbing as confirming the CBT was incorrectly allocated ’ ?

Hi Iniltous,

I am unsure as I only saw him walk out of my door, however I would assume not as he came back fairly quickly and asked me to direct him to a different pole as indicated on a map on what I assume was an app on his phone (perhaps I should have mentioned that in the 1st post, sorry). Upon his return he

FWIW , the determining factor is the CBT reference number written on the case of the CBT , it’s not likely, even with binoculars that this can be seen from ground level
If they never climbed and checked the CBT reference number and simply used the DP number as ‘proof’ the wrong CBT was allocated, there may never have actually been a problem

That's understandable, but I can't say for sure what happened.

As far as the suggestion you contact OR yourself, were you supplied with the way to do that , an email address for an individual rather than a generic one , if your ISP can’t get information regarding if any investigation has taken place , because the job is reappointed I doubt you will get any information yourself, and FWIW , the job has probably simply been put back ‘in the pot’ , a pretty decent chance the next installer, who should be Openreach as they shouldn’t give a contractor kick back to a contractor again , won’t be aware of the history on this job

I was given the e-mail address for the CEO, and I did my best to explain the issue as I have done here. Hopefully based on your reply it will be re-assigned to an OR engineer and not a contractor.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have been advised by Martin @ Aquiss to e-mail OR

First time I can recall hearing an ISP recommending the customer contact Openreach directly regarding an active installation request.

I was advised as a new appt had been booked there was no further contact with OR available by them as it related to the database which is "back office".

However my e-mail may have paid off...

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I think because of all the confusion and your desire to get any issues resolved quickly (rightly so) I would have walked up and down the street as many times as was required getting all the facts straight in my head so I was equipped with all the relevant info should it be needed.


In hindsight that would have been a good option, however all I can see are 3 poles with cables coming off them, I am not sure what I would be looking for. What I do know is the pole which was suggested as the one to connect me to was not viable.

In reply to a post by burble:

I wouldn't assume that at all, as I posted earlier, at one of our properties the nearest CBT is a couple of poles away, the only way to get the cable to our property is to string it between these poles before coming across the road to the property, a similar situation is down the road from where I am now, the cable was taken from one pole which had CBT's, across the road to another pole and from there goes to two houses. All these properties are/where listed as '1 stage install'.
You may be in a similar situation, or as other posts, might just be a mix up on poles.

If OR decide to string my connection from pole to pole that's up to them, however I would hope that common sense prevails and I am connected to the pole "opposite".

In reply to a post by CJT:

If OR decide to string my connection from pole to pole that's up to them, however I would hope that common sense prevails and I am connected to the pole "opposite".

The connectorised cable that runs from one of the ports on the CBT to the CSP (typically on your outside wall) can be as long as 300-350 meters so can often be strung between poles to get to a property, One of the legend members on here has previously spoken about running cables via a number of poles before reaching the correct destination.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The connectorised cable that runs from one of the ports on the CBT to the CSP (typically on your outside wall) can be as long as 300-350 meters so can often be strung between poles to get to a property, One of the legend members on here has previously spoken about running cables via a number of poles before reaching the correct destination.

Granted, however is the cable not heavy and therefore would "bow" in the middle? There is some distance between the next nearest pole and my house.

In reply to a post by CJT:

However my e-mail may have paid off...

I really do hope so

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The connectorised cable that runs from one of the ports on the CBT to the CSP (typically on your outside wall) can be as long as 300-350 meters so can often be strung between poles to get to a property, One of the legend members on here has previously spoken about running cables via a number of poles before reaching the correct destination.

Granted, however is the cable not heavy and therefore would "bow" in the middle? There is some distance between the next nearest pole and my house.

Max spans use to be around 65 (give or take) metres although you will find some now 75+ metres

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The connectorised cable that runs from one of the ports on the CBT to the CSP (typically on your outside wall) can be as long as 300-350 meters so can often be strung between poles to get to a property, One of the legend members on here has previously spoken about running cables via a number of poles before reaching the correct destination.

Granted, however is the cable not heavy and therefore would "bow" in the middle? There is some distance between the next nearest pole and my house.

Max spans use to be around 65 (give or take) metres although you will find some now 75+ metres

Up the road from our other property is a farm which took FTTP from the same pole as 'ours' would come from, a quick check on google and in straight line it measures 265m and 4 poles away, as it crosses road and goes around outside of a bend, cable will be longer, so close to your 300-350m.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have been advised by Martin @ Aquiss to e-mail OR to request an update as they cannot chase them because a new appointment has been booked.

This is poor customer service. A failed install such as this should be chased by the provider rather than this kind of hand wringing.

Martin from Aquiss regularly posts on here. He comes across as a thoroughly decent chap, although I’ve not had any personal dealings with him or Aquiss, but many other members here have and have good things to say about him and Aquiss in general.

I expect that he’s aware of this case and may or may not be aware of this thread.

I’m not sure if he wants to weigh in on all of this or just sit tight and let Openreach resolve it as they eventually will. With all due respect to the OP it feels a bit teacup in storm-ish.

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 28-Mar-25 02:14:08)

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

This is poor customer service. A failed install such as this should be chased by the provider rather than this kind of hand wringing.

I’d like to interject and say Aquiss have been great, very informative and supportive. I understand Martin’s suggestion for me to contact OR was to, hopefully, elicit a better response which, so far, it has elicited a positive response from OR.

I’ll update this thread with more info later

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

This is poor customer service. A failed install such as this should be chased by the provider rather than this kind of hand wringing.

I’d like to interject and say Aquiss have been great, very informative and supportive. I understand Martin’s suggestion for me to contact OR was to, hopefully, elicit a better response which, so far, it has elicited a positive response from OR.

I’ll update this thread with more info later

he certainly is . Hopefully Martin won't blush too much.


Ultimately it won't really matter what pole your fibre connection goes to. What is of concern (to or) is potentially misshaps in the mapping database (calling it that cos it makes sense).

You *should* be connected at the next install date

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

This is poor customer service. A failed install such as this should be chased by the provider rather than this kind of hand wringing.

