OpenReach cancel order due to not cost effective but no ECC

Hi

I've got a query on my fibre order getting cancelled on costs with no ECC issued and whether that sounds reasonable

I contracted for full fibre with BT on 13th Dec 2025
I live on a very small 3 house cul de sac built 1970 in the middle of Woking all streets arround have fibre largely on poles.

on the checker its KCI2 Assure, UG partial Direct in Ground

Initial survey 16th Dec
expected a reasnable long install time
Installation appointent made 22nd Jan - no show
new appintment 27th Jan - came to install but after reading notes did a re-survey as first one "had kink in it that was too tight for fibre" re did a route from manhole at entrance of culdesac to house approx 20 meters ( hard dig)

Another wait and installation appt on 19th Feb - ( no work done in road beforehand)
engineer came and after reading notes left saying install won't happen

new appt made for 28 Feb - I had calls with bt ahead of time to make sure worth it and
told day before it would be worth happening. On the day engineer came , read notes , knocked door and said " they haven't done the civils have they?" i can't do aything and left

mon 2nd March email from open reach apologising for not completing on the 28th Feb as extra wook to do but "The good news is we can, but we need to complete some extra work outside first."

Wed 4th March called BT, said openreach said was going to be too costly , but openreach hadn't provided an ECC as they normally would and BT had escaleted back to Openreach to get ECC.
2 minutes later got a text from BT saying openreach had cancelled the order and I need to wait 9 days for the notes to be updated so they could offer me a new contract

Sat 7th March called BT. This CS person said there was no ECC from openreach and there didn't need to be and couldn't understand why i had been told there would be one.
Said i wasn't due any compensation even though I had had 4 install appointments from openreach telling me to prepare for install and that the last 2 hadn't lasted more than 1 minute each.
Said I couldn't escalte or request compensation until the change in fibre not being available had been updated on their records and they then could offer me prices to recontract on SOGEA
Currently paying £70 a month!

Can Openreach cancel fibre on costs without issuing an ECC?
does a 20m hard dig sound like too expensive to issue a ECC?

Toob as an alt net are present in the area and in the street where my cul de sac comes from, would they dig to me? I've never see them on the Causeway roadworks checker I 've been looking at to see if openreach scheduled anything for my road over the last 10 weeks which makes me think they don't do much civils only feed from poles . Anyone with experience of toob in woking doing civils on roads of approx 20m ?

will that just leave Virgin as my only option for fibre speeds?

Thanks
mints

In reply to a post by Minty2:

Hi

I've got a query on my fibre order getting cancelled on costs with no ECC issued and whether that sounds reasonable

I contracted for full fibre with BT on 13th Dec 2025
I live on a very small 3 house cul de sac built 1970 in the middle of Woking all streets arround have fibre largely on poles.

on the checker its KCI2 Assure, UG partial Direct in Ground


Thanks
mints

This is a hard one, as they could have issued ECC and allowed you to pay for them but they haven't. The no provision of service is becomming common( its still mostly not common but becoming so - if that makes sense) now. TBB has an article over it.

Is the dig needed on your property or the actual road ?

Is this a private road ?

Have you contacted Toob and asked ?

In reply to a post by Minty2:

Toob as an alt net are present in the area and in the street where my cul de sac comes from, would they dig to me? I've never see them on the Causeway roadworks checker I 've been looking at to see if openreach scheduled anything for my road over the last 10 weeks which makes me think they don't do much civils only feed from poles . Anyone with experience of toob in woking doing civils on roads of approx 20m ?

In Farnborough and Fleet, Toob are all overhead from poles. They are in my road, but can't get wayleave permission to do the blocks of flats. The 4 houses at the start of the road are all fed from a (newly installed in 2022) pole. Openreach copper is underground, VM coax is underground. Hey! Broadband appear to use underground, likely OR PIA.

If you can't be fed by pole as the private road won't allow a pole install, I suspect Toob can't supply. What does their address checker show? Mine shows "coming soon" but all the single houses in the same road/postcode show "buy now" and prices.

is this a private road ?

