Zen are giving you the run around here in my view. There is a dedicated web form for them to complete to find exactly why you cannot get FTTP at the moment.

Who told you at Openreach you had to order a BT copper line?

In reply to a post by nOw2:

But ... neither Zen or BT will let me order without a BT line. The house was 'silver' market. There is copper from talk talk for AAISP but that isn't good enough.

That doesn't sound right. I've just ordered FTTP from BT Retail. They said there was a very small chance I might not be able to retain my current telephone number because they'll be provisioning a new fibre voice line and ceasing my existing copper line. FWIW, my existing telephone line and ADSL service are from Zen.

Nearly two months later, constantly trying to progress with OpenReach, I finally get through to someone in the UK who, on the second attempt, finally understands the data problem and fixes it! WBC FTTP showed up on my address yesterday (nobody let me know, I just had to check every day). I have ordered FTTP and it should be installed before the end of the month.

Two months further on... it�s live!

A flat 300/30 in the speed tests. Absolute bliss.

3 years from the fibre appearing on the poles.
Two months to get the database corrected to put the order in.
Two months more to get the install completed.

Full marks to the engineers who did their jobs well (except the first pair that ran the fibre tubing using cable ties onto a drain pipe)..

Once the order was in, the experience was fine. Getting the OR database fixed was painful - and expensive!

In reply to a post by nOw2:

Full marks to the engineers who did their jobs well (except the first pair that ran the fibre tubing using cable ties onto a drain pipe)..

Whats the problem with that? keeps it hidden behind the drain pipe and no extra holes in the wall for fixing the cable to?

Well, apart from looking rather out of place against the neatly run cable that the interior-side guy did (which included a 5-10m outside run).
It's not behind the drain pipe.. and the cable ties certainly aren't.
It's not straight. The trunk cable wiggles its way down, and with lots of slack.
Plastic cable ties probably aren't going to last very long.
It doesn't look very good against the half dozen other wires at the same corner of the house which aren't cabled tied to the drain pipe.

It's not a big thing, I can tidy this up myself, but seriously: cable ties onto a drain pipe is not professional.

In reply to a post by nOw2:

Well, apart from looking rather out of place against the neatly run cable that the interior-side guy did (which included a 5-10m outside run).
It's not behind the drain pipe.. and the cable ties certainly aren't.
It's not straight. The trunk cable wiggles its way down, and with lots of slack.
Plastic cable ties probably aren't going to last very long.
It doesn't look very good against the half dozen other wires at the same corner of the house which aren't cabled tied to the drain pipe.

It's not a big thing, I can tidy this up myself, but seriously: cable ties onto a drain pipe is not professional.

Rubbish!

Plastic cable ties on a correctly installed cable behind a drain pipe are absolutely fine.

(If done neatly and correctly) It can be much better looking and neater than running the cable along the face of the building, it's something I do all the time and I've never had a resident reject the idea

Sorry, but I agree with nOw2. It sounds like a bit of a botch job, to me.

Oops, didn't mean to offend. I'm not knocking these Kelly Comms guys or indeed OpenReach.

But I'm sticking with my view that this looks very temporary. Without getting into posting pictures, it's really not well installed - I've done my time with fibre cable runs in data centres. As said, it's not behind the pipe - I have cable ties around a victorian iron/lead drain pipe with the cable visible. I can't expect 21st century fibre on a 1700s house to fully blend in but the other service cables are far better (including today's new fibre which goes back up the wall, not attached to the drain pipe!).
These first guys abandoned the job due to issues blowing the fibre so I'd always assumed it would be re-done.

Mine is part way through install. I'm not happy at all. They've insisted on bringing it via next door, due to height restrictions. They've really gone out of their way to mess me around. Now they've brought it from next door, down my drainpipe and then insisted on putting the junction box there.

I live in a rented house and it's only going to be ok if they do a neat job. The drainpipe has seen better days. In addition, there's a chance I may put an external boiler exactly where they've insisted on putting the box. I've been very clear I need the fibre to come in by my master socket, on the other side of the house.

I fail to see how they can bring it along at ground level and through or round my porch, without the cable getting stepped on and damaged. They say they can't just bring it along, below my guttering, following the copper because of power is there too. Apparently it disturbs the fibre equipment.

They are going to have to properly clip it to the wall, if it is to come down that way. I don't want it going down my wall, up my wall, then down again. If they think I'm going to agree to that, they've got another thing coming. I just don't know what they're playing at. It's an abortion.

The other thing is AASIP are completely in the dark. They've had no updates, only from me, even after they escalated at the survey point. Instead of any kind of survey, I just got a grumpy engineer, who complained he's not an office worker, despite me having to do all the negotiating. He kept saying he's just an install engineer and had literally just come to do a quick install.

The way I see it, they've had something like five or six years to figure out where to put the splitters, which houses they will serve and how those houses will connect. It's right outside my house for goodness sake. Enough complaining. I was only going to say that they've cable tied it to my downpipe too.