Indeed it is fella, just a shame not everyone can see it. Reminds me of the people over the pond who are being hoodwinked by the man at the top.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Indeed it is fella, just a shame not everyone can see it.

We all have differing opinions on what is good and bad customer service. It was clearly explained why the suggestion was made for me to contact OR, and tbh it worked in my favour. Maybe it wasn't what other ISP's would have done but that's not for me to guess.

Reminds me of the people over the pond who are being hoodwinked by the man at the top.

Is that a conversation for another forum....

In reply to a post by Taras:

he certainly is . Hopefully Martin won't blush too much.


Ultimately it won't really matter what pole your fibre connection goes to. What is of concern (to or) is potentially misshaps in the mapping database (calling it that cos it makes sense).

You *should* be connected at the next install date

Well fingers crossed I get a competent OR engineer not someone who isn't sure what they can do...

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

With all due respect to the OP it feels a bit teacup in storm-ish.

I was merely documenting my issues with OR and their contractors.....

Just a quick update...

My appointment has been moved, by a member of the CEO escalations team at OR, to Monday.

I'll report back on the progress after the appointment.

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

With all due respect to the OP it feels a bit teacup in storm-ish.

I was merely documenting my issues with OR and their contractors.....

Don’t worry about it. I’ve hard far worse experiences with Openreach. Hopefully they sort you on Monday 🤞

In reply to a post by CJT:

I’d like to interject and say Aquiss have been great, very informative and supportive. I understand Martin’s suggestion for me to contact OR was to, hopefully, elicit a better response which, so far, it has elicited a positive response from OR.

It sounds to me that Aquiss have done nothing to expediate this failed install and advised the customer to escalate themselves, to do their job for them. I call that poor customer service.

The main thing is you get your new service sorted on Monday, I will keep my fingers crossed for you. I honestly hope all goes well

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

It sounds to me that Aquiss have done nothing to expediate this failed install and advised the customer to escalate themselves, to do their job for them. I call that poor customer service.

For the first part you are only assuming that Aquiss have done nothing.

For the second part, advising the customer themselves to escalate can be one of 2 things

• A fob off
• A suggestion which produces a result, based on understanding how OR operate.

If it was a fob off, then yes, it is bad customer service. But it produced a good result. The appointment is Monday, rather than 11th April.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

For the first part you are only assuming that Aquiss have done nothing.

No assuming is required as its there in black and white

In reply to a post by CJT:

they cannot chase them because a new appointment has been booked.

I think the word 'cannot' is more accurately replaced with 'won't' as I know of more than one occasion when a mainstream ISP has chased Openreach when a new appointment has already been booked so it is possible. The fact that the niche ISP won't chase and gives their customer the Openreach CEO email to do their own chasing is really poor and surely Openreach won't be happy for that to be happening. The whole point of paying a niche ISP the big bucks is for them to go the extra mile when required which doesn't appear to be the case here.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

For the first part you are only assuming that Aquiss have done nothing.

No assuming is required as its there in black and white

Aquiss have said nothing about this on this thread. Maybe Aquiss spoke to a contact in the CEO's office who told them 'Get the customer to contact this office and I can expedite something for you'

I can believe that the CEO's office will not expedite for an ISP, because if they did it for one they would have to do it for all and it is far easier for them to pick and choose which customer approaches they will expedite for.

The bottom line is that the advice from Aquiss produced a positive result.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Aquiss have said nothing about this on this thread. Maybe Aquiss spoke to a contact in the CEO's office who told them 'Get the customer to contact this office and I can expedite something for you'

Simply said an ISP wouldn't go through the CEO's office to get stuff done as they have other routes in, Its extremely clear people want to say positive things about the management of this ISP (even if they have never had any direct contact) but a customer to be told by an ISP to bypass the official process is really poor regardless of the outcome. If people here are supportive of this action then they know nothing about the official process.

I have had experience of Aquiss and my take on this is based on contact. I will at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

I have had experience of Aquiss and my take on this is based on contact. I will at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

For me reading what the OP was told to do by the management of this ISP (unless someone is saying the OP is lying which I very much doubt) is the second unprofessional thing they have done in a matter of weeks so sadly I won't be giving them the benefit of the doubt.

If any of the mainstream ISPs had told their customers that they wasn't going to escalate a 'perceived' issue and gave the customer the CEO's email address to do it themselves there would have been uproar on this forum. Giving the ISP the benefit of the doubt seems exclusively granted to only niche ISPs.

Added the word 'perceived' for for the benefit of Pheasant

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

If any of the mainstream ISPs had told their customers that they wasn't going to escalate a 'perceived' issue and gave the customer the CEO's email address to do it themselves there would have been uproar on this forum. Giving the ISP the benefit of the doubt seems exclusively granted to only niche ISPs.

You're right.. It would be very odd for a mainstream provider to say that.. however sometimes support engineers working for big companies (beyond broadband/telco) will also say things like "I didn't tell you this but if you want to solve this issue, contact ........ and say .......". Smaller operatora may go beyond standard process sometimes to get a result.. that's why people pick them.. if a niche provider suggested an out-of-the-box solution I wouldn't ignore it.

In the end it's up to the user to decide if they are happy.

You seem to be commenting a fair bit on Aquiss, a quite small provider. You used them before? Not saying you can't comment to help users with problems, it just looks a bit odd

seb

Edited by seb (Sun 30-Mar-25 16:32:13)

In reply to a post by seb:

You seem to be commenting a fair bit on Aquiss, a quite small provider. You used them before? Not saying you can't comment to help users with problems, it just looks a bit odd

Sorry that it looks a bid odd, not sure what to now say fella, feel like I've been called up to see the headmasters having done nothing wrong 😂

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by seb:

You seem to be commenting a fair bit on Aquiss, a quite small provider. You used them before? Not saying you can't comment to help users with problems, it just looks a bit odd

Sorry that it looks a bid odd, not sure what to now say fella, feel like I've been called up to see the headmasters having done nothing wrong 😂

I asked you a question.. I didn't say you had done something wrong.. Just you seem to spend a fair bit on time on Aquiss and have an issue with their CEO.. but I'm not sure why.. If's not like it's just a couple of posts.. Is there an underlying issue I'm not aware of you want to share?

