In reply to a post by rman:

I've only recently found out about the £3k voucher scheme, and i too am eligible!

I previously had a desktop quote from Cerebus for £2750 + VAT, does anyone know how the voucher works? Will i automatically get the full £3,000?

As I understand it: if you're eligible for the voucher, and the final install price is £3K or less, the install will be entirely paid for. You can't do anything with the remainder, and the voucher can't be used to pay VAT - but that's not a problem if you're VAT registered. The full terms and conditions are at https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/wp-content/upl...

I expect you'll still have to pay the £250+VAT survey fee to get a binding quote before you can proceed. Check with Cerberus whether this can be recovered from the voucher on completion, although the T&Cs suggest it can - see 2(iv).

Since the final build price is likely to be well under £3K, if you have some neighbours who are keen to get connected you could consider submitting a joint order. They may be eligible for their own £500 vouchers as part of a joint build. https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/for-residents/

A few immediate neighbours who are on the same DP as you may get fibre enabled as part of your own build anyway, but a combined order could include neighbours a bit further away. It would make better use of the spare voucher money, but adds complexity and risk.

Regarding the voucher scheme, does anyone know if I'd be eligible under the following:
- I work from home but own a limited company with an office address that's not the same as where I work from, also has a VAT number

I'd like to be able to claim it, but I'm not sure if I'd be eligible and that's also assuming once I know the desktop quote and actual quote whether I go ahead. From the terms and conditions of the voucher scheme I would assume that I'd have to have the business office address the same as my home address in order to be eligible, but to be honest I find it a little confusing so I may well be wrong.

Additionally has anyone had any experiences with Amvia?

Edited by Ixel (Tue 28-Aug-18 12:46:55)

Well i have just had some great news, i qualified for the GVS and all i had to pay was the VAT.

The confirmed build charge is £2,151.73 + VAT that was around £430 ish plus the £300 survey has cost me in total £730 inc VAT for FTTP install.

Gotta be happy with that.

Wonder how long it will take to get installed now.

In reply to a post by Ixel:

Regarding the voucher scheme, does anyone know if I'd be eligible under the following:
- I work from home but own a limited company with an office address that's not the same as where I work from, also has a VAT number

The criterion is that you "trade" from the address. If your VAT registration and bank statements show your home address, that should be sufficient evidence

In reply to a post by Ixel:

Additionally has anyone had any experiences with Amvia?

They were very pleasant, but couldn't even get my address right when I asked them to quote. They are resellers of Cerberus.

In reply to a post by xtremedetailz:

Wonder how long it will take to get installed now.

If you're lucky, you may have it installed by the end of the year provided its a straight forward build and subject to manpower/materials availability. Otherwise expect completion by the Summer of 2019.

I had mine installed in ~ 4 months in 2017 but this was a relatively easy build for Openreach as the U/G ducts from the agg node to my home were clear due to being fairly new.

Welcome to the FTTPoD club

Edited by deleted (Tue 28-Aug-18 19:45:43)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

The criterion is that you "trade" from the address. If your VAT registration and bank statements show your home address, that should be sufficient evidence

That could be an unfortunate setback then. I can only confirm that I'm both a shareholder and director of my company, bank statements from the company's bank account and VAT registration won't show my home address but instead the registered address of the company. Oh well, only 3000 pounds I guess lol.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

They were very pleasant, but couldn't even get my address right when I asked them to quote. They are resellers of Cerberus.

I see, I'll bear that in mind then as if FTTPoD ends up costing a huge amount to install I'm considering a leased line instead (I've already had some quotes, but ECC's are unknown until I make an order which then gets a survey done). A salesman from Amvia claims that they can offer me a 100 megabit leased line for sub 300 pounds per month (excluding VAT of course) which beats my quotes so far from CIX/ICUK and LineBroker.

---

Thanks!

Edited by Ixel (Tue 28-Aug-18 20:51:53)

An interesting update (well, I think so anyway ) from this FTTPoD order:

* As the order has progressed, it turns out that three ducts were blocked, requiring "civils" (presumably roadworks). Thankfully as the confirmed price was just that, confirmed, it means Openreach foot the bill. Just as well, as I'd bet that'd cost a small fortune.
* While I was at work last week, several engineers came to rig up the overhead cabling. They didn't stick the splitter on the nearest pole, rather on the one a bit further along the street. According to a retired neighbour who chatted with them, they were putting in enough to hook up the whole street if needed (I suspect it's not quite that many, even though there are only 12 houses or so on the street!) Three poles now have spools of fibre-optic cable hanging from them, although not the nearest pole to me!

The fibre splitter doesn't have any visible ports on it, it's just a big cylinder thing with a thick cable going in top and bottom. I was expecting to see one of those:

http://blog.thinkbroadband.com/wp-content/uploads/20...

Anyway, I found it interesting that they're putting in more than is required. It makes sense, but I wonder whether anyone else who's interested will have to pay FTTPoD or just FTTP prices! (And by all accounts, there are several who are interested - word has got around it's "proper" fibre-optic cabling.) The engineer seemed to think they'd have to pay the full FTTPoD prices, as the neighbour asked them. We'll see soon enough, anyway.

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Aug-18 18:26:07)

In reply to a post by Retron:

I wonder whether anyone else who's interested will have to pay FTTPoD or just FTTP prices! (And by all accounts, there are several who are interested - word has got around it's "proper" fibre-optic cabling.) The engineer seemed to think they'd have to pay the full FTTPoD prices, as the neighbour asked them. We'll see soon enough, anyway.

Those properties who will be served by the same fibre DP as you, will be able to order FTTP at native FTTP prices once your FTTPoD service goes live. I hope your neighbours appreciate this

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Aug-18 18:49:56)

The item you linked to in the photo is a CBT (connectorised block terminal) from this the connectorised fibre lead ins are run, (normally to a max length of 150m)

The tails from the CBT�s will run back to a node, either a DP node, or straight to the splitter.

They very much don't need to pay.
Your considerable chunk of cash spent will benefit some (if not all) of your neighbours.