Do Openreach bother communicating internally?

Background:

My area is down as to be enabled by December 2026 and has been since 2020 and the Openreach status checker previously showed that, then changed to something else and now just says "not yet available". However on their coverage map it says building now or in the near future.

So I email them to query if they can give me even a ballpark figure of sometime this year, 2025 or even
2026 and mention that an alt net skipped my (1970s) street due to direct in ground cabling in parts of the cabling and ducting in others.

1st line came back and said they would have to pass it over to a different higher level team (infrastructure or something) as they didn't know and I had raised a valid point, all well and good and actually a refreshing change from prior interactions with openreach,

A week or 2 later, returning home I see an Openreach van pulling away from the kerbside down the street from me and freshly spray painted on the pavement is "PWR" and "OLT" which I inferred to be Power and Optical Line Terminal.

Fantastic I think, perhaps coincidence or someone in this other team has noticed and created a work order or something. either way the first line response alone had me impressed due to the refreshingly helpful, professional and non hostile tone.

Well......then I get an email that pops that bubble of positivity.

A standardised response saying my area is NOT in their current build plans, to keep checking their website, register interest or consider FTTP on demand offering 330/50
I reply with a photo of the markings and enquire if their response is the case then why has one of their colleagues been out to paint these markings? Making it clear that if they doubt me I'm sure it shouldn't be hard to check their records.

over as week later and I've been met with deafening silence, seems a leopard never changes its spots....

Virtually any other company would have replied with "I'm sorry it appears that the information I provided was outdated, I've checked with our rollout team and apparently your town is in our rollout and they are currently doing initial marking out works before hardware gets installed before end users like yourself are connected, I don't have any dates to share I'm afraid at the moment. However keep checking the website and with your ISP of choice. I apologise for the incorrect information, it appears the system I checked with originally needs to be corrected and I've raised the issues with the website with another team. Thank you for getting in touch with Openreach and apologies once more"

Its basic public relations, however it seems that admitting to making a mistake isn't something Openreach does, unsurprising given their stated policy of not dealing directly with end users apart from a very limited subset of circumstances.

Its also out of step with the other utilities - if I smell gas I don't phone my gas supplier I call Transco, If I lose power or there is damage on the supplier side of the meter then I call the DNO not my electricity supplier.

The least Openreach could do is communicate and at least be able to provide accurate information about THEIR rollout while trying not to be openly hostile to questions that only THEY can answer??

They have answered your question.

I will be interested to learn from anyone in the know if 'PWR' and/or 'OLT' are usually sprayed on the pavement prior to an Openreach PON rollout.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 11-Sep-24 23:04:22)

How sure are you that the person in the Openreach van made the markings? Marking up for a power pillar and an OLT cabinet doesn’t sound like how Openreach build networks.

Is there anything on BIDB?

no one else is rolling out to my area, gofibre skipped my street and despite some committed attempts to persuade them, as yet my street is outwith their rollout due to the direct in ground cabling. Saw openreach van pulling away from street (live in a quiet town, markings weren't there when I left and wasnt gone that long so chances of someoneone else spraying this don't seem that high tbh).... Checked both bidb and scottish roadworks commissioner and none the wiser frankly. Only thing seemingly going on is a repair to a collapsed section of underground infrastructure on the other side of town entirely.

I'm honestly not bothered who rolls it out as long as someone does... (unreliable FTTC)

In reply to a post by ZombieVicuna:

The least Openreach could do is communicate and at least be able to provide accurate information about THEIR rollout

They used to, to some degree. However, (a) they were getting pestered by many people, and (b) when they gave out their best estimates, which turned out to be incorrect, those people were getting very upset - for example, because they were unwisely making life decisions based on that information (e.g. whether or not to renew broadband contracts, whether to move house etc)

It's a kind of crystal-ball gazing. The plans are on paper, but the reality turns up unexpected problems, and the plans frequently have to be changed or abandoned.