In reply to a post by seb:

Is there an underlying issue I'm not aware of

No underlying issue fella, the observations I've made in the recent threads I would make if they had been done by or about other ISPs big or small.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Added the word 'perceived' for for the benefit of Pheasant

Thank you (I think) for considering my sensibilities in all of this 😀. However may I politely suggest that we simply await a final (hopefully) positive update from @CJT tomorrow and then matters hopefully can be laid to rest.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

we simply await a final (hopefully) positive update from @CJT tomorrow and then matters hopefully can be laid to rest.

Absolutely fella, I'll keep my fingers crossed for a positive outcome

Hello,

I am back with the latest update.

An engineer from MJ Quinn arrived on my street just after 8:30am today and about 8:45 he knocked at my door. I asked him if he’d had any issues relating to the job and he advised he had, at which point I explained the previous situation to him. He advised the pole nearest to me was on a different “head end” so that’s why it could not be used. Just before he arrived I also spotted two Openreach vans on my road, and engineers working at the next pole down from mine.

The MJ Quinn engineer advised me he had spoken to those OR engineers who advised him they were commissioning that pole for FTTP and to connect my house to the same pole and that it could take up to a week to be finalised and commissioned at which point either my service will go live or if the ONT flashes Green to text him and he will request it’s provisioned.

I have no idea if the appearance of OR was a coincidence or related to my e-mail to the CEO team but I am glad things are progressing

Good update. So as potentially thought, not a straight-forward hook up for you as the CBTs are served from different handover exchanges.

Sit tight and let Openreach do the commissioning of the new CBT. It's starting to become clearer (to me at least) why Aquiss suggested you reach out to the exec handling team to assist with getting this sorted out.

I've been in similar merry go round with Openreach for similar crazy situations (like waiting for a pole to be replaced for a serving pole for a leased circuit - which already was serving us FTTP - weeks, weeks and weeks of chasing and finally another Openreach inspector decided their initial surveyor was incorrect all along and all it needed was a cherry picker...😂

We effectively lost 2 months of install time, because of a simple mistake

Sometimes you just have to remain cool and calm. 😅

It’s very unlikely that it’s a different headend exchange, it’s much more likely that the CBT is on a different splitter , but the same headend exchange building , the contractor probably dumbing it down ( or uniformed ) the new CBT may be on a different ‘card’ on the same OLT , or possibly on an adjacent OLT in the same headend building, but not in a completely different headend exchange ,
Openreach don’t put multiple CBT’s on the same pole or jointbox from different splitters ( admittedly this is two different poles ) let alone infrastructure from different headend locations, if these poles are so close that spans could be put up between them (DILOR , dropwire in line of route ) the CBTs on them almost certainly will go back to the same headend building.

Edited by Iniltous (Mon 31-Mar-25 13:06:48)

In reply to a post by CJT:

Hello,

I am back with the latest update.

An engineer from MJ Quinn arrived on my street just after 8:30am today and about 8:45 he knocked at my door. I asked him if he’d had any issues relating to the job and he advised he had, at which point I explained the previous situation to him. He advised the pole nearest to me was on a different “head end” so that’s why it could not be used. Just before he arrived I also spotted two Openreach vans on my road, and engineers working at the next pole down from mine.

when they provisioned the existing infrastructure; one pon went to headend x and the other to headend y. One conector is typically provisioned per property. Some how i think yours may have been missed and whilst putting you on the other pon, it would still result in a property to be missed. Hence a new cbt!.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have no idea if the appearance of OR was a coincidence or related to my e-mail to the CEO team but I am glad things are progressing

Martin did the right thing to ask you to contact the MD of OR, as it was a fuzz up and the quickest way was the route suggested.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have no idea if the appearance of OR was a coincidence or related to my e-mail to the CEO team

Its unlikely to be a coincidence. I do still have questions how your service will go live on the new CBT in a weeks time without additional intervention once the CBT goes live. Hopefully the necessary work like your Aquiss service configured for that PON and your ONT registered against that PON are in hand with someone via your direct escalation.

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

...the contractor probably dumbing it down ( or uniformed )

Well wouldn't be the first time or the last 😅

Either way, sounds like this is not the same PON - or even the same OLT - maybe that's what they meant by literal 'headend' rather than 'headend exchange' (the latter to my mind being however many OLTs make up an overall headend, rather than a headend = a single chassis).

But this is sort of semantic to the main event anyway; which is that Openreach still need to complete physical stuff rather than soft configuration, which apparently could take some time yet. But hopefully not too long.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I do still have questions how your service will go live on the new CBT in a weeks time without additional intervention once the CBT goes live. Hopefully the necessary work like your Aquiss service configured for that PON and your ONT registered against that PON are in hand with someone via your direct escalation.

If the PON exists and is already active, then so long as they've registered the ONT to it - it should come up and be authenticated immediately once it gets light.

If they have to build a new PON etc. then further back end intervention obv needed. Some additional testing etc, but again if they hold the registration details of the ONT, then it should be able to be done remotely.

If @CJT see the LOS light glowing then he knows there is no light at all hitting the ONT- so someone needs to complete the physical work to get light all the way there. If LOS is out but the PON light is blinking - then that soft configuration work is incomplete

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

...the contractor probably dumbing it down ( or uniformed )

Well wouldn't be the first time or the last 😅

Either way, sounds like this is not the same PON - or even the same OLT - maybe that's what they meant by literal 'headend' rather than 'headend exchange' (the latter to my mind being however many OLTs make up an overall headend, rather than a headend = a single chassis).

yup in many ways even if it was correctly suggested that it was a different headend, the same issue surfaces. Also somebody may have ordered a second ont at the same property and that left cjt with no spare port. At the end of the day a new (presumably a 4 port cbt will be placed on the pole.

basically in my head thats what ended up for cjt, no correct port or no spare port.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

But this is sort of semantic to the main event anyway; which is that Openreach still need to complete physical stuff rather than soft configuration, which apparently could take some time yet. But hopefully not too long.

yep and completing the database updates etc.

