Openreach information syncing to ISPs

After a long wait and slow 4g broadband at home, Openreach finally finished fibre work in my village.

WBC FTTP is showing up on wholesale checker and I am able to order FTTP from BT, Zen, IDnet etc. although not completely happy with their pricing

So, I was going to order Future Fibre 500Mbps from TalkTalk (as that's the service that uses openreach infrastructure) at £35/month, 18 month contract, first 3 months free apparently. But FTTP is still not updated on TalkTalk systems (same with Vodafone) and only slow FTTC shows up but not the FTTP.

How long does it take for the FTTP availability to sync with ISPs systems? I've spoken to Vodafone and TalkTalk and all they said is to wait, but how long it may take? few days? weeks or months? Who can speed it up?

Thanks

It not so much about ‘syncing’ information, but rather simply one of availability.

As you have noted both Vodafone and TT (FTTP) aren’t necessarily universally available at all FTTP enabled exchanges - even where they have existing FTTC capability. This is because for FTTP the CP has to have sufficient backhaul connectivity / cablelink capacity in place *at the serving exchange* to enable them to provide an FTTP service.

They won’t necessarily have that on day 1, they could be in the process of rolling it out - or they simply will only do so in particular areas as they see where they deem there is enough demand to make it worth their while.

So it’s very difficult to say if / when that could happen. It’s a commercial decision of the CP.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 06-Jul-21 14:55:59)

Thank you @Pheasant for reply.

I guess I will wait few more days and then make a decision. If needs be, I've got a link to BT offer 300Mbps at £39.99. But it's 24 months and I just don't like overpaying if I don't need to.

But why smaller ISPs such as Zen, idnet do show availability? perhaps their higher prices cover the cost of being available in more exchanges?

Smaller CP’s often or not use BT Wholesale to give them the requisite backhaul and cablelinks at multiple exchanges. BTW connectivity is pretty much universally available, but comes at a higher cost.

The ‘bigger’ CPs like TalkTalk, Sky etc will use their own connectivity. Hence the dilemma that you may face.

I was in a very similar situation to you.

There was about a 2 month wait between my street being enabled and TT cablelinks being installed at my exchange.
TT have a maintenance page, and they list exchange outages for planned upgrades. When your exchange appears on the list, then I would think they will be installing cablelinks.

In my case, my town took about 9 months to be mostly fibre enabled, with TT only offering fibre towards the very end of that period.

I decided to wait because I'd been on fttc for years, so an extra couple of months was worth it for the saving. Plus I'd have kicked myself if I went with someone else (while still mid contract, mind) and then TT became available.

Zen use BT Wholesale, TalkTalk Business and their own Plexus network depending on what's available at the serving exchange.

In my experience when Talktalk are selling FTTP in an area they update availability almost immediately when it is marked live by OpenReach.

Check some other FTTP addresses on your exchange to see if they show available to Talktalk.
The chances are they simply aren't selling FTTP in your area yet.
They may need to purchase new 10Gb GEA Cablelinks in the exchange before being able to offer FTTP.

Vodafone only sell OpenReach FTTP in a few specific cities so they are less likely than Talktalk to become available anytime soon.

Smaller ISP's often use a mix of other providers backhaul/cablelinks so can often offer FTTP in more areas, or even everywhere.
Zen can use their own Cablelinks, BT Wholesale's Cablelinks or Talktalks Cablelinks