No they haven't given me a new date. To be honest I would rather them spent a bit of time to verify the BT plans/ducts, plan what equipment they need, work out when it's going be delivered/installed and give me a date. Even if they said its going to be September 2021 due to issue x,y,z.... that would be better than just adding 6 weeks to previous installation date.

Yeah I know they're allowed to use BT ducts, however I've seen them dig up 200m of grass near where I live to lay a new duct, but BT laid a new duct in the same area only last year, in prep for GFAST I guess (which was never rolled out). So basically the BT ducting is sitting their, I wonder if they're only allowed to use the ducting that was laided down 5+ years ago.

Yeah I've used one.network, but the job descriptions are truncated. Durham CC has a similar site https://durhamvi.symology.net/ which I find to be more accurate and has the full descriptions of the jobs.

Keep us updated on your installsation is progressing. I am quite eager to see what their ping times are, I've seen a few screenshots of a few speedtests and they are always around ~20ms which is basically no change from VDSL2.

This seems to have gone quiet, though several were interested in progress. How have installs gone?

I live in Durham (like the OP), and on a 1990 built estate. Youfibre were pulling fibre through the BT ducts today, and as mentioned above, finding some blocked, and three manhole covers in people's gardens. Apparently that has in the past led to boundary issues when house owners found out that the front couple of yards of their garden belonged to BT, and was then dug up!

Happily I have a duct from the junction box in the hole through which the fibre was pulled into my house, so FTTP would be easy enough. BUT also I have 80/20 FTTC which operates at around 60/18 so there isn't such a great need to get full fibre from a newcomer.

I don't understand how YouFibre having sole rights to this fibre fits in with the government wanting competition. Had it been Openreach that put it in, it seems everyone could use it.

I don't understand how YouFibre having sole rights to this fibre fits in with the government wanting competition. Had it been Openreach that put it in, it seems everyone could use it.

That is just the sort of competition Ofcom are encouraging - alternative FTTP providers to OpenReach.

In reply to a post by ian72:

That is just the sort of competition Ofcom are encouraging - alternative FTTP providers to OpenReach.

We will end up like the USA, where each town can only get internet from one provider, and if you have a problem with that network / ISP, you have to move town!

The regulated open network seems such a better idea, I can't imagine anyone but Ofcom wanting to "compete" it away.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I don't understand how YouFibre having sole rights to this fibre fits in with the government wanting competition. Had it been Openreach that put it in, it seems everyone could use it.

That is just the sort of competition Ofcom are encouraging - alternative FTTP providers to OpenReach.

But this isn't competition unless other providers can also use that fibre, unless other suppliers also run fibre through those ducts. That would be like having to have a gas pipeline from each potential supplier. Wasteful and ridiculous. When the copper network is switched off there would be no competition from where I sit. I do not want to only have a single supplier. Then my "choice" is take it or leave it. They can just ramp up the price with no risk of me leaving for a different supplier.

I do not want to only have a single supplier. Then my "choice" is take it or leave it. They can just ramp up the price with no risk of me leaving for a different supplier.

And there’s the rub ......

I think the focus is on increasing full fibre coverage at present.

At the network operator level it is competition otherwise the only provider across the whole country would be BT. At the local level it isn't competition but OpenReach don't seem too concerned about that. I fully see the issue with only one provider being available with no wholesale options but this has been what Ofcom have essentially been trying to encourage for years - areas where OpenReach don't currently have FTTP services get incentivised for other smaller providers to step in but those smaller providers don't have to provide wholesale and even if they did most ISPs wouldn't take it up (as seen with other altnets) because it just adds complexity to the ordering, billing and support processes.

But in most places other providers use BT's telephone cables. They don't need to install new wires along each road and into each house.
I live in Durham - it is a City. Our estate has 80/20 FTTC. It is NOT one of the target areas for the Ofcom encouraged and government promised universal connectivity. They should be in the villages that hardly get internet let alone broadband.
I hope that YouFibre are doing this at tehir own cost and risk, and not being paid or subsidised to provide this - it would be an utter waste of money.

All installed here. Went with 1Gbps at first and then went onto 10Gbps, because, well why not? Ha! After suffering with rubbish speeds forever I have absolutely zero concerns now, obviously!

Blisteringly fast! Overkill? Absolutely yes. But being able
To download games from Origin/EA at 500ish MB/sec is amazing, given the size of the games it’s needed!

Downside is of course some places just cannot handle this sort of speed (yet), even speed test servers are few and far between which can handle the speed. Steam seems to max out at about 150MB/sec. blizzard (luckily only needed to download 1 free game from here!) is horrendously slow, but that appears to be their [censored] servers.

I can access my nas from anywhere at whatever download speeds I have available, as upload is not an issue anymore (always had max of 10-12Mbit). Family can store their stuff and access on demand, no concerns.

Really pushing the speeds needs tests from things like torrent or usenet; with multi threads coming down. Drive speed would be a bottleneck so NVME’s are the only way to go with mechanical discs just acting as slower data storage.

No regrets, absolutely love it!

In reply to a post by Fellwalker:

This seems to have gone quiet, though several were interested in progress. How have installs gone?

I live in Durham (like the OP), and on a 1990 built estate. Youfibre were pulling fibre through the BT ducts today, and as mentioned above, finding some blocked, and three manhole covers in people's gardens. Apparently that has in the past led to boundary issues when house owners found out that the front couple of yards of their garden belonged to BT, and was then dug up!

Happily I have a duct from the junction box in the hole through which the fibre was pulled into my house, so FTTP would be easy enough. BUT also I have 80/20 FTTC which operates at around 60/18 so there isn't such a great need to get full fibre from a newcomer.

I don't understand how YouFibre having sole rights to this fibre fits in with the government wanting competition. Had it been Openreach that put it in, it seems everyone could use it.