Thanks

Was just trying to make the point that it may not be as simple as plugging the connectorised cable in to the new CBT and doing the usual stuff at the OP's property.

Its possible that the OP's Aquiss service has already been moved to the different existing PON (after the direct escalation) and the Openreach guys were simply extending that PON with an additional CBT and the MJ Quinn guy today registered the ONT serial number with that PON so once the light appears everything will work.

But having heard that it will take a week to commission it sounds more than just adding an extra CBT to a existing PON so some work may not be done until the commissioning is complete.

There are multiple headends in a handover exchange. Usually 2 per rack and there maybe a dozen headend racks in an equipment room.

Thanks Pheasant,

As you suggested I will now sit tight and let OR do their work.

The Engineer just advised to keep an eye on the ONT and if it starts flashing green, where the LED is currently red, to text him and he'll inform the relevant team to complete the required work.

Your situation sounds like it was a total nightmare, did you have NO connection during that time?

Hi Iniltous,

TBH with you I means very little to me and for now I am happy to keep it that way. Either way my understanding was the pole that was 1st suggested as the one to connect to was because the nearest one was unusable.

However the engineer today, connected to the next nearest one, and once it's all sorted (fingers crossed) I'll have a working FTTP connection

Post deleted by CJT

In reply to a post by Taras:

when they provisioned the existing infrastructure; one pon went to headend x and the other to headend y. One conector is typically provisioned per property. Some how i think yours may have been missed and whilst putting you on the other pon, it would still result in a property to be missed. Hence a new cbt!.

Ah that makes some sense then, however if that was the case it's frustrating to say the least.

Martin did the right thing to ask you to contact the MD of OR, as it was a fuzz up and the quickest way was the route suggested.

I agree, it may not have been the way other ISP's would have done it, but I think he felt, from experience, I was likely to get further with an e-mail the his or his company would have with OR.

Plus it mean I know exactly what was going on.

In reply to a post by CJT:

The Engineer just advised to keep an eye on the ONT and if it starts flashing green, where the LED is currently red, to text him and he'll inform the relevant team to complete the required work.

Sounds like you have been fitted a Nokia ONT. Here is a quick summary of what the various LED sequences mean.

PON/LOS LED Combinations and their meaning (BT SIN 506 extract).

Hopefully won’t be too long. 🤞

My guess is that the CBT nearest the OP’s is not on the same SASA as the CBT it was built onto.
Can be fixed by having it rerouted by the (used to be called) Tiger Team.

In reply to a post by CJT:

if the ONT flashes Green to text him and he will request it’s provisioned.

LOL. Paid by the job. Text him if it sorts itself out and he will try to help you out by claiming payment for the install.

All sounds very unsatisfactory. Are Aquiss taking ownership and chasing and updating you on this or are you being left alone to try to get to the bottom of it yourself? Be it by contacting the Openreach CEO office by email or an Openreach subby via text?

Edited by FibreBubble (Mon 31-Mar-25 21:02:35)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Sounds like you have been fitted a Nokia ONT. Here is a quick summary of what the various LED sequences mean.

PON/LOS LED Combinations and their meaning (BT SIN 506 extract).

Hopefully won’t be too long. 🤞

It's an Adtran one, he left the packaging behind, which I was not pleased by, but it's useful to know which one it is. Thanks for the image

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

My guess is that the CBT nearest the OP’s is not on the same SASA as the CBT it was built onto.
Can be fixed by having it rerouted by the (used to be called) Tiger Team.

Out of curiosity what is a SASA?

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

LOL. Paid by the job. Text him if it sorts itself out and he will try to help you out by claiming payment for the install.

I didn't realise it was that funny.... maybe I missed something... whatever and however MJ Quinn operate is none of my concern, I just want a working service.

All sounds very unsatisfactory. Are Aquiss taking ownership and chasing and updating you on this or are you being left alone to try to get to the bottom of it yourself? Be it by contacting the Openreach CEO office by email or an Openreach subby via text?

I have already sent a message to Aquiss asking them to chase on this for me, as I have taken a service from them.

I don't have an issue with me contacting OR, the escalation process worked... I doubt BT/EE or Vodafone would have suggested that, it would have been left to the next appointment....

Slightly different LED sequence for the Adtran. Shown on the table though.

I'll have a look at it later.

Also Aquiss are already chasing OR for me

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

My guess is that the CBT nearest the OP’s is not on the same SASA as the CBT it was built onto.
Can be fixed by having it rerouted by the (used to be called) Tiger Team.

Out of curiosity what is a SASA?

It’s an optical fibre tray assembly insider the actual splitter node, that optically splits the incoming fibre up to 32 ways. The outputs are then spliced to the inputs of the serving CBTs on the poles (or in chambers).

In reply to a post by CJT:

Your situation sounds like it was a total nightmare, did you have NO connection during that time?

I had existing FTTP service on that occasion. This was a new service from the same pole they initially said needed replacement. It’s not been replaced. They just can’t climb it. It was needless and unnecessary delay.

That wasn’t the slowest service though. Try getting FTTPoD built - back in the day - pay a wad of money and wait 13 months!! 😂

To be fair to Openreach (and all the present and former BT employees that post on here in good faith) - they have also been brilliant and been in attendance a few hours after a fault has been called in. It cuts both ways.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 01-Apr-25 08:40:48)

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

My guess is that the CBT nearest the OP’s is not on the same SASA as the CBT it was built onto.
Can be fixed by having it rerouted by the (used to be called) Tiger Team.

Out of curiosity what is a SASA?

Splitter Array Sub Assembly
https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/255...

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I had existing FTTP service on that occasion. This was a new service from the same pole they initially said needed replacement. It’s not been replaced. They just can’t climb it. It was needless and unnecessary delay.

