It's my understanding that Openreach don't receive a penny of BDUK money until the job is complete, so it's their own money they've spent on the work done so far.

Re the CFP survey: they did detailed surveys of the routes to each of the interested properties, because for historical reasons parts are ducted and parts direct-buried.

Fortunately, most of the ducting was already there to mine. In the FTTPoD survey they identified 34m upstream which needed laying, and that was included in the cost. However, once they finally got round to pulling the cable, they found that the next section of duct was full - so Openreach ended up having to dig up another 164m of road to lay parallel duct, which required a 3 month notice period, and all at their own expense.

On that basis, I can't really complain about how long it all took!

In reply to a post by candlerb:

It's my understanding that Openreach don't receive a penny of BDUK money until the job is complete, so it's their own money they've spent on the work done so far.

Interesting in a way (but expected given its nature)..

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Re the CFP survey: they did detailed surveys of the routes to each of the interested properties, because for historical reasons parts are ducted and parts direct-buried.

Interesting that its a mixture.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Fortunately, most of the ducting was already there to mine. In the FTTPoD survey they identified 34m upstream which needed laying, and that was included in the cost. However, once they finally got round to pulling the cable, they found that the next section of duct was full - so Openreach ended up having to dig up another 164m of road to lay parallel duct, which required a 3 month notice period, and all at their own expense.

On that basis, I can't really complain about how long it all took!

130m of ducting can cost a bit

Edited by Taras (Thu 05-Aug-21 12:15:07)

They dug the expected 34m fairly early on; the 164m was in addition to that, about 7 months later. The road was closed on one side for nearly a week, with a couple of days trenching, and a couple of days filling in. I'm sure it was not cheap!

Edited by candlerb (Thu 05-Aug-21 12:25:16)

Hopefully you were kept informed of the delay

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

On my ADSL2 account with Eclipse the contract ran out 16 years ago and I have never renewed it (they even gave me a loyalty discount so I pay £16.95) , so I do not understand people worrying when there contract runs out.

I have waited 20 years for FTTP then I get a Cowboy install last week thanks MJ Quinn.

Yeah Eclipse is pretty good in that respect. Because of whats happened in my case, this will be my second time being out of contract whilst waiting for this fttp upgrade.

I did see your thread on MJ Quinn, it sounded like a complete nightmare, i know its only 5 days since your install but I hope the connection has been stable since.

In reply to a post by Taras:

Obviously, i don't know if they changed the spline cabling route . . .

I'm sure you intended to type spine but a totally different word slipped into the above sentence (and has reappeared in subsequent posts).

For me spline and spine in the reference of cabling route is interchangeable .

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Come December you may have a better target date. If it's still looking like July then you need to compare the cost of 12 months @ 12 month contract versus 8 months @ 1 month contract, bearing in mind that target dates could slip further. In any case, having FTTP and FTTC side-by-side for a few months is quite nice to have. It gives you some redundancy, and gives you time to move your phone number over to a VOIP provider if you wish to do that.

Your other option is to take a new FTTC contract with a provider which allows in-life upgrades.

What did you mean by "the csp route"? If you mean a CFP, then at this point it doesn't seem worth pursuing, although it doesn't cost you to try.

Also worth reading the terms of the contract particularly around early termination fees, a 12 month contract doesn't actually always mean you are tied in for 12 months, usually it just means you'll have to pay a penalty charge to leave earlier than 12 months.

I had one recently when after ~6mo the Early termination cost on a 12month contract was less than setup fees on the 30d term.