Well I've just had a very welcome breakthrough in my install. I paid the big bill back last November and the Fibre has been run all the way from the aggregation node except for a blocked duct right outside the house. Unfortunately the blockage was somewhere under my neighbours garden or drive and he wasn't keen to sign the PTD form until Openreach could tell him exactly where they were digging.

Anyway long story short Openreach came back today with a camera to try and find exactly where the blockage was and have managed to unblock said duct. Right now I have a reel of fibre coiled up outside and am waiting for the appointment to fit the ONT.

I also think this result will make my neighbour quite happy too!

EDIT: big bill was Nov, original survey was Sept

Edited by abat (Fri 07-Jun-19 14:27:58)

Awesome. Probably a couple of weeks to go, depending on scheduling of ONT. You may want to make room in your diary to run speed tests again and again. Congratulations.

In reply to a post by F00tS0re:

the 12-month limit would have been put in as an arbitrary limit, based on normal practice for grants and not as a result of any discussion with Openreach

What you say makes a lot of sense.

In reply to a post by F00tS0re:

The grant has a renewal mechanism built in

Just after the GBVS was launched I had a long chat with my contact in the CFP department at Openreach about what happens if they do not meet the 12 month deadline and was told there was no voucher renewal mechanism so not sure if DCMS realised after the launch that 12 months isn't enough for bespoke solutions or my contact didn't know about the renewal mechanism.

Probably a bit of both. These things are never as clear cut as people think.

If a voucher timed out after 12-months, and you hadn't had a grant, then a grant could be applied for if funds still were still available and you were still eligible so a renewal of sorts. It is far easier for the awarding body of any grant scheme to renew the grant than have someone reapply. So it it is wasn't specifically included at launch it would be available via a back door. So possibly added as an official extension when it became obvious to all that it was required. From GBVS perspective why on earth would it take longer than 12-months to just get internet. But the real world has poles, ducts, roadworks and a whole hatful of things that cause engineering delays. It shouldn't take that long but it can and has.

(I've just had to have a grant for a club extended as it fell over a budget year for the council, we just couldn't get the project delivered in time, they were fine with it as long as it was documented)

The world of grants is really odd. The team issuing the grants want to spend the money, and quickly. This proves the grant to be popular and useful. If the grant isn't popular then the scheme will be scrapped and in some cases they will no longer have a job. If the scheme sells early it makes a strong case to ask for more money and extend the scheme. Of course the applications have to meet criteria but they aren't trying to stop you getting the grant, quite the opposite.

Just gone live today with our FTTPod

Timeline �
12/07/18 Requested desktop survey
23/07/18 Full survey requested & paid.
30/08/18 quote received
07/06/19 final commission & test
Our fibre node is exactly 5.5 metres (not a typo) from our building � it�s taken 11 months of pain to get connected, that�s an average of half a metre a month!

Looks like we�ve just managed to swerve any 12 month grant issues.

Was it worth it - oh yes

Phil

Congratulations.

That must have been painful progress! Welcome the world of where the internet works! What speed did you have before?

Thanks ...

We have reasonable FTTC speeds - but wanted better reliability and more upload.
Our aim is to upgrade to the 1000/220 service in the future.

Ironically - since we ordered FTTPod, Gfast has been added and Virgin are digging the street.

Phil

In reply to a post by LeeEng:

Just gone live today with our FTTPod

Timeline �
12/07/18 Requested desktop survey
23/07/18 Full survey requested & paid.
30/08/18 quote received
07/06/19 final commission & test
Our fibre node is exactly 5.5 metres (not a typo) from our building � it�s taken 11 months of pain to get connected, that�s an average of half a metre a month!

Looks like we�ve just managed to swerve any 12 month grant issues.

Was it worth it - oh yes

Phil

That's great news

The 'FTTPoD Desktop Quotes and Final Prices' spreadsheet shows your final quote as £2,466.05 so that makes it just shy of £500 per metre to get it to your building.

Shame we dont have a price per metre for all FTTPoD installations as that would make interesting reading.

Edited by deleted (Fri 07-Jun-19 18:20:34)

Price per metre & timescale would make interesting extra columns on the spreadsheet

Phil

I've bit the bullet and ordered my full survey from Cerberus today! The desktop survey was £21800 excluding VAT. Fingers crossed it'll come in below that. Does the surveyor come and talk to you at any point? I'd love to get more info from him/her and keep you all updated.