We're building in this area now

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

How long is a piece of string, usually.

My area has been in this status for months now, and very little visible OR activity around.

When people say area, they may mean your house or other houses elsewhere in the same town...

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

It's anyone's guess. Openreach have never said a dicky-bird about FTTP in my area but then, there it was available according to the checker one day so I ordered it. Still no leaflets or any other advertising sent out that I'm aware of.

Check similar questions asked by dozens previously.

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

MDU or SDU?

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

MDU or SDU?

SDU

I wouldn’t worry if it’s an SDU. It’s quick and easy for them to deploy and they’ll prioritise them. It’s also quick as they won’t connect fibre to each SDU ahead of time. You’ll see them come round with cobras to pull the fibre under the road and then shortly after you’ll be able to order it. They’ll do the rest after you order.

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

I wouldn’t worry if it’s an SDU. It’s quick and easy for them to deploy and they’ll prioritise them. It’s also quick as they won’t connect fibre to each SDU ahead of time. You’ll see them come round with cobras to pull the fibre under the road and then shortly after you’ll be able to order it. They’ll do the rest after you order.

There's presence of an altnet that was pulling their fibre wire through the underground chambers last year summer (using the Cobra Rods too) ... but I think theres just about enough space for BT to push their cable through too. The PSTN (copper pairs) cable is taking up most of the space as it's quite thick and the diameter of the clay piping that runs in the ground isn't too large.

Edited by Bobby_Valentino (Wed 06-Aug-25 13:36:45)

Ohh wow that's interesting.

They pulled fibre into ours just over a year ago i think and then nothing. Emailed OR direct asking for a progress update and they replied saying they would not be connecting the street in the near future and wasn't part of the build plans.

I got the “We’re building in this area now.” email on thw 22/7/25 and a CBT appeared on the pole outside yesterday yet to be connected.

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

When they were building the pons in my area, on some sample housing did actually notify of work being done and there was actual work being done.

Even with everything connected, RFS can take up to 2 weeks. Especially if theres a problem. A build within a quarter is about as fast as you will ever see OR complete something. Thats from green lighting the project to rfs.

Also even with partially connected CBTS they can sit there for years and not be working.

That all said, OR wants to complete as much as possible. Its just sometimes the pots of money sometimes gets used up in a quarter and your area gets shuffled back. Thats the painful part.

I got the “We’re building in this area now.” emai on 23/July/2025, and the same day I saw engineers pulling cables through the street, lifting the lids on the chambers as they progressed.

I have had no further update since, and the status remains 'working in your area'. I hope it means FTTP comes soon.

I never received any such email like this despite previously registering my interest a few years ago. However, the checker has changed to reflect this from only the last few weeks...

The “We’re building in this area now.” is showing up for my postcode when there was absolutely no plan of that happening previously. Bishopsgate Exchange.

Another postcode of our other property that we are renting out connected to the Stepney Green Exchange is showing "We’ll be building in this area in the next year". Both of these postcodes were showing no plan at all.

Expressing your interest

"We’re happy to confirm that we have a plan to bring Full Fibre to you."

Just because Openreach have a plan to bring FTTP, doesn't mean they'll be granted the wayleave agreement! This is why I find this checker suspicious and view it with a pinch of salt. It cannot be that suddenly all postcodes are showing as planned when previously they had no plan at all!!

Until a wayleave isn't officially agreed, I won't believe that it will come! A wayleave was also agreed last year for Virgin Media Nexfibre, but I have yet to be upgraded! While the same housing estate that has a wayleave for Community Fibre did not cover absolutely 100% of all of their residential buildings!

So, this means that even if a wayleave for Openreach was granted, it still does not guarantee that Openreach will build FTTP for that premise. They will still probably leave out a few buildings behind.

For this reason I'm not taking their checker seriously at all. It has been designed to probably keep the moaners quiet who keep contacting Openreach to ask them for an update. Openreach customer support is probably fed-up of people constantly emailing them asking when they'll build FTTP for their area. So, they made a checker with the promise that they'll build so that they don't receive those emails. This is what I suspect. Not to mention to send a signal to the other Altnets that "we are targeting those areas too"! This is a strategy to break the moral ambition of Altnets from trying to roll out their service in the areas that Openreach will also target. Of-course naturally that is what Openreach want, they don't want to have to build in areas that have cheaper Altnets. While the Altnets still don't want Openreach as that still risk losing some customers even if their offerings are cheaper and symmetrical!

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

It cannot be that suddenly all postcodes are showing as planned when previously they had no plan at all!!

