So it is an OpenReach thing, not a Cerberus conspiracy against a group of customers.

These quotes are likely customers who would be on the higher bands (furthest from the Agg Node).

Are you able to get any more specifics?

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 09-Mar-18 22:58:42)

In reply to a post by Cammy:

Don't you think £39k is just their way of weeding out the tyre-kickers with minimal effort on their part. If people are serious, they will pay the £250 to get a proper quote.

Cynically, I would say the point of the survey is to find out whether Excess Construction Charges (ECC) will be payable on top of the original quote; I would be surprised if anyone ends up paying less. By this stage, the customer has effectively said that they're happy to pay the original price.

I would of course be delighted to be proved wrong.

Like others have pointed out, I think it's somewhat futile to guess actual costs until someone bites the bullet and gets the OR survey done

In reply to a post by Bill100:

Has anyone received a quote from Fluidone... it would be interesting to know what the difference is between their's and Cerberus's. I had a quote for £30k from Cerberus - ouch.

I just got a quote back from Amvia, which was for £13800 (compared to £13700 from Cerberus). They got my address wrong, using an address 3 doors down, which might explain the small difference. However, both quotes show 14 properties passed, and both have identical wording.

I don't actually know who Amvia are. They don't appear in the RIPE database, which makes me suspect they are a reseller of Cerberus or FluidOne. I've asked the question anyway.

Who wants to pay my consulting rates? Last place back in the 2000's it was £1,500 a day

Looks like im part of the £39K club as well (surprised me a lot with other FTTP in the area)

I am considering bitting the bullet with a full survey as I had the below quote with 4 potential properties I could link with.

"The estimated build price at this address is in excess of £39,000 + VAT. This basically means that it is at a level where the estimate is unreliable. We don't know if the figure is accurate at this stage. This is only something that can be confirmed at a full survey."

so having talked it over with them my understanding is that open reach are basically unsure on what to charge based on there records (which from conversations with engineers in the past aren't great for my area). However I may well wait 12 months to jump in for a quote incase all the new builds surrounding my area change anything plus there was what looked like new aggregation nodes being installed nearby as part of major roadworks and development a few roads away.

All

Just to provide a little clarity on a few points. (we have recently become a Cerberus reseller for the East Anglia region - and having been keeping a careful eye on how the new OpenReach terms affect reality on the ground),

First - please remember that the FTTPoD quotes we are all receiving are an 'estimate' based on a desktop survey with little knowledge of what really exists on the ground.

We saw the first batch of surveys return an average install cost of circa £15k, and the second batch an average of around £23k. These were substantial batches and averages should not deviate that much - which is a good indication that this is more likely an "add up all the possible numbers" approach than anything accurate.

We just placed the first 'paid for' survey request for a client and will see how this aligns with estimate (will post details when received). This would have been a band H install originally estimate at circa 10K or more.

As an example about "premises passed" - one desktop survey received advised that 1 building was passed. We know the industrial estate well - and you would have to pass 5 or more no matter what route you took to supply. The overall estate has around 40 units - so more likely that 10, 20 or more of these would be enabled.

We've asked for clarification around the implied £700 per site rebate on linked installs. The Openreach price guide advise a rebate of £700 per PON - not per site - and a single PON can get to up to 256 premises we believe if fully exploited.

Voucher Funding from DCMS LFFN Program - the initial test phase (Wave 1) covered 4 cities and allocated some £10m out of £200m budget.

Wave 2 is an allocation of £75M - £100M via local government initiatives to support local full fibre networks - see https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads...

I've been in touch with DCMS and our local borough council team and there is no visibility yet of any national voucher scheme. DCMS advised it would be summer before they looked further at this. Current focus is on getting decisions made re applications received for Wave 2 and implementing the successful applications.

Lastly, things are still emerging re the likely processes to be followed for 'linked installs' - how to get desktop surveys done for these and how to get the physical surveys actioned on the ground.

We expect more information on this later in the week - and again i will update when I know more.

Hope this provides a little clarity. I think it will be end of the month before we can see how the overall FTTPoD thing settles down.

If anyone is thinking of progressing - my advice is that is is safe to take the risk on the £250+VAT survey fee if for single business or premises - that is the only way to get an accurate cost - and you may well be able to talk to the BT Surveyor on the ground and get the real detail on what is going on locally.

If you need to get a linked install to make it work for you - I'd say wait a week or 2 until the dust settles and we see how this is all working out...

Edited by deleted (Sun 11-Mar-18 15:46:05)

Regarding a future voucher scheme for the whole of England, it sounds from https://beta.gov.wales/go-superfast/superfast-for-bu... that Wales already has one running. You might assume the English one might be similar to avoid a postcode lottery near the border.

There are specific differences. The trial in the 5 towns - 4 in England, 1 in Scotland was for LFFN - Local Full Fibre Network - and required deployment of technologies which would be Gigabit+ capable.

Last mile deployment over WiFi link was in theory also compliant as future WiFi links will be available at GBit+ speeds.

The Welsh scheme is different in that the eligibility is for 'Ultrafast' which is defined as 100/30 speeds.

Also, Welsh scheme allows for up to £10k of financial support - first £3k as 100% funded then remaining £7k as matched funding - so you would get the maximum £10k support on an install of £17k.

It is unlikely that DCMS LFFN Gigabit Voucher scheme will go beyond £3k support level, and it would probably be deployed UK wide.

My feeling is that the wireless element was only in there to avoid legal challenges