In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

It is measuring it against completions not internal milestones. THey may have a 100 echangewstarted but that is meaningless. It is a bit like Cowboy Builders where they start a job and then just disappear. It is results that count

I think even you will agree they have to start before they can finish.

And 6 days after the announcement is too early to panic and sound the man the lifeboats alarm.

As twitter feed shows, they appear to sometimes have gaps where nothing changes, then batches are pushing through.

Shall I make it perfectly clear to you, if I thought there was a scoop that would show Openreach was definitely not going to meet any of major deadlines e.g. none of the 100+ exchanges get enabled by Dec 12, then I would be running it in the news. Just because it would improve our page impressions, visitors and lots of press coverage from it.

The press eat up bad news with a massive appettite and if there is some I will do it, no matter who it involves. Announcing that in the 6 or 7 days since publication that no exchanges have been enabled would make me look silly.

Completion meaning a certain numbers of cabinets can take orders?

One can only work to the BT published data and to date they have declared no completions against that data. Given the typical pattern of releasing exchanges every one to two weeks I was not expecting any further exchanges in September. I would expect that they may release a few this week or early next week.

BT have also issued another MBORC for the following areas and as a result work will continue to fall further behind in at least these areas but will probably have knock on affect in other areas. Delays of up to 3 months are now becoming common.


This gives a clear indication that BT are under resourced and begs the question as to whether they are in a position to take on the BDUK work within the contractual timescales. Could we see another G4S type scenario?

Why are you obsessed with the Openreach rollout? If they did not publish plans and just announced individual cabinet areas when they were ready what would you do?

Yes. How many no one knows as BT does not declare that information. The indications are that at one time it was about 10 cabinets minimum but that number seems to be from anecdotal posts to be falling fast and there are reports of exchanges going live with just one or two cabinets enabled presumably to make the rollout look less dire than it is.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

The data is factual. What bit of this simple information do you not understand?
Now I know you wish to present BT in a good light by trying to fudge things but FACTS are FACTS

BT issued 3 Spreadsheets on the 25th September. as of the 30th September BT have reported zero exchanges being enabled. THat is pretty clear I would have though and not difficcult to understand but clearly it does seemto challange you.

A 192 Exchanges to be enable by end of December means if one uses working days that they need to average about 3 a day. So to date they are already 15 exchanges behind schedule

There may be "data" but your interpretation is definately anti OR and you are using a very old trick to try and manipulate data to fit your own agenda.

They were published on last Thursday and there was only 1 working day after that so not exactly a surprise that "nothing happened." It would be doubtful that any kit could be installed in that time frame.

But if you want some FACTS, Openreach has borrowed £2.5 Billion from the markets and that sort of money doesn't come cheap. at 5% that is over £100 million a year in interest alone.

It will be a FACT certainly that OR will be getting as many cabinets as well as exchanges up and running so they can get income coming back to pay off said debt.

But even though you are a said expert of project management you don't seem to have any clue on what is needed. You must have only run small scale internal projects that were a doddle to plan an execute in comparison.

When you add in external agencies, contractors, suppliers, and all the other factors such as weather and blocked ducts this is a truly mammoth task and the fact that OR brought its completion forward a year shows they have it very much under control.

You really do seem to be upset that you don't have it and now have a big axe to grind.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

The indications are that at one time it was about 10 cabinets minimum but that number seems to be from anecdotal posts

So why are you re-posting it as a fact?

Well I least I know now that you are referring to basically those spreadsheets, and thus know how to judge your statements, as very simple list comparisons rather than deep checks.

perhaps we should play spot the openreach van parked up and having a brew while they sit around doing nothing.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Well I least I know now that you are referring to basically those spreadsheets, and thus know how to judge your statements, as very simple list comparisons rather than deep checks.

perhaps we should play spot the openreach van parked up and having a brew while they sit around doing nothing.

We can't even do that not only do OR use Kelly communications, I spotted an OR van last week that had "Openreach supplied by" and it had a small local company name and number on it.

I doubt they were being involved in the rollout.