I suspect your brain may have said "why!!!!!!!" a few times

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

That wasn’t the slowest service though. Try getting FTTPoD built - back in the day - pay a wad of money and wait 13 months!! 😂

I don't think i would have coped at all with that, 3 months with OR building the spine route up to my property was bad enough - watching it every day.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

To be fair to Openreach (and all the present and former BT employees that post on here in good faith) - they have also been brilliant and been in attendance a few hours after a fault has been called in. It cuts both ways.

The OR peps on here are fab, and with any large organisation you get good eggs and bad eggs.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I'll have a look at it later.

Also Aquiss are already chasing OR for me

Cutting to the chase; the only difference is that Adtran turn the PON light red with no light. Nokia and the old Huawei’s use the LOS light to turn red when there’s no light.

Universally (and most importantly) when the PON light is a *solid* green then the box is authenticated fully and is on the network.

Flashing green PON light or slow flashing (for an Adtran) mean it’s getting light but is either (1) not configured to be on the PON just yet or (2) on the wrong PON (hopefully not the latter) 👍

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I had existing FTTP service on that occasion. This was a new service from the same pole they initially said needed replacement. It’s not been replaced. They just can’t climb it. It was needless and unnecessary delay.

I suspect your brain may have said "why!!!!!!!" a few times

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

That wasn’t the slowest service though. Try getting FTTPoD built - back in the day - pay a wad of money and wait 13 months!! 😂

I don't think i would have coped at all with that, 3 months with OR building the spine route up to my property was bad enough - watching it every day.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

To be fair to Openreach (and all the present and former BT employees that post on here in good faith) - they have also been brilliant and been in attendance a few hours after a fault has been called in. It cuts both ways.

The OR peps on here are fab, and with any large organisation you get good eggs and bad eggs.

Yes during the build and wait, more than a few times I questioned the sanity of it all. The most insulting thing was that they demand your money up front and then you beg to get it built.

Still at the end of the saga I felt we got our monies worth as there still no native FTTP in this little slice of Suffolk, despite somewhat ironically being two miles or so from Adastral Park. So we've had six plus years of 'payback'. More than once during COVID I was grateful we did it. So as a means to an end it was justified.

At least with a leased circuit, it's expensive, but they'll practically walk over hot coals to build the service for you (un-climbable poles excepted! of course!!) and there's (mostly) nothing up front to pay, but OTOH expensive monthly bills.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have already sent a message to Aquiss asking them to chase on this for me, as I have taken a service from them.

You have been made a cog in the provisioning process of your new service.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

You have been made a cog in the provisioning process of your new service.

I got two updates from Aquiss, all the got back from OR was that it's with the Tiger team, so that didn't yield much info.

I however received an e-mail from the CEO's office advising me the following:

I’ve checked your order and it looks like our equipment has been commissioned and we just need to complete the last bit of work to get you connected. This needs a visit by one of our specialist fibre engineers. I’ve urged this just now and we’ll be in touch soon to confirm a date for the visit.

I e-mailed back stating my somewhat frustration at a 3rd visit, and advising of my availability.

I await a reply.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I have already sent a message to Aquiss asking them to chase on this for me, as I have taken a service from them.

It all sounds like a dogs breakfast. Hopefully you have brought Aquiss up to date with what is going on and I hope you will sort it out soon.

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

It all sounds like a dogs breakfast. Hopefully you have brought Aquiss up to date with what is going on and I hope you will sort it out soon.

Indeed it does, and the "dog" is starting to get fed up!

I have indeed

What lights have you now got on the ONT?

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

What lights have you now got on the ONT?

Power is Green, PON is Red.

Sorry, I was just taking a look at the explanation for the Adtran ONT's lights as they are different from the Nokia ONT's and they make no sense to me. May be I should have asked, has those lights changed since the ONT was installed?

Is it now the case ( as far as can reasonably be assumed ) that the first contractor was given the correct DP pole on their job details, but because it wasn’t the nearest pole to your property they assumed that it must be an error , so did no work , the second contractor has connected you to the second closest pole ( the original contractor had this pole as the one to use ) , and coincidentally there were Openreach techs working on that pole , indicating that the CBT on that pole wasn’t actually ready for service.

Your ONT is currently receiving no ‘light’ , as signified by the red PON light ( effectively a LOS loss of signal , in your case a never had signal light )

The closest pole to you was never the one your service was designed to be delivered from , this is unusual but not unheard of , the error (apart from the first contractor assuming the pole closest must be the one you were to be served from ) is why your address was able to order service if the CBT you were designated to use , on the second closest pole , wasn’t ready to offer service to you or anyone else .

As you now have an ONT , connected to the CBT on the second closest pole (presumably using the nearest pole to you as a carrier/feeder pole although it has its own CBT on it ) , but the OR techs are still connecting the CBT on the second closest pole to the appropriate splitter , and when that work is completed, your red PON light should go flashing green , indicating the ONT is now receiving light .

if the contractor (the second one ) is true to their word , when you call them when you have a flashing green PON light , they will remotely try to authenticate your ONT (presumably they took a copy of the ONT serial number ) , and if that’s successful, the PON light goes from flashing green to steady green and you are ‘connected’……presumably that’s still the plan

Edited by Iniltous (Tue 01-Apr-25 23:52:06)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

Your ONT is currently receiving no ‘light’ , as signified by the red PON light

This provisioning job is really messy now with the mixed messages Iniltous has confirmed there is no light from the OLT at the ONT (causing the red PON light to be lit) although the Exec's office is telling you directly their equipment has now been commissioned.