It certainly can. Plans are made in areas. A manager draws a red line around an area, "do this bit next", and suddenly all the properties are in plan.

But that doesn't mean the outcome will actually connect all those properties. Once detailed design work takes place, properties will be identified which are not connectable for one reason or another (wayleave being just one).

The responses are carefully worded. "We'll be building in this area" is not the same as "we'll be building to this specific property".

Just to add,

Different flats in our development received the “We’re building in this area now.” E-mail at different times despite having the same postcode. They were received over the course of a few weeks. Not sure why there was a difference in when they were sent out.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

It cannot be that suddenly all postcodes are showing as planned when previously they had no plan at all!!

It certainly can. Plans are made in areas. A manager draws a red line around an area, "do this bit next", and suddenly all the properties are in plan.

Of course subject to funding and whats actually in the ground etc. And its actually a meeting - or our was - well i was told that at least.

True, and I am aware it is not the same as building to a specific property. The problem is that most people will be assuming that Openreach will be building for their specific property or building! And this can be disappointing when they eventually find out that that's not the case or no agreement could be reached.

When I go to https://one.network/ and enter my postcode and click to check "Next twelve months" I do not see any Openreach works anywhere on the map! Not just for my specific postcode, but the entire surrounding area.

The only works I see currently is Virgin Media for August and September assuming these are Nexfibre works for my estate. But even with Virgin Media Nexfibre there's no clue on which buildings they are working on even if the map shows they are working on a particular street. I've seen them last month working in my street duct but again I do not know for which properties they are installing them for. But I do notice several of the buildings nearby have already gone live a few months back! But the works scheduled seem to be happening in areas where service has already gone live. It is difficult to know from just viewing One.Network or BIDB where they are working on unless speaking to the engineers directly can give us clues.

The Virgin Media checker is in fact worse in this regard than the Openreach checker as it will only show "Keep me posted"

Now of-course I haven't yet received an email from Openreach despite registering my interest a few years ago. I'm not sure from the posters in this thread who claim that they've received emails, whether this is a firm confirmation that a wayleave has been agreed in place or whether Openreach genuinely added their specific postcode to the planned red lines!

Until there is an official confirmation such as a letter, email or news confirmation on a housing management website none of us should take the checker seriously. Most of us know that when Openreach claim "We'll be building in this area" or "We're building in this area now" does not mean the entire area will be upgraded to Full Fibre. Again, this is subject to a wayleave agreement or desire from Openreach to really have an interest in covering those properties within the area. Or it may mean that Openreach would like to bring in Full Fibre but obstacles such as a wayleave prevent them from working and completing the build plan. All of us should be aware of this before getting excited or having high hopes. Only a letter with a wayleave agreement will excite me but even then I shouldn't be too hopeful!

Hi @BLaZiNgSPEED - the reason you likely don't see any Openreach works in your area is that clearing ducts and installing new fibre tend to be a fairly quick process (not in every case of course) and as such the notice period required to the Local Authority for Streetworks is often only a couple of days. Therefore the permit application likely won't be put in until a few days or weeks before the works start. Again not true in every case but generally how it works.

Just extended forward looking on https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/broadband-map#... to allow 128 days into the future. For those looking for a glimmer of hope

Very useful, thank you!

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Now of-course I haven't yet received an email from Openreach despite registering my interest a few years ago. I'm not sure from the posters in this thread who claim that they've received emails, whether this is a firm confirmation that a wayleave has been agreed in place or whether Openreach genuinely added their specific postcode to the planned red lines!

OR don't need a wayleave, unless its into a mdu or fibre is crossing private land. For me; the OR emails, saying the fibre is ready, was for OR's website and indeed it had gone live along with the BTwholesale page.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Until there is an official confirmation such as a letter, email or news confirmation on a housing management website none of us should take the checker seriously. Most of us know that when Openreach claim "We'll be building in this area" or "We're building in this area now" does not mean the entire area will be upgraded to Full Fibre. Again, this is subject to a wayleave agreement or desire from Openreach to really have an interest in covering those properties within the area. Or it may mean that Openreach would like to bring in Full Fibre but obstacles such as a wayleave prevent them from working and completing the build plan. All of us should be aware of this before getting excited or having high hopes. Only a letter with a wayleave agreement will excite me but even then I shouldn't be too hopeful!

I'm not sure why you are overly talking about wayleaves.The OR checker has always been vague, emailing OR can give a better idea as to when and if your property is covered.

Also with the TBB info map you can get a further idea as to if theres future plans for your property. We had a 6 to 7 year journey to get OR fibre. So I understdand your frustration.

I'm not sure why you are overly talking about wayleaves.

