So, somewhat to my surprise, on Thursday a couple of openreach engineers showed up and have installed the fibre cable up the conduit to our house (and that of our neighbour who is also set back from the road - we share some parts of a common drive). The did so apparently in response to the query I raised with openreach a few weeks ago which they told me had been "escalated to a specialist team".

Does anyone have any idea what happens next, please? I assume at some point OpenReach's broadband checker will update and then I will be able to order, but any ideas on timescale or if I should do anything else in the meantime?

thanks for everyone's help so far.

I'd suggest give it a week normally, but seen as its Christmas week then I'd not panic until 4th Jan 2021 if the checkers have not updated.

The work they did will need to filter through the systems, which is a few days. So if in Jan if still not showing then its time to get me to prod the right bit of Openreach for you.

Ok brilliant - thank you very much and thanks for all your help so far. Your nudging is certainly proving effective - I was astonished when they turned up!

Still not updated so if you could put in a word that would be marvellous - thank you

Andrew - now shows as available and order placed (with Zen). Thank you very much for all your help - i have no doubt your intervention was key. My neighbour (to whom they ran a fibre up the conduit at the same time) still shows as only having FTTC....

You're a legend.

Just to close out this thread, my FTTP installation was completed last week. ISP is Zen. So far I am happy although the signal seems to drop occasionally (I log into work via a multi-factor authentication system so if the connection drops i have to log in again). I think that might be my mesh wifi (BT disks) rather than the fritz box that Zen provided.

Overall it is a vast improvement on my old FTTC system - getting about 500mbs down / 75 up, which is exactly what I paid for.

Thanks to everyone for their advice but particularly Andrew for his help and support.

Good news.

Connection drops are typically down to WiFi - it really is the weakest link in the chain. Upgrading, changing or reinforcing your in-home WiFi will be needed if the service dropouts are frequent, severe or the range and throughput aren't up to the job.

Its typically when folks get FTTP installed they realise all the other bits of their network that are creaking.