In reply to a post by CJT:

I’ve checked your order and it looks like our equipment has been commissioned

It could be as simple as the fibre is not connected to the ONT correctly or a really bad splice in the CSP or the CBT port is not lit so it will be interesting to see who from Openreach turns up as not every Openreach Fibre engineer can work beyond the CBT port.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 02-Apr-25 09:56:59)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

Is it now the case ( as far as can reasonably be assumed ) that the first contractor was given the correct DP pole on their job details, but because it wasn’t the nearest pole to your property they assumed that it must be an error , so did no work ,

Also from cjt, he (the contractor) thought it couldn't be done..

utterly nuts

I don’t know for sure but my ‘take’ on this is , the first contractor visit , they have the CBT identity and its location ( the DP number is no more than an address/location for the CBT , typically something like DP11 o/s 21 Coronation St .) ,the contractor assumes the pole closest is the one to use but the DP number doesn’t match the job details, so (after consulting the OP ) goes on a walk to find the the DP quoted in the job details, it is the second nearest pole .
It at this point where the details are not fully known , did this DP not have a CBT fitted on that first visit , if it did why were Openreach working on the same DP many days later when the second contractor visited, did the first contractor actually climb the second closest pole (only worthwhile if the CBT existed) , to check the CBT reference number, was the second contractors job details exactly the same as the first contractors , in effect the same job simply reallocated to a different contractor , or were some changes made to the job between the first and second contractor visit because of the ELC (executive level complaints ) intervention.

Chances are we’ll never know for sure , hopefully whatever ‘plan’ is in place will prove to be successful and not take too long to accomplish.

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 03-Apr-25 08:04:32)

Ironically (or not) the initial re-booked connection date of 11 April is only a week away.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Sorry, I was just taking a look at the explanation for the Adtran ONT's lights as they are different from the Nokia ONT's and they make no sense to me. May be I should have asked, has those lights changed since the ONT was installed?

No they have remained the same.

I would go along with the assumption that the pole the 1st MJ Quinn Engineer was given was the correct one as it was the only available one, as the next nearest one to me had not had it's CBT commissioned, or perhaps installed.

That makes, sense and it's now awaiting activation of the service to get the "light".

That also makes sense, however frustrating it is as the pole is not even in line of sight, and the 2nd Engineer said there were branches in the way so it would be impossible to use, and was full (not sure on the accuracy of the last comment).

I understand what you mean, that would be consistent with the last update from OR that more work is required externally to get me set up.

Both the OR Exec team and Aquiss have updated me regarding the "progress" which isn't going very fast. OR have advised Aquiss the works should be completed by April 9th.

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

I don’t know for sure but my ‘take’ on this is , the first contractor visit , they have the CBT identity and its location ( the DP number is no more than an address/location for the CBT , typically something like DP11 o/s 21 Coronation St .) ,the contractor assumes the pole closest is the one to use but the DP number doesn’t match the job details, so (after consulting the OP ) goes on a walk to find the the DP quoted in the job details, it is the second nearest pole .
It at this point where the details are not fully known , did this DP not have a CBT fitted on that first visit , if it did why were Openreach working on the same DP many days later when the second contractor visited, did the first contractor actually climb the second closest pole (only worthwhile if the CBT existed) , to check the CBT reference number, was the second contractors job details exactly the same as the first contractors , in effect the same job simply reallocated to a different contractor , or were some changes made to the job between the first and second contractor visit because of the ELC (executive level complaints ) intervention.

Chances are we’ll never know for sure , hopefully whatever ‘plan’ is in place will prove to be successful and not take too long to accomplish.

Hi Iniltous,

Just to correct you on visit 1 it was the 3rd pole, furthest away, not the second nearest, which is the one I am now connected to. Just wanted to clarify that for you

Indeed, however given the ongoing issues if it had taken this long from the 11th I'd be no better off, this way I might have a connection by the 11th

Latest updates:

Openreach Executive Complaints - Customer Resolutions

Hi Chris

I work with [redacted], and will be taking full ownership until your service is connected.

I am waiting on our Openreach engineers to attend this week, to review this further.

I will provide a further update on this tomorrow.

Thanks again for your patience

Kind regards

and from Aquiss (which I suspect is automated)

Dear Chris,

We have received notification from Openreach that external work to your property needs to complete before your FTTP order will be committed with an install date. This can be for a number of reasons, however, in most cases this comes down to an unexpected incomplete network build local to your property.

Openreach have advised us they are looking to have these external work completed by 9th April 2025

Openreach have advised us they will supply us with a further review date for your order after 9th April 2025 when all external property works should have completed as expected. Shortly after this point we should then also receive a confirmed committed date for your install. We will then email you these details to confirm.

Best Regards,

For clarification, the ONT is fitted and the FTTP cable goes back to a pole.

Let's see what happens next.

In reply to a post by CJT:

Indeed, however given the ongoing issues if it had taken this long from the 11th I'd be no better off, this way I might have a connection by the 11th

Out of interest, you said your property became FTTP available back in November 2024, are you the first property within your neighbourhood to order it?

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

It at this point where the details are not fully known , did this DP not have a CBT fitted on that first visit ,

Copper DPs and fibre cbt are totally different infrastructures. A copper dp may or may not have a cbt(easier in theory cos there should be "working" existing infrastructure) and poles that have no copper dp have a fibre joint and or cbt.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Out of interest, you said your property became FTTP available back in November 2024, are you the first property within your neighbourhood to order it?

It was the end of November 2024, and tbh I’m not sure but it’s very possible. The area/road has access to both G.Fast services and Virgin Media.

In reply to a post by CJT:

It was the end of November 2024, and tbh I’m not sure but it’s very possible. The area/road has access to both G.Fast services and Virgin Media.

Lets hope that your work on this makes the migration for others a lot easier if and when they decide to switch.

Good Evening,

Just a quick update to advise all is well. 3 OR Engineers arrived unannounced earlier today and within 10 mins the connection was up and running. I had to set up my UDM but that's now all sorted and here is a speed test

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/efcd6f20-40c8-...

In reply to a post by CJT:

OR Engineers arrived unannounced earlier today and within 10 mins the connection was up and running.

Thats good news, shame you was left to get it sorted yourself.

That's a good result/ Enjoy.

You can set teh UDM to run a test once a day.

Also, if you have a UI AP, the SmartPhone WifI man App allows you to run a single test that checks Wifi to Gateway speed and Gateway to ISP seperately.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Thats good news, shame you was left to get it sorted yourself.

