Which is what I tried explaining to David_W (I think it is) that it seems strange BT can throw all available resources at X number of cabinets and then fail to complete the rest with the same gusto.

I know there's problems, but flames, if BT worked with that same pace....

My theory is that although there may well be problems with ducts and trunking and whatnot, that is only part of the problem. The other thing is that BT simply are not interested in enabling (or even trying to enable) all the cabinets in an Exchange area all in one go.

I think they're prioritising on max yield and getting most number of Exchanges live and fill in the blanks later.

Either 1) They should have found out about the problematic cabinets at the time of their physical installation then - as they're doing in Kingstanding Solihull (ie for me this would have been found out end of July), or 2) they would have found out about the problems as part of the fibre roll out (it's not unfeasible to think that activating an area for fibre means enabling every good cabinet and coming back later for the rest - which would have been towards the middle of September), or 3) They're only interesting in enabling X cabinets, and the lack of progress is because my cab is one of the last on the list to activate, they've only just got around to finding the problems at the start of September and it will take several more months to plan and only a day to fix (I suspect).

It's not unreasonable to be miffed about this.

From the perspective of my cabinet which bears no resemblence to wolvesmad.... What gets people frustrated isn't the delay, but the delay knowing that it's delayed just because there's no one working on it, there's not even any signs so far that it'll be worked on over the next month. I've heard so many stories about BT reporting planning permission issues, and the council are unaware that they've even applied for planning permission. Which in my line of work is just classic, we've got a lot of work and your cabinet isn't priority. Well that's fine, but you probably shouldn't have scheduled it for the end of September, and you shouldn't have it scheduled for December 2013 when even NGA say that it won't be ready until January 2014 at the earliest.

The OpenReach guy I spoke to a few days ago who knows the area raised his eyebrow himself when I said there would be a four month delay on Cab 13 in my area. He thinks it's a very simple problem. Time will tell, but I can say there's been no work on my cabinet in three months.

We have a reasonable expectation that if things are scheduled for September 2013, that things should be ready for September 2013, a few days, a couple of weeks out, understandable. But I think most normal people have a reasonable expectation that if there is a problem, they'll be working to fix the issue, escalation, planning, permission, scheduling, site survery, roadworks notices, roadworks, call back the fibre people in at least some kind of queue basis. We have a reasonable expectation that if it's delayed to January 2014, that it's because there is some major work that needs to be completed, and not just a case that that it's only going to take a couple of days to do work but they can't get around to it for two months, then the fibre four weeks later, and commissioning six weeks after that....

And I think it debatable whether BT should claim an Exchange is Accepting orders. Maybe Ofcom could force them to do a %age complete based on number of cabinets....

Edited by deleted (Sat 19-Oct-13 16:52:24)

In reply to a post by sjdean:

And I think it debatable whether BT should claim an Exchange is Accepting orders. Maybe Ofcom could force them to do a %age complete based on number of cabinets....

No real point. BT's progress is measured by the homes they pass with enabled cabinets not exchanges.

If your cabinet is in the commercial roll-out, it's entirely up to Openreach what they do and when - there's no contractual nor regulatory requirement to stick to the original plans. By all accounts, you'd be happier if they'd planned your cabinet for 2023. When they're early, you'd be delighted.

I know you're frustrated, but it clearly didn't make sense for Openreach to stay working on the ground on the remaining cabinets in your area, otherwise they would have stayed on the job. As you said yourself, they're prioritising work based on maximising coverage, but, as Ignitionnet says, it's number of cabinets enabled and number of homes passed that are the primary metrics, not number of exchanges with some cabinets enabled (or all the planned cabinets enabled).


Your continuous speculation about the residual work doesn't help anyone. Unless you have inside knowledge, it's mere assertion - and if you did have inside knowledge, you would have surely posted that by now. Talking to the staff on the ground may give you an idea, but they don't necessarily know everything about what is going on.

On what basis - other than mere assertion - do you suspect it's a single day fix that's months in the planning? How will you know it was a single day fix when the cabinet is enabled? What does it matter anyway?


As I said earlier, it's people complaining about dates being missed that has led to many of the public dates becoming heavily padded. The project is proceeding at the same pace as before - just without the same level of public insight. Even before the adverse ASA decision, some of the dates were missed, sometimes by several times.


The end point that you care about is your cabinet being ready for service - unless you're following up on your earlier threat to boycott it. It's overwhelmingly likely it will come soon - but when is impossible to predict when without inside knowledge.

In an ideal world, the whole country would have FTTP today. With the limited resources available, Openreach have to do what they can to make the best of every available pound, which means gradual roll-out and most areas getting FTTC.

I agree with sjdean. Ofcom might do something about it. Because one of my friend had FTTC cabinet and BT Checker say FTTC available and he had contact his isp and the isp told him that BT Wholesales rejected the order because the exchange isn't FTTC accepted yet. A few week later the BT Checker change from Available to March 2014. No wonder my friend is so angry and wonder why BT mess us around.

Edited by adslmax (Sun 20-Oct-13 00:49:13)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I agree with sjdean. Ofcom might do something about it.

Why would they? Proposed roll-out dates for FTTx are not a regulatory matter. The commercial roll-out is being done at BT Openreach's sole commercial discretion. Ofcom have no power to issue directions to BT Openreach to roll out a particular FTTC cabinet by a particular date.


This is not the first time you've suggested in these forums that an individual takes a complaint to Ofcom that Ofcom lack the power to deal with, adslmax. As Ofcom's own site makes clear, Ofcom do not have the power to investigate individual complaints, though they do have a customer contact team to maintain surveillance for issues requiring their attention.

The principal duties of Ofcom are found in s. 3 Communications Act 2003 (I've no idea how legislation.gov.uk has managed to come up with a prospective version - this section was commenced in its entirety on 29 December 2003; there is a section 6A not appearing in this text that was inserted by a subsequent amendment and has also been commenced, but that relates solely to postal services).

Suggest we take a breath here - the cabinet enablement and exchange end are being done by Openreach, the ability for any CP to use that and sell a service to a customer is in the hands of the CP who has other equipment and configuration activities before the end-user can order

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I agree with sjdean. Ofcom might do something about it. Because one of my friend had FTTC cabinet and BT Checker say FTTC available and he had contact his isp and the isp told him that BT Wholesales rejected the order because the exchange isn't FTTC accepted yet. A few week later the BT Checker change from Available to March 2014. No wonder my friend is so angry and wonder why BT mess us around.

orders can happen before an exchange is marked as AO.

I was installed and running whilst my exchange was CS.

Thought that seemed rather steep so fingers crossed Igitionnet. The lines around here are dire. They are only doing 4 cabs on this exchange initially.

I was shocked to see them doing the ground work on Saturday morning.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

I was shocked to see them doing the ground work on Saturday morning.

I see BT Openreach working on the sunday too in Madeley area (cabinet)

One week ago cabinet 18 in Market Drayton, Shropshire was marked as available 31st May 14 on https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html however during this weekend I checked again and found that it is available now.

This morning on the xilo/uno availablity checker Exchange: Market Drayton(WNMD) has fibre available on my number, estimated downstream speed is 67Mbps which is close to the btwholesale checker figure of 68.2Mbps