Because that this posters raison d’etre.

They live in an MDU, and have had wayleave issues (maybe even still do have) All posts are swiftly turned around to their specific issues.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I'm not sure why you are overly talking about wayleaves.

Because that this posters raison d’etre.

They live in an MDU, and have had wayleave issues (maybe even still do have) All posts are swiftly turned around to their specific issues.

Well we all live in our own bubble - hence the "its all over facebook" - nope its on your own version of fb, somebodies's will be different.

Anyways BLaZiNgSPEED may have said that he does in another thread and i've missed that .. Hence the Q - which is reasonable

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I'm not sure why you are overly talking about wayleaves.

Because that this posters raison d’etre.

They live in an MDU, and have had wayleave issues (maybe even still do have) All posts are swiftly turned around to their specific issues.

Well we all live in our own bubble - hence the "its all over facebook" - nope its on your own version of fb, somebodies's will be different.

Anyways BLaZiNgSPEED may have said that he does in another thread and i've missed that .. Hence the Q - which is reasonable

For sure. It wasn’t a criticism. Just an observation

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

They live in an MDU, and have had wayleave issues (maybe even still do have) All posts are swiftly turned around to their specific issues.

They certainly do.

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout. We all know the hellhole MDU occupiers can be in with fttp rollout. Sadly we only hear of the situations where there is an issue.

I do have genuine sympathy for his and many is his situation.

In reply to a post by Taras:

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout.

I don't think he was, he was turning the conversation to himself as he always does.

In reply to a post by Taras:

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout. We all know the hellhole MDU occupiers can be in with fttp rollout. Sadly we only hear of the situations where there is an issue.

I do have genuine sympathy for his and many is his situation.

Indeed, I may have unintentionally conflated the MDU and SDU rollout. The problem is that when I look at it from my perspective and the area I live in, it is predominantly served with almost 100% of MDU buildings.

If we look at the Bishopsgate Exchange for example, that will serve part of the City and Tower Hamlets London area. If you now look at the demographics of Aldgate, Aldgate East, Whitechapel and Spitalfields you will see there are very few SDU houses available in the area. You can see if you roam around Google Maps.

I have no doubt that the issue with wayleave doesn't concern SDU residents the way it does for someone like myself who lives in an MDU.

So, when I look at the Openreach checker showing that they are building in my area right now (Bishopsgate Exchange), I immediately question how they will cover majority of the area unless Openreach are 100% confident that they will not run into the obstacle of wayleave delaying the build plan. Some housing owners will grant it spontaneously, while others might be held back.

While a wayleave may have been granted for Community Fibre and VM Nexfibre, there is still the worry that they might not necessarily grant an agreement for Openreach FTTP as well. Just as I see some places have wayleave for Openreach/Hyperoptic but wouldn't have the same Altnets that were granted for our housing association.

I remember it took us exactly 20 months (1 year and 8 months) following a wayleave agreement for Community Fibre to finally go live for us! The same is probably going to happen for Nexfibre since June 2024 letter that we received.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Taras:

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout.

I don't think he was, he was turning the conversation to himself as he always does.

Not intentionally of-course!
While it may seem I am turning the conversation onto myself I'm also looking it from the same perspective concern of others. The Openreach checker doesn't quite distinguish between areas served with SDU and MDUs. If an area such as a town or Zone 5/6 of London has more houses than MDU buildings then I guess it is more reliable to trust that the build plan is happening right now!

But I know this doesn't apply for me especially living in Zone 1 as a wayleave that was granted for Nexfibre last year is still pending and no works have been done inside my building yet. This suggests that it is very unlikely that Openreach will be building right now for our estate within the area unless it is followed by a very quick wayleave agreement. I'm sure others in similar areas served with majority of MDU buildings will have the same concern.

My prediction is that Openreach FTTP will successfully cover majority of areas that have houses before they manage to cover areas with mostly tower blocks.

In reply to a post by Bobby_Valentino:

Hi all,

I received an email from Openreach this morning with the update: “We’re building in this area now.”

From real‑world experience, does anyone know roughly how long it usually takes from receiving this update to actually being able to place an order with an ISP?

Thanks in advance.

I've been checking the Openreach website regularly for full fibre build plans for my area. It's now showing as 'We’ll be building in this area in the next year' after a few weeks of having shown that they'd be building between 'now' and December 2026.

However, for the past few weeks I've seen lots of activity which looks like connecting up with FTTP and the bidb.uk website also shows lots of Openreach activity around my area. I've seen what I think are fibre CBTs appear on telegraph poles on streets in the area. Currently, a pavement around 500 metres away from my property has been dug up and there's an Openreach sign on one of the barriers.