I think it's fair to say that, without my intervention, it would have taken longer. And that's not down to the ISP but Openreach

In reply to a post by MHC:

You can set the UDM to run a test once a day.

Is that a speed test?

Also, if you have a UI AP, the SmartPhone WifI man App allows you to run a single test that checks Wifi to Gateway speed and Gateway to ISP seperately.

Thanks for letting me know

Thank you!

Yes, an internally managed test from UDM to ISP.

Mine is set for 04:00 and it returns a consistent 514+/-2 down and 71-72.

Ah yes mine does it at 5am.

I’ll have to keep an eye on it

05:00 is the default ... set it to your preference.

You next job will be to set up the TBB BQM for both IPv4 and v6.

In reply to a post by MHC:

05:00 is the default ... set it to your preference.

You next job will be to set up the TBB BQM for both IPv4 and v6.

You must have read my mind! I was wondering how I do just that.

Do you want the answers?

In reply to a post by CJT:

Good Evening,

Just a quick update to advise all is well. 3 OR Engineers arrived unannounced earlier today and within 10 mins the connection was up and running. I had to set up my UDM but that's now all sorted and here is a speed test

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/efcd6f20-40c8-...

May I congrats you on yoiur new FTTP

Please! You can PM me if it’s better/easier

Thank you

In reply to a post by adslmax:

May I congrats you on yoiur new FTTP

Thank you !

Was it easy job to do? Is your FTTP from the pole or underground cable?

Mine is underground cable (for SoGEA & G.fast) but I think Openreach will use the same way underground cable as there is no pole anywhere in my area. (none!)

Pleased to hear it is all sorted now.

Any idea what they did in those ten minutes ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Pleased to hear it is all sorted now.

Any idea what they did in those ten minutes ?

Thanks me too!

Re-Strung the cable tighter and called a team to provision the ONT.

Tweaking the cable up was what did it. Everyone knows light likes a loverly straight bit of glass. 🤣

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Tweaking the cable up was what did it. Everyone knows light likes a loverly straight bit of glass. 🤣

Twaaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!!! 🤭😂🙈

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Thats good news, shame you was left to get it sorted yourself.

I think it's fair to say that, without my intervention, it would have taken longer. And that's not down to the ISP but Openreach

it would have taken longer and (probably) a second failed install, then aquiss could have properly be involved. I do believe aquiss' hands where tied a bit with a live install booked. Also i suspect the spine that was originally was built was incorrect - whilst on paper they could have connected you with the further away cbt, it made more sense to provision a new cbt.

There isn’t really enough information to come to any conclusion, could the service have been installed on the original date if the first contractor had erected 3 spans of dropwire to ‘pole 3’ , was the Openreach work on ‘pole 2’ coincidental or because of senior management intervention, why is the pole opposite the address (pole1) still not the pole being used directly rather than as a feeder pole to pole 2 .

Suffice to say the customer is now connected, so this has ended well , without a ridiculously long wait , the ISP made a suggestion to contact OR directly, that if it had been made by a less well regarded ISP would have been pilloried as passing the buck , but may have been instrumental or may have been completely irrelevant in the resolution of the issue , no one contributing on this forum regarding this problematic installation knows the answer , but there obviously have been errors made along the way

Edited by Iniltous (Fri 04-Apr-25 10:46:24)

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

There isn’t really enough information to come to any conclusion, could the service have been installed on the original date if the first contractor had erected 3 spans of dropwire to ‘pole 3’ , was the Openreach work on ‘pole 2’ coincidental or because of senior management intervention, why is the pole opposite the address (pole1) still not the pole being used directly rather than as a feeder pole to pole 2 .

Suffice to say the customer is now connected, so this has ended well , without a ridiculously long wait , the ISP made a suggestion to contact OR directly, that if it had been made by a less well regarded ISP would have been pilloried as passing the buck , but may have been instrumental or may have been completely irrelevant in the resolution of the issue , no one contributing on this forum regarding this problematic installation knows the answer , but there obviously have been errors made along the way

I also completely agree with the above. Its a fair argument to make, and like every tbb user who gives us a problem to solve, we are blind to the full situation.

All I can contribute is that according to the OR Engineer the nearest pole is on a different headend. I would assume it’s due to it’s location. It’s on the corner of my road, and another road, so I am assuming it’s considered as on the other road and not mine, therefore it could follow a different route.

The OR Engineer said it could have been connected to that pole but would need work behind the scenes being sorted. He also mentioned he’d been sent by the Executive Complaints team.

The only person or company that can come out of this with any credit is the OP, they have driven this from the beginning to the end.

Both MJ Quinn (Openreach subcontractor) and Aquiss simply haven't done enough on this occasion, Openreach can rightly be accused of causing the initial issue with the infrastructure confusion but to be fair to them they have been the ones to send out their directly employed workforce to get that resolved.

Rather than patting any of the companies on the back which would be mind boggling I think the OP is the one the ISP should be thanking with something off their first months bill.

Edited by PCJM40 (Fri 04-Apr-25 13:50:14)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Both MJ Quinn (Openreach subcontractor) and Aquiss simply haven't done enough on this occasion, Openreach can rightly be accused of causing the initial issue with the infrastructure confusion but to be fair to them they have been the ones to send out their directly employed workforce to get that resolved.

Don't forget that the way the contract is setup the MJ Quinn engineer generally gets paid for completed installs, an incomplete one means they get very little/nothing. This is often why they hand back difficult jobs quickly, rather than spend time on a long job with limited chance of success.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Rather than patting any of the companies on the back which would be mind boggling I think the OP is the one the ISP should be thanking with something off their first months bill.

Had the OP gone with an ISP that is signed up to Ofcom Auto Compensation then they would be getting a credit of £6.24 for each day late the install was. Aquiss should be getting some compensation from Openreach, but I can't see anything that says they pay anything similar to the Ofcom auto comp values.

I had issues back in 2021 with my fibre install and incorrect OR records, it look many man-hours and a few weeks to fix. I didn't pay anything for the first few months due to the level of compensation from my ISP.

