In reply to a post by ian72:

What BT pole? Does your phone come in overhead or underground?

Overhead.

There is a pole on the main road servicing about 15 properties. And all along the estate and main road is these poles.

This is a photo of it

https://ibb.co/eJSBcd

If it is overhead then you wouldn't have ducting. However, BT could run the FTTP on the poles rather than digging chambers so unless there is an issue with the poles it shouldn't need any ducts.

But the existing copper feed to the poles is most likely UG - and from the earlier comments might be direct in ground cable rather than in duct.

In reply to a post by AndyPandy:

But if you could lease a Ferrari for 90+ years, it would be quite cheap, especially if other people could also pay to drive it, further lowering the cost.

FoD is the consumer paying up front to build out the infrastructure that the provider needs to grow its business, which is ridiculous really. The provider should invest in its infrastructure, and recoup those costs (and profits) over time.

All these analogies don't fit.

There's lots of comments saying why should I pay to install the FTTP infrastructure on OpenReach's behalf, especially as it belongs to them, they recoup the investment. It's something they would need to do at some point anyway.

The fact is FTTPod is asking OpenReach to do it NOW.
Forget all your other fully costed projects, timescales, deployments of man-power. Forget that my area is way down the list on how commercially viable it is.

Just forget all of that and come do a project that will cost you about £30k, and come do it right now.
Oh... and I don't want to pay the £30k. I don't think that's fair for the reasons above.

Well...here's the amazing thing. You don't have to pay. Just don't order it.

However if you want OpenReach to drop everything and come install FTTP to you ASAP, and you're willing to pay for it, then I'm sure you appreciate this product even exists.

It's not your typical consumer product. It's a very niche, bespoke product and is priced that way.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

But the existing copper feed to the poles is most likely UG - and from the earlier comments might be direct in ground cable rather than in duct.

Without seeing it then it is difficult to say. Anth might be able to confirm if there are lines connecting between the poles and where the poles run out. If there are current lines between the poles then I understood BT can provide FTTP in much the same way and place the FTTP node on the pole itself.

You're 1 of the only people to post a follow up on the desktop surveys. Your case is the perfect example of why the quotes have jumped so considerably for some and why they dropped the fixed banded pricing.

You were complaining your quote was £30k but less than 400m from the Age Node. You would previously have been Band B, just a few £k to install.
You only had 2 main roads (you were very specific, they aren't side roads) so it must be fully ducted with plenty space and no blockages. It must be because that's how all main roads are right?
So how can OpenReach have the cheek to quote you £30k. You could do that in an afternoon.

Well there are no ducts, period.
It's nearly 400m of DIG (direct on ground) cable.

Do you know how much it costs to dig up 400m of main road (remember not side street) and how deep telecoms need to go down?

All those who think the desktop surveys are too high need to get a full survey done before they moan about it. If you are serious about spending many thousands to get FTTP then the cost of the survey is negligible, and refunded if ordered.

Mumbai from the other thread is the perfect example. He would no doubt have been 1 of the £39k'ers under the new system, but he paid considerably less.

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 01-Jun-18 16:49:27)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

All those who think the desktop surveys are too high need to get a full survey done before they moan about it.

If the desk survey quote is much higher than expected, I'd suggest first getting your service provider to query it with Openreach, and try to get an informal explanation of why it is so high. There might be a good reason.

Otherwise, you're just hoping that the street surveyor can find a lower-cost solution than the person who had all the OR records of ducts and poles on a screen in front of them.

Admittedly, records can be incomplete. But since OR is required to provide access to their ducts and poles to other service providers, they also have an obligation to keep their records as accurate as possible.

I would say the case was the same with me. The actual agg node is round the corner from me. Everything was going smooth, then blocked ducts (three of them). The only thing the site survey confirmed was that the telegraph pole had to be changed, no one knew about the blocked ducts.

The only different was, when i was quoted £2400 for install, I had to make a decision if i was happy with that price or I should wait with NO guarantee of the price reducing. I decided to pull the trigger and order as the over all cost of £9600 for three years works out around £270 a month.

A lot of people decided to wait and no are not happy and want the old pricing back, when at the time they weren't happy with the old pricing or the contract terms....

I hope your survey comes back cheaper, as at least you decided to go ahead with it - but again no one guaranteed it would be cheaper.

How much does it cost to dig up a main road, and if its much more expensive than a side street what makes it more expensive? as I am curious. Thanks. Is it fees paid to the council or something?

I agree with one of your points but not the other.

I agree that if you dont like it then dont order it, its a luxury product offered by a private entity, noone is forced to buy it.

I disagree on the ownership part, to me if I am paying the costs to cover the materials, the manpower etc. Then I expect at least partial ownership of the result. For this reason I wont order a FTTPoD product, I consider it insanity, especially as in multiple cases a leased line is cheaper than FTTPoD.

What I suggest anyone to do here, if they not happy with an openreach quote, contact companies who do this sort of work (digging up roads etc.) and ask them for quotes for their work, if the quotes are high, make sure to get a breakdown of the costs, so as to better understand why they high. Also look for pricing of the fibre cable's BT are known to use as well as other equipment they would deploy. If the quotes are low, then this would possibly open up a route to negotiate with openreach.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sat 02-Jun-18 05:46:29)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

How much does it cost to dig up a main road, and if its much more expensive than a side street what makes it more expensive? as I am curious. Thanks. Is it fees paid to the council or something?

I imagine you'd have to have some form of traffic control (eg temp traffic lights) on a main road or even complete road closure at night time, put the cable in a deeper trench, finish the road surface to a higher spec (d/t heavier traffic) etc. Whereas if it was a side street, the requirements wouldn't be as strict and hence cheaper.