Sick and tired of Openreach lies

Just about had enough of the constant lies from Openreach. Had an email back in 2024 to say we'll soon be getting FTTP broadband. "work is being carried out and should be available Jun 24". Work was carried out and most homes around me have it available since Jun 24 apart from our little road. The neighbour over the back of mine has got FTTP (who's front door I could almost touch over the wall from my garden if I so wished). So I duly filled out the form to enquire why our neighbours have it but we dont. I was told it'll be available Sept 24. Came and went. Enquired again. May 25. Came and went. Oct 25. Came and went. May 26 ....... came and went. So the last query gave me Sept 26. I didn't hold out much hope for this. So enquired this week to check to see if Sept will pass us by without FTTP. I get told it'll be done by end of June 27.
It's always a standard copy and paste email with just the date being changed.
Is there any other way to get an answer out of OR to get an answer from someone that knows what they're talking about?

Frustrating. You could also try the exec escalations team by emailing the CEO 👩‍💼

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 04-Sep-26 14:15:21)

Have you placed an order with an ISP?

I'm currently tied into a contract with BT for another year or so, so can't place an order with anyone else.
I did recently get an email from BT saying I can upgrade to 1Gb service with a simple click of a button....... which they humbly apologised for as they sent it in error

I'll drop the CEO an email and see if that gets me anywhere.

Thank you

You can place an order, and pay to get out of the contract.

All a mute point anyway if you don't wish to do so.

In reply to a post by PeteIvy1:

Just about had enough of the constant lies from Openreach. Had an email back in 2024 to say we'll soon be getting FTTP broadband. "work is being carried out and should be available Jun 24". Work was carried out and most homes around me have it available since Jun 24 apart from our little road. The neighbour over the back of mine has got FTTP (who's front door I could almost touch over the wall from my garden if I so wished). So I duly filled out the form to enquire why our neighbours have it but we dont. I was told it'll be available Sept 24. Came and went. Enquired again. May 25. Came and went. Oct 25. Came and went. May 26 ....... came and went. So the last query gave me Sept 26. I didn't hold out much hope for this. So enquired this week to check to see if Sept will pass us by without FTTP. I get told it'll be done by end of June 27.
It's always a standard copy and paste email with just the date being changed.
Is there any other way to get an answer out of OR to get an answer from someone that knows what they're talking about?

Sound awful. I really hope FTTP will come to you once you have raised this matter with Openreach CEO to get the bottom of this and sorted out for you.

Edited by adslmax (Fri 04-Sep-26 19:06:17)

In reply to a post by PeteIvy1:

Just about had enough of the constant lies from Openreach. Had an email back in 2024 to say we'll soon be getting FTTP broadband. "work is being carried out and should be available Jun 24". Work was carried out and most homes around me have it available since Jun 24 apart from our little road. The neighbour over the back of mine has got FTTP (who's front door I could almost touch over the wall from my garden if I so wished). So I duly filled out the form to enquire why our neighbours have it but we dont. I was told it'll be available Sept 24. Came and went. Enquired again. May 25. Came and went. Oct 25. Came and went. May 26 ....... came and went. So the last query gave me Sept 26. I didn't hold out much hope for this. So enquired this week to check to see if Sept will pass us by without FTTP. I get told it'll be done by end of June 27.
It's always a standard copy and paste email with just the date being changed.
Is there any other way to get an answer out of OR to get an answer from someone that knows what they're talking about?

Whilst i completely understand your frustration.. theres some things that you are miscontruding

In reply to a post by PeteIvy1:

The neighbour over the back of mine has got FTTP (who's front door I could almost touch over the wall from my garden if I so wished). So I duly filled out the form to enquire why our neighbours have it but we dont.

they aren't your neigbhours as such, they are in another road. Even in the same road you may get overhead and then dig or collapsed ducts. so you could end up with a road with multiple time frames which can cause confusion and frustration.

OR work in pots and put your premise into a group named f1 to f20 from easiest to build to and to the other end what is commerically impossible. The pots are available funds for each qtr. For some reason the build has seen the pot available to it either run dry or its been reclassed and bunged into another pot. Also your premise can be reclassifed. Say for instance they go from dig to ducting or to overhead.

You've had 2 years of behing pushed back. and then further pushed back to 27. I've seen this over a seven year peroid - that is my own experince. Why mentioned this because i understand your frustration.

That said your build shouldn't have been pushed back 7 times, that needs higher up investigation as to why its being pushed back.

In reply to a post by PeteIvy1:

Is there any other way to get an answer out of OR to get an answer from someone that knows what they're talking about?

You could have replied to the email you had recieved and question why its being pushed back. OR do know what they are talking about but the person who emailed you only looked at inital build timeframe.

one further thing, i would check on tbb maps as to what your premise status is, especially in relation to project gigabit.

Coincidentally, I happen to have had a letter exactly for June 2024 but for Virgin Media (nexfibre)!

Here's my letter (I removed my address of-course)... https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55511225575_e55f...
You can see from my letter that within 4 weeks the entire estate would've been upgraded to the new Virgin Media FTTP services!

I was of-course always sceptical about such promise as it took 20 months just to get Community Fibre to go live in my building.

Since then there has been no progress however, several buildings in my estate actually indeed got upgraded to the new VM Nexfibre service. But this upgrade completion for the rest of the postcodes in fact, took 6 months and not 4 weeks as the letter claimed!

I mentioned this before that I chased the Technical Manager and even emailed the CEO of my housing association and no progress since. If you enter my postcode in the checker for Virgin Media you will see none of the addresses are served with any Virgin Media availability.

I regularly look at Broadband Internet Dashboard https://bidb.uk/ to see if there are any works and there are only a couple of works for Virgin somewhere nearby but absolutely none for Openreach FTTP. I know these works don't apply for my building.

Openreach in the same way is being promised that it is under their plan. However, I have not seen any blue dots for Openreach in our area.
Some buildings don't even have Openreach FTTC but only have Community Fibre. FTTP is a postcode lottery, you will find buildings/ houses in less central locations that have multiple overbuilds with different providers. Even a wayleave agreement does not guarantee that all the postcodes in an area will be served. Of-course for Single Dwelling Units it is a little bit different and less complex.

Btw, when I was under Openreach ADSL EO Line, FTTC was planned since 2012 and it only went live in October 2019. I am lucky that we even got upgraded to FTTC back then. At least I now have Community Fibre. But another 1 or 2 wholesale network providers/ additional altnet would've been great.

Those checkers and promises never mean anything. Service can go live earlier or later than they estimate! It is like that with all providers and not just Openreach.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Those checkers and promises never mean anything. Service can go live earlier or later than they estimate! It is like that with all providers and not just Openreach.

Well since we’re giving all the providers a pasting 😅, and in the spirit of fairness, there are bucketloads of AltNets that have covered portions of towns and suburbs and have simply stopped short of ‘fully’ completing their coverage. Many have been in a state of “LOC limbo” for years.

Typically it’s down to a lack of funds. As we hopefully know the great majority are loss making enterprises with enormous debts, collectively now into the double digit billions of pounds.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Typically it’s down to a lack of funds. As we hopefully know the great majority are loss making enterprises with enormous debts, collectively now into the double digit billions of pounds.

Its exactly that ....... And people forget that