In reply to a post by Ad_G:

Don't forget that the way the contract is setup the MJ Quinn engineer generally gets paid for completed installs, an incomplete one means they get very little/nothing. This is often why they hand back difficult jobs quickly, rather than spend time on a long job with limited chance of success.

Oh that does not surprise me and was confirmed by the OR Engineer that MJ Q are paid per job.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Rather than patting any of the companies on the back which would be mind boggling I think the OP is the one the ISP should be thanking with something off their first months bill.

Had the OP gone with an ISP that is signed up to Ofcom Auto Compensation then they would be getting a credit of £6.24 for each day late the install was. Aquiss should be getting some compensation from Openreach, but I can't see anything that says they pay anything similar to the Ofcom auto comp values.
-----------------

I will take this up with Aquiss, I just wanted a working FTTP connection before I worried about anything else. Plus my FTTC connection was still working fine.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The only person or company that can come out of this with any credit is the OP, they have driven this from the beginning to the end.

Both MJ Quinn (Openreach subcontractor) and Aquiss simply haven't done enough on this occasion, Openreach can rightly be accused of causing the initial issue with the infrastructure confusion but to be fair to them they have been the ones to send out their directly employed workforce to get that resolved.

Rather than patting any of the companies on the back which would be mind boggling I think the OP is the one the ISP should be thanking with something off their first months bill.

I think with all due respect you have made it quite clear on your views about the ISP I have chosen, I had no qualms about contacting OR as I realised from talking to Martin it made the most sense, and clearly it worked.

Would your ISP have jumped through hoops to get you set up?

In reply to a post by CJT:

Would your ISP have jumped through hoops to get you set up?

No, mine is a bargain basement ISP and they wouldn't have lost any sleep over it either. So when comparing mine and yours regarding an issue like this there is nothing between them.

Hope you get some compensation as you have worked for it.

Edited by PCJM40 (Fri 04-Apr-25 17:42:34)

In reply to a post by CJT:

Would your ISP have jumped through hoops to get you set up?

I'm not sure Aquiss have jumped through any hoops for you.

In reply to a post by CJT:

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The only person or company that can come out of this with any credit is the OP, they have driven this from the beginning to the end.

Both MJ Quinn (Openreach subcontractor) and Aquiss simply haven't done enough on this occasion, Openreach can rightly be accused of causing the initial issue with the infrastructure confusion but to be fair to them they have been the ones to send out their directly employed workforce to get that resolved.

Rather than patting any of the companies on the back which would be mind boggling I think the OP is the one the ISP should be thanking with something off their first months bill.

I think with all due respect you have made it quite clear on your views about the ISP I have chosen, I had no qualms about contacting OR as I realised from talking to Martin it made the most sense, and clearly it worked.

Would your ISP have jumped through hoops to get you set up?

I'm with you @CJT. For the record, whatever works. Just works. Simples.

Whether you are emailing, calling chasing your ISP or Openreach is purely just semantics. Unless you're a die hard "one throat to choke".....but why? Results is what matters.

You could in theory send 10 emails / calls / chasers to your ISP and get.....the square root of [censored] all squared. Been there done that. Got the T-Shirt, Shorts and flip-flops.

Or you could send half the number of emails / calls / chasers - half to your ISP and half to Openreach. Perhaps this gets a result. Like mmmmm let me see. Exactly what happened here. You were put in touch with the executive complaints handling team and they did their job.

What's the net difference if you call one party or two - other than getting a result - I really struggle to see any.

Can we put this thread out of its misery and stop the stupid point scoring nonsense please. It's all done. The OP is happy and that is all that bloody well matters.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Can we put this thread out of its misery and stop the stupid point scoring nonsense please.

Who's trying to point score? we are all just posting our comments on this matter. Yes some of us may have had a different opinion than say you on how this has been handled but that doesn't make us wrong and you right or vice versa. It wasn't that long ago you called someone a NIMBY for having a difference of opinion than you, I'm not one to speak negatively about you doing that as we all have our moments but please don't preacher about people having their views. The fact I think this has been handled badly by the ISP and you think its been amazing is something that we should be able to agree to disagree on without all the comments about point scoring as its not.

Edited by PCJM40 (Sat 05-Apr-25 07:38:22)

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

I'm not sure Aquiss have jumped through any hoops for you.

Did I say they had? No. I asked if PCJM40's ISP would... and the answer he provided was no... so my point was, what does it matter what I did to get to situation solved.. it's resolved and that to me is all that matters.

If you don't want people to offer their views about your install, probably best not to post a thread about it!

In reply to a post by FibreBubble:

If you don't want people to offer their views about your install, probably best not to post a thread about it!

It wasn't a view offered about the install it was a view offered about the ISP, there is a difference... the comment didn't berate OR or MJ Quinn, it berated the ISP for suggesting I did something "out of the box" to resolve the issue.

As suggested by Pheasant I think we can move on now... the connection is resolved and we are all going to have a difference of opinions.

It has been mentioned that providers who are signed up to Ofcom's Code of Practice automatically pay compensation to customers for delayed provision.

Openreach also pro actively pay compensation to ISPs for delays via their Service Level Guarantee scheme.

So it would be great if you could round up the thread by letting us know of any compensation paid to get the situation fully resolved.

In reply to a post by CJT:

it berated the ISP for suggesting I did something "out of the box" to resolve the issue.

I wouldn't say telling the customer to go to Openreach directly is an "out of the box" solution. If we here had told you to do it after all other avenues had been exhausted I wouldn't be complaining but it was your ISP after one failed visit.

Here is the new ISP support guide.

ISP SUPPORT GUIDE

1. Tell customer to contact Openreach.
2. Tell customer to contact Openreach again.
3. Go back to Point 1.

End of ISP support guide

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I wouldn't say telling the customer to go to Openreach directly is an "out of the box" solution.

There is a considerable difference between "out of the box solution" and "outside the box solution". I suspect that what was meant was the latter.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

There is a considerable difference between "out of the box solution" and "outside the box solution". I suspect that what was meant was the latter.

You're probably right fella.