OR FTTP Progress?

I was reading an article on another site (ispreview) and it made a passing reference to OR FTTP building. I'll quote it below;

The usual coverage caveat applies with FTTP, which is that at present Openreach�s network can only cover 560,000 UK premises (i.e. very few can take it) but they do expect to reach 3 million by the end of 2020 and possibly 10 million by around 2025.

I'm not sure how long it as taken to get to 560,000 premises (I'm assuming more than a year). But to reach 3 million it would need 1,220,000 new premises over 2 years, more than double what we currently have.

Then to get to 10 million between 2020 and 2025 would mean 1,400,000 each year for 5 years, nearly triple each year what we have now.

Overall that is a lot of FTTP network installing between now and 2025.

Maybe I'm in a slow area for FTTP building or something, but apart from most of the phone exchanges now having access to both FTTP and FTTPoD technology, how else can we, the customers, see how the FTTP is progressing?

Do the people in the know on here, see the figures behind the scenes that the FTTP network is growing?

I see plenty of it going in round this way ... especially new build estates, but a few small villages out in the boonies seeing it too.

Same round my way unless there is a nearby FTTC cabinet. There's a 1200 dwelling development a few miles away that's all FTTP but I don't think it's with Openreach.

https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/broadband-map#... is updated at least once a month and then the stats at https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local too

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8062-fibre-first...

Does a split of the 3 million to show what to expect and where, if outside the 8 cities mentioned then likely just new build.

As things stand today we see

a) New build FTTP
b) BDUK project FTTP
c) Exchange Only lines (often city centres) getting upgrades e.g. Westminster, Bristol

Have not seen any FTTC cabinets get a FTTP overbuild.

As for pace of build, yes there is a worry that deadlines may be missed.

I do wonder if with varied suppliers some of the �homes passsed� figures might get fudged ?

As these boards show as well, folk aren�t too enamoured with the lack of choice for service providers over (especially) Openreach FTTP. I believe a bit of weight from the likes of Sky and TalkTalk providing service over these FTTP networks would help drive the fibre roll out.

Thanks for the reply and just read the article on the site too.

I've noticed VM are all over the place on the roadworks site. If I see a phone symbol on the map then its more than likely a VM activity going on.

It seems strange that VM are so visibly active yet seeing a BT/OR activity is very rare, and ends up being just maintenance.

I wonder what the work force numbers are between OR and VM? Do VM have many more workers than OR?

By the time 2025 comes across, and if CityFibre live up to their projections, then OR are going to be seen as being on the backfoot.

I keep hoping that one day we'll receive a statement from OR saying they have done lots of network building and a million properties can now access FTTP. But so far I've not got much faith.

I think they need to extend "Fibre First" to also replacing copper. They could target cities or areas to be upgraded. That seems to happen in the US and works well. I think it would work well here too as OR could publically engage councils.

I don't mind them taking a long time, years, with building the FTTP network. But keeping people in the loop with progress would be a good thing from a PR perspective.

They are not in a position to just replace copper with fibre.

They are obliged to provide a copper network for CP�s products .. ADSL, ISDN, etc, etc.

As Zarjaz says OR have their hands severely tied by Ofcom, they can't remove copper, or block ADSL as they have to provide LLU at exchange level.

This I'm sure has held back FTTP, also if you look at my thread on Kitz forum then you will see that VM started rolling out full fibre last June in Thanet and a year later they still have a lot to do, so even at the speed VM installs at it will take a very long time to install large areas, Thanet is very small relatively speaking.

G.Fast is pretty much a waste of time for the majority, unless they install further out into the network which appears unlikely.

FTTC was great stepping towards full fibre, but it really should have used vectoring but perhaps unknown things at the start of the roll out prevented this (certainly with ECI), but unless you're lucky enough to be on a BDUK cabinet that needs vectoring to meet a target that's not going to happen.

Whatever VM are doing, whether its building FTTP or upgrading their current DOCSIS 3.0 at least they are out there and active. Being able to watch the progress and in some way be indirectly involved gives satisfaction to people.

For OR to start reaching the targets they have set for themselves, lets say by the end of 2018 they have 600,000 premises completed. By the end of 2019 they need to have done another 1,400,000 , nearly 3 times the current amount.

The figure of 3 million premises by 2020 at the current rate seems extremely ambitious.

The only thing I'm not calculating in to my thoughts are the impact the engineer schools that OR talked about. Are they currently up and running?

When the first graduates appear will we see this ramping up of FTTP?

This isn't an anti-OR thread. I would prefer OR to be still at the forefront in the FTTP era. This thread is more about the lack of information being given out, and trying to figure out what is the reality of FTTP building.

I feel like the fibre battle inside BT/OR is still being fought. It's good that the opinion shifted to Fibre First. But at the moment it seems like a very slimmed down version of the vision presented.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/job/t/4594384-re-op...

There�s another on her way.

Edited by Zarjaz (Sun 08-Jul-18 17:20:11)