So, looks like there is fibre build work ongoing. And yet ... the message on the Openreach website is suggesting they will start building in the next year.

I'm not sure what to make of that! I'm connected to Community Fibre anyway so I don't have an urgent need around moving away from copper, but would be nice to have an Openreach FTTP option as well.

Their plans change and the dates etc shown online are extremely ‘broad brush’ so I wouldn’t place much faith in them being any more than a vague indication.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Zone 5/6

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Zone 1

Lucky I understand that the London tube/train map uses Zones otherwise your multiple references to TFL Zones would make no sense.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

In reply to a post by Taras:

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout. We all know the hellhole MDU occupiers can be in with fttp rollout. Sadly we only hear of the situations where there is an issue.

I do have genuine sympathy for his and many is his situation.

Indeed, I may have unintentionally conflated the MDU and SDU rollout. The problem is that when I look at it from my perspective and the area I live in, it is predominantly served with almost 100% of MDU buildings.

If we look at the Bishopsgate Exchange for example, that will serve part of the City and Tower Hamlets London area. If you now look at the demographics of Aldgate, Aldgate East, Whitechapel and Spitalfields you will see there are very few SDU houses available in the area. You can see if you roam around Google Maps.

I have no doubt that the issue with wayleave doesn't concern SDU residents the way it does for someone like myself who lives in an MDU.

As you said, you wrote it from you perspective, which is completely correct - you aren't trying to connect somebody in liverpool or dover! I, for what ever reason never saw the that you were in an mdu.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

So, when I look at the Openreach checker showing that they are building in my area right now (Bishopsgate Exchange), I immediately question how they will cover majority of the area unless Openreach are 100% confident that they will not run into the obstacle of wayleave delaying the build plan. Some housing owners will grant it spontaneously, while others might be held back.

Wayleaves be it for, land access or in your case access to the building can be a barrel of worm. As Pheasnt said, in another post

"we are building in your area" its a broad brush

hes completely correct. our exhcange area - most roads have been done and all the DIG areas have not been done yet (or may never been done ) by OR - yet it still has the status of "we are building in your area"

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

While a wayleave may have been granted for Community Fibre and VM Nexfibre, there is still the worry that they might not necessarily grant an agreement for Openreach FTTP as well. Just as I see some places have wayleave for Openreach/Hyperoptic but wouldn't have the same Altnets that were granted for our housing association.

I remember it took us exactly 20 months (1 year and 8 months) following a wayleave agreement for Community Fibre to finally go live for us! The same is probably going to happen for Nexfibre since June 2024 letter that we received.

Sadly the Wayleaves are for each company so if you have six whole sale companies wanting to install equipment in the mdu its six wayleaves. Equally reasonable and equally stupid at the same time.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Taras:

BLaZiNgSPEED was sadly conflating MDUs and Sdu rollout.

I don't think he was, he was turning the conversation to himself as he always does.

Not intentionally of-course!
While it may seem I am turning the conversation onto myself I'm also looking it from the same perspective concern of others. The Openreach checker doesn't quite distinguish between areas served with SDU and MDUs. If an area such as a town or Zone 5/6 of London has more houses than MDU buildings then I guess it is more reliable to trust that the build plan is happening right now!

But I know this doesn't apply for me especially living in Zone 1 as a wayleave that was granted for Nexfibre last year is still pending and no works have been done inside my building yet. This suggests that it is very unlikely that Openreach will be building right now for our estate within the area unless it is followed by a very quick wayleave agreement. I'm sure others in similar areas served with majority of MDU buildings will have the same concern.

My prediction is that Openreach FTTP will successfully cover majority of areas that have houses before they manage to cover areas with mostly tower blocks.

You should if the owners are sensible get OR FTP, and or will want to cover as many as possible especially with xgs-pon next year.

OR will want every cbt full in existing areas and olts fully populated too - so long as rollout isn't overly expensive.

Edited by Taras (Wed 20-Aug-25 17:37:56)

The Openreach checker has gone from it being planned by a certain month , to building in your area for a few months now to we will be building in your area next year, What a joke

For a few months my searches on Openreach were showing as build planned between now and December 2026. That changed to something along the lines of we will be building in the area in the next year

The BIDB website showed lots of Openreach activity around the area over the last few weeks.

Anyhow, the status has now changed to something along the lines of available to order now. Searches on various ISP websites matches with that status. I didn't see the building in this area now status, and I had been checking almost daily.

