Pleasantly surprised to find this email sitting in my inbox this morning:

"Hi Chris,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I have now heard back from BT and they have confirmed that Bow 1 is at build complete. The testing is now underway and it is expected that premises will be able to order a service within the next couple of weeks.

Please do come back to me if this is not the case though and I will get another update."

It's taken the best part of 4 delay-filled years, but BT finally seem to have gotten their act together and finished the build out!!!

Just one question: How often does the testing for FTTP reveal substantial delay-inducing problems?

This sounds really interesting. I've seen some poles with fibre strung across them in some of the outskirts of Torquay where I live and I started wondering if FTTP was coming to more rural areas. I currently work for an Equine charity with sites in Newton Abbot, just outside of Totnes (and on a cabinet that seems like it isn't cost effective to upgrade) and Holsworthy (which is on an exchange only line).

I wonder if it might be worth me wandering around the areas where we have farms on the lookout for fibre

Rob

It may very well be worth a look as, for rural areas, overhead distributed FTTP is the only really viable/cost-effective technology when it comes to increasing bandwidth. Perhaps check some of the postcodes here to see if any of your farm areas are covered under any upgrade plans.

So there were more delays, but after a quick email to Gavin Patterson (CEO of BT) and a prompt response from Andrew Whale (Chief Openreach Engineer), I have now placed my order!!