I just got a new desktop quote this week as I know new OR infrastructure has gone in between our house and the network. I'm unsure about where the agg node is but new poles have been erected and fibre strung along them with the nearest now only being a few hundred yards from us.

Anyway, too many unknowns so I put in for a new desktop survey and it came back with:

Estimated Build Cost: Unable to offer an estimate using desk survey tools. Onsite survey required to confirm charges

Previously it had said £39000 so not sure if this is better or worse.

I can't justify a huge cost even through my business as we don't know how many years we will be at this address (better half may have to move for her work and we won't know for quite a while) but a few K would be alright.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had seen this. I have checked the new poles which run for about 1/2 mile and have a BT chamber where (presumably) the fibre emerges from the ground. Then there are 2 poles with fibre connectors on them, one on the last pole as it goes back underground (to serve the business that has had a leased line installed) and one 2 poles back in the middle of nowhere. There are no properties on the entire new run - just fields.

Just for fun I also recently had notification from Gigaclear that their roll-out has been postponed now to Q2 2020 in our area (previously Q3 2019).

We saw a lot of £39K quotes in the early days, but now more "unable to quote". I think they both mean the same thing - i.e. £39K was just the standard value for "too big to estimate".

Forum user norniron91 got "unable to quote" as the initial estimate, and their final quote was £21,540+VAT.

If there really is new FTTP infrastructure nearby (and not just a fibre leased line), you might be lucky. Only having a real survey will find out. It's a question of whether you want to spend £250+VAT to find out. If you can write that off as a business expense, then maybe it's worth a punt.

If you don't expect to stay for a long time then a leased line is another option. Expect to pay around £400 per month for a 100M/100M symmetric connection, on a 1-2 year contract.

FTTP is cheaper in the long run, and also makes your house more attractive to potential buyers - albeit less so if Gigaclear are coming anyway.

Yes, Rob was very prompt at responding and found lots of info for me regarding all the options I had and what BT was doing in my area etc. I really cannot say anything but good things about the service I got from AMVIA. No pushy sales tactics, he sent me quotes for a 100/100mb leased line as well. I don't think G.Fast will be available for at least another 2yrs, unless FTTPoD comes out first. My whole street is full of old fogies lol OAPs that just about know how to switch a computer on, so FTTPoD is the least of their priorites, getting any of them onboard to chip in would be near on impossible. I shouldnt really complain though, on BT Fibre 2 80mb, i get download speeds of 10mb or so from p2p downloads, more official stuff like microsoft updates etc, it hits 30mb+ regularly. So that will hav to do for now.

Unfortuantely, I won't be going with a surveyor quote. If the desktop quote was 15-20k then just as an assumption using 'man maths' in my head a surveryor quote could have been 8-12k, which i possibly could have swallowed. But having just spent £550k on property renovation, which went about 75K over budget Sadly the FTTPoD will have to be sacrificed for now. The aim was to have FTTP done as I've just had a nice new network put in thoughout the whole house, using CAT6 and gigabit switches. Either way im prepared for when Fibre finally does hit. Probably in the next couple of years i may just get the surveyor and get FTTPoD if there is no real progress in my area. For now I need to get this bank balance in a more Positive ratio lol

In reply to a post by Azzy85:

My whole street is full of old fogies

Sounds like my perfect street

Am interested to know how long it normally takes to get a FTTPod desktop quote from Cerberus?

In reply to a post by dect:

Am interested to know how long it normally takes to get a FTTPod desktop quote from Cerberus?

For my neighbour it took 2 days. However some people have had to wait a lot longer, ie weeks. It guess it depends on how busy Cerberus/Openreach are and/or how easy it is for Openreach to put together the quote based on their database info.

From what I gather, they're usually turned around in a week or two. AMVIA is a reseller of Cerberus, so should be the same.

Thanks baby_frogemella and candlerb for your replies

Its seems a lot quicker than getting a desktop quote from BT's CFP team who I am told by a CFP contact that it takes them at least 4 weeks (even for the minimum number of premises). I know they use modelling software for the CFP prices I assume they use the same for FTTPod.

You're implying that OAPs don't know much about computers or care about Internet speeds, and I'd agree some don't, but you seem to be satisfied with achieving a download speed of 10mb (presumably per second).

I wouldn't be happy with downloading at only 10 millibits per second, however 10Mbs (Megabits) would probably be more acceptable.