Legally BT Consumer is on dodgy ground if on new builds they lock people in. Longest consumer contract allowed is 2 years as well. The BT lock is probably some deal a developer has with a reseller, or someone looked to order FTTP got told by TalkTalk/Sky they could not have service (since they did not sell FTTP) the story of lockin with BT has grown.

If there is written proof of a true lock in then Ofcom and others would very much like to see it.

So you will NOT be locked to going to BT Consumer, can stay with existing provider so long as they sell the FTTP service themselves or move to a growing number of others that do.

Hi Pete,

Yes, I'm very close to you, on the same cabinet. I've seen a lot of activity from BT at the cabinet recently including a big OpenReach van this morning.

Fingers crossed it makes it to me.

There were 8 vans along my street this morning, all of them parked next to open pits, pulling fibre through. There is a pit right outside my front door and I have some CCTV of them working away - took them about 20 mins.

In reply to a post by wheeler:

Hi Pete,

Yes, I'm very close to you, on the same cabinet. I've seen a lot of activity from BT at the cabinet recently including a big OpenReach van this morning.

Activity at the cabinet is likely completely unrelated to the FTTP rollout.
That's probably just an engineer maintaining the FTTC lines or a standard phone only line.

The fibre doesn't touch the cabinet with an FTTP build.
You may see OpenReach working in an underground chamber in front of the cabinet which could be related to the rollout.

Watch for them working in chambers or up poles in your street as that's a much better indicator than a van at the cabinet.

Definitely been some changes at the cabinets here.

Looks like, according to the Interweb, a G.Fast pod has been added to the PCP.

Probably a VDSL sidepod

Maybe. There seems to be as debate over what similar pods are actually for. Extra capacity seems more likely than G.Fast.

In reply to a post by pete_thomson:

Maybe.

Probably? Very probably?

Order is in - estimated install is 8th Jan

Forgot to update - installed on the 8th Jan and it's not dropped a beat since.
Glad I'm finally shot of the VDSL and the 2 dozen drops a day, especially since lockdown!