Have you contacted Toob and asked ?

it is a public road
haven't spoken to toob yet but their postcode checker says fibre available

Is the dig needed on your property or the actual road ?

its about 20-25m up the actual road( length of a house and a garden)
then a couple of meters over my property which is mainly soft ground with perhaps less than a meter under block paving

its about 20-25m up the actual road

So you mean a new trench up a road ? Expensive for sure.

Bt just dug up 25m of the street back to the nearest chamber for my fttp service that just went live, we were KCI2 Assure, funny how they absorb the cost in one place then cancel a similar order in another place.

In reply to a post by DG834MAN:

Bt just dug up 25m of the street back to the nearest chamber for my fttp service that just went live, we were KCI2 Assure, funny how they absorb the cost in one place then cancel a similar order in another place.

Pavement or actual road ? There is a vast difference cost wise.

Minty2,

came to install but after reading notes did a re-survey as first one "had kink in it that was too tight for fibre" re did a route from manhole at entrance of culdesac to house approx 20 meters ( hard dig)

assuming that is the issue, they may return to it and resolve the issue. But at the same time that isn't a pinky promise. A resolve to the issue would be a pole.

Keep an eye on your status on btwholesale.

I wonder if we are seeing something new here? in the past if the civil work required was above the ISP's threshold they passed that to the customer to pay via ECCs but may be now they just switch it back to 'FTTP not available" so the customer can recontract with FTTC.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I wonder if we are seeing something new here? in the past if the civil work required was above the ISP's threshold they passed that to the customer to pay via ECCs but may be now they just switch it back to 'FTTP not available" so the customer can recontract with FTTC.

technically Zarjaz is right, there is no ECC because its affecting multiple premises. TBB's front page does have an article of status flipping

In reply to a post by Taras:

technically Zarjaz is right, there is no ECC because its affecting multiple premises.

I don't no what Zarjaz comment you are referring to?

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Taras:

technically Zarjaz is right, there is no ECC because its affecting multiple premises.

I don't no what Zarjaz comment you are referring to?

I can't either now..........

hummmmmm 😂

I never saw Zarjaz's comment either but the I guess the premis I didn't get an ECC because more than one house is affected sort of makes sense.
What is a 20m hard dig up a road serving 4 houses going to cost ? In execcess of £20K?

Will look out for new Poles as someone suggested but the only path on the road has a large overhanging hedge it's full length which might make siting the pole(s) difficult. Also slope on road may mean 2 poles.

Had a look on main TBB site for aticle on properties being removed from FTTP list - didn't seem to quite match my scenario but yes maybe OR are just rejecting anything with a bit of cost now.

will be interesteing to see when( if) they remove me from FTTP on the wholesale checker , whether they bother removing from the other 2 houses on my postcode as well
BT asked them to update the details 5 business days ago but not changed yet

Lastly while I was on the TBB main site, noticed an article on an 8GB BT/EE trial in Guildford and Woking so I registered an interest in that. I realise les than 1% chance of getting on it , but just in case the trial has some budget to do the work

In reply to a post by Minty2:

I never saw Zarjaz's comment either but the I guess the premis I didn't get an ECC because more than one house is affected sort of makes sense.
What is a 20m hard dig up a road serving 4 houses going to cost ? In execcess of £20K?

Had a look on main TBB site for aticle on properties being removed from FTTP list - didn't seem to quite match my scenario but yes maybe OR are just rejecting anything with a bit of cost now.

The same as a dig serving one property all else being the same. If the dig is into carriageway it gets expensive much more quickly. If it needs a box in the ground that's more cost.

Openreach for whatever reason decided to mark everything they had fibre anywhere near from DiG requiring tens of metres of digging to MDUs they have no wayleave for but have fibre to the curtilage as ready for service. Potentially some of it due to how much they're willing to spend on installs.

As far as a 'bit of cost' goes Openreach pick up the first £3,400 of the FTTP install before ECCs are payable. It's not about something being too expensive for ECCs, the £3,400 pays for a fair few metres of duct and even a new box in footway as long as there's not too much duct to be dug