Edited by teshy (Fri 26-Sep-25 09:48:45)

In reply to a post by teshy:

For a few months my searches on Openreach were showing as build planned between now and December 2026. That changed to something along the lines of we will be building in the area in the next year

The BIDB website showed lots of Openreach activity around the area over the last few weeks.

Anyhow, the status has now changed to something along the lines of available to order now. Searches on various ISP websites matches with that status. I didn't see the building in this area now status, and I had been checking almost daily.

The OR website itself can be out of date, even though an area might say x on their website and y is happening on the ground and then once RFS is done the site updates ......

it can be annoying

In reply to a post by teshy:

For a few months my searches on Openreach were showing as build planned between now and December 2026. That changed to something along the lines of we will be building in the area in the next year

The BIDB website showed lots of Openreach activity around the area over the last few weeks.

Anyhow, the status has now changed to something along the lines of available to order now. Searches on various ISP websites matches with that status. I didn't see the building in this area now status, and I had been checking almost daily.

Yep I had similar. For my house it said it'd be built by June, then September then it changed to it'll be done in the next year. It still says that but the work was all done last week and I'm just waiting for it to go live now so that I can put an order in (hopefully in the next couple of weeks 🤞)

In reply to a post by teshy:

For a few months my searches on Openreach were showing as build planned between now and December 2026. That changed to something along the lines of we will be building in the area in the next year

The BIDB website showed lots of Openreach activity around the area over the last few weeks.

Anyhow, the status has now changed to something along the lines of available to order now. Searches on various ISP websites matches with that status. I didn't see the building in this area now status, and I had been checking almost daily.

The benefits of living in an SDU

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

The benefits of living in an SDU

its *Easier* ....... but still not perfect in some case. Just remember that "inserting fibre cables to the home" wasn't on the bingo cards of property design in the last century ......

you installed the cabling needed at build time and it was done.

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

The benefits of living in an SDU

its *Easier* ....... but still not perfect in some case. Just remember that "inserting fibre cables to the home" wasn't on the bingo cards of property design in the last century ......

you installed the cabling needed at build time and it was done.

The reason it's easier isn't the work. It's because with SDUs they only deploy and install the cable AFTER the customer places the order. With MDUs they have to do it BEFORE so there is an upfront cost to deploy to all the units in a building without knowing whether anyone in it would subscribe.

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

The benefits of living in an SDU

its *Easier* ....... but still not perfect in some case. Just remember that "inserting fibre cables to the home" wasn't on the bingo cards of property design in the last century ......

you installed the cabling needed at build time and it was done.

The reason it's easier isn't the work. It's because with SDUs they only deploy and install the cable AFTER the customer places the order. With MDUs they have to do it BEFORE so there is an upfront cost to deploy to all the units in a building without knowing whether anyone in it would subscribe.

i put "you installed the cabling needed at build time and it was done." that actually applies to both mdu and sdus. The point that i was trying to make and i didn't is this.

We built sdus with no thought to new systems being added to properties. We never thought of pushing electricity back into the grid or new forms etc. Same with anything.

That said, the toby boxes and some of other systems Europe has makes it easier but not really easy.

Anyways the biggest issue with mdus over sdus is way-leaves.

The benefits of living nightmare in an MDU

On the fibre checker page for my home address, it said "Available to order soon". I then got an email last week saying "We're building in your area" and the fibre checker has also changed to that too. Who knows what's going on. I have seen OR engineers around occasionally, but mine seems to have gone backwards.

Mine shows ‘We’re building in this area already’ from Openreach October 2025 Build Plan,
but then Openreach Fibre checker shows ‘We’ll be building in this area in the next year’.

confused.com

1 week ago email from Openreach ......"We've reviewed our build plans for your area and there will be a delay getting Full Fibre to..."

Today's email ..."Great news, our engineers are upgrading the broadband network to this property and Full Fibre will be available to order soon"....
Doesnt give me much confidence in any time estimates etc

@rarrar

Exactly the same message that I got along with the follow up email stating "available to order soon"

Edited by ToneDeaf (Wed 29-Oct-25 15:28:17)

Yeah, the statuses appear to be stuck in some cases.

My postcode is still “we’ll be building here in the next year”: meanwhile, a single house within a neighbouring postcode shows “available to order now”, with all other houses in the same neighbouring postcode showing “we’ll be building here in the next year’, despite the BT Wholesale availability checker reporting FTTP on Demand 1000/220 for the majority of properties in the said postcode [along with two just showing 330/50 for no apparent reason].

Not really sure whats up or if its just a glitch. I haven’t seen any Openreach works in my estate, so not sure where the network has come from!