I should hope not

Not really. Wasn't able to even get ADSL where I lived until 5 years after the exchange was upgraded despite friends a couple of streets away having it since release.

I know what it's like to be left out.

But on this site and forum we have people variously complaining:

"they aren't rolling it out fast enough!" but...
"they did my neighbours cabinet but not mine!" and...
"Why can some Welsh villagers get it? I live in London and can't!"
"The date keeps changing! This isn't good enough!"

The nub of it is BT is a for-profit business. If people are complaining they need to complain to the government for paying lip service to the whole thing. If you go to the far east they get their wallets out and it shows. Here* the government blusters.

*Not including N.Ireland which does actually get more money pumped in and therefore has far superior coverage to just about anywhere else in Western Europe.

But on this site and forum we have people variously complaining:

And there they were thinking that sharing their grievances with like minded individuals was somehow therapeutic.

Luckily you were on hand representing the thought police, to make sure they knew how pointless an exercise that would be?

In reply to a post by orly:

Would no information at all be better? If they just kept quiet then no one would have anything to complain about.

But we all know what would happen if BT decided tomorrow to just remove all the dates entirely. This forum would probably buckle under the next thing to rage about.

No, I don't think that zero information would be an improvement. But I do think that the current practice of date estimates being the end of a quarter is a bad one; shifting dates by 90 days shortly before expiry is the most frustrating aspect.

At work, we don't do projects where we suddenly announce to the customer that there's a 3 month delay, 1 week before he expects delivery.

How about providing a range, and move the range more regularly? It would probably be wide at first, and would narrow down as the tasks were achieved - by pulling the end-date in as things go right, and by pushing the start-date back when some of the semi-expected delays happen. If tasks weren't achieved (something not expected at all), then the range would stay wide *and* would head backwards week-by-week.

You can bet that the project managers do know this information. Its all about whether it can be presented to the public in the right way.

Oh - I'd also add a new set of information. I'd keep the public informed about the date ranges for ongoing fill-in work for an exchange too. That stuff is missing entirely at present - so if you are not in the first batch of cabinets, you have no clue as to whether you'll ever get fibre.

In this case it is.

No dates will magically change because of what people desire or complain about.

It's essentially a case of "when it's ready it's ready..."

Nee naa nee naa nee naa!

You in MK where the big roll out is going on? I have had the same and am really anoyed as when I spoke to BT on signing up from a nother ISP there was no mention of delays in my area and end of Dec 2010 was all go.
I know there can be issues on such a roll out, but 6 months plus. Give me a break

In reply to a post by kitcat:

WWWombat

Ever thought that this may be the power companies fault not directly BTs. If they tell BT they can do it in Oct, then fail and move the date to Feb and mess up again, Now they are back again is it any wonder BT move the date back to June!. Maybe if they succeed this time you will get it before June. It sure won't work without the power.

I doubt it is the power companies fault they are pretty good nowadays mind you if BT kep changing the schedules at the drop of the hat then it will cause the power companies problems as they will have their work scheduled out for months and will not be able to just drop everything because BT suddenly moves the goal posts and thi seem to be going on all over the country.

I would be pretty sure it is BT's pthetic planning that is causing the problems

In reply to a post by orly:

In this case it is.

No dates will magically change because of what people desire or complain about.

It's essentially a case of "when it's ready it's ready..."

That probably sums up nicely BT's atude towards its customers and its approach to planning.

Do you seriously think that most business would get away with that. If I told my customer a week before they were expecting a project to be completed it had move 3 months they would be pretty angree and talking penalty payments & I would not blame them but there people on here like you that think it is ok for BT to behave like this. I bet if they were facing real competition their approch would change.

This sorts of thing shows why the local loop should be removed from BT and should be provided by a seperate company that just supplies the local loop

If would be akin to the electricity market. The National grid supplies the UK network & competing companies provided the end users

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

In reply to a post by kitcat:

WWWombat

Ever thought that this may be the power companies fault not directly BTs. If they tell BT they can do it in Oct, then fail and move the date to Feb and mess up again, Now they are back again is it any wonder BT move the date back to June!. Maybe if they succeed this time you will get it before June. It sure won't work without the power.

I doubt it is the power companies fault they are pretty good nowadays mind you if BT kep changing the schedules at the drop of the hat then it will cause the power companies problems as they will have their work scheduled out for months and will not be able to just drop everything because BT suddenly moves the goal posts and thi seem to be going on all over the country.

I would be pretty sure it is BT's pthetic planning that is causing the problems

I disagree, at least around here in South London. Our FTTC cabinet was installed and wired for fibre last September - I saw the BT guys doing it. Since then a trench from the FTTC cabinet to a power cable under the nearby pavement was dug up by different sub-contractors, filled in, and then re-dug a total of 3 time so far, the last being 5 days ago. AIUI, the sub-contractors will have been tasked by the power company, not by BT who will have simply asked the power company to install power to the FTTC cabinet.

Judging by the pile of infill hardcore that has just been deposited there yet again yesterday, I strongly suspect that the power still hasn't been connected. The grass verge has disappeared into a mire of mud, hardcore and asphalt which was not caused by BT but, no doubt, some will be blaming them.