The result of all that is that these days Openreach gives out almost zero rollout information, other than "in plan" or "not in plan" at exchange area level, and even that comes with heavy caveats.

The reality is: regardless of whether the plans are visible to you, your area will get built when it gets built, and FTTP will be available to order when it's available to order. You just have to wait.

Been through all this and gone through the Openreach comms blackhole too. Over the last 5 years we were in-plan, then out of plan, then back in again but are now out of plan with no sign of anything happening. They've actually surveyed the road at least three times now and, speaking to the engineers on the ground, they were always helpful but a bit non-committal other than "I won't be installing it today, but the fact I'm here at all is surely a good sign, no?" I absolutely don't blame them as I presume the guys on the ground have only a very limited view of the longer-term plans, beyond their next week or two's assigned jobs., but it's still frustrating that OR are not especially good at giving any sort of timelines other than "maybe" or "no".

One thing I can tell you - I don't think that anything you do can influence this, other than to see if any other options are around (e.g. other altnets working in the area) so you can try to persuade them to come up your road. Having had a number of chats with the altnet engineers who have (yey!) finally brought fibre up our street earlier this year, they said that there aren't any good solutions to a problem like yours (which is also shared with many streets around here). Digging everything up to put in new ducts is often prohibitively expensive. Slinging up poles and overhead lines is much cheaper, but you'd be amazed, even in an area with rubbish internet service, how much opposition there can be to poles. A whole street in my estate still remains unconnected to the altnet because a few people protested about a single, key pole that was required to hook them up. Unfortunately, I think the moment has now passed, the civils guys have moved on, and it will be a long time before they get connected up.

Good luck, but I feel your pain.

In reply to a post by ZombieVicuna:

due to the direct in ground cabling.

From what I have seen from Openreach, once they have surveyed and find properties with DIG they normally leave them to the tail end of the rollout because of the extra costs. If in your exchange area there is a lot of low hanging fruit deployments then they will probably priorities those over yours and come back at the end if they haven't run out of money in your local deployment budget.

OLT , AKA the Headend.
A pavement marked with ‘Power’ and ‘OLT’ isn’t a standard marking you would expect to see on an Openreach FTTP rollout , the OLT generally is in the exchange, and not necessarily your local exchange, it could be 40kms away ….it could be ( if your assumption that the markings were made by Openreach is correct ) that it signifies a Subtended Headed (SHE ) and probably not part of any regular OR rollout.

.….Openreach is a massive organisation, and unlike some Alt Nets where the entire technical department could fit inside a taxi , expecting every person within the organisation to know what’s going on everywhere else within the organisation is a little unrealistic , chances are , if it is SHE , the person who checked , checked standard FTTP and that returned a ‘No’ .

I dare say requests from the ‘FTTP curious’ do not get much time devoted to them , there will be more pressing matters to attend to , than enquiries such as this .

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 12-Sep-24 10:30:33)

In reply to a post by daern:

Been through all this and gone through the Openreach comms blackhole too. Over the last 5 years we were in-plan, then out of plan, then back in again but are now out of plan with no sign of anything happening. They've actually surveyed the road at least three times now and, speaking to the engineers on the ground, they were always helpful but a bit non-committal other than "I won't be installing it today, but the fact I'm here at all is surely a good sign, no?" I absolutely don't blame them as I presume the guys on the ground have only a very limited view of the longer-term plans, beyond their next week or two's assigned jobs., but it's still frustrating that OR are not especially good at giving any sort of timelines other than "maybe" or "no".

As much as we are negative towards OR they do change how they do things and how fibre has been deployed. The whole issue of DIG existing builds needs to be re-assessed on a regular basis. This is why you probably had multiple people surveying.

In reply to a post by daern:

One thing I can tell you - I don't think that anything you do can influence this, other than to see if any other options are around (e.g. other altnets working in the area) so you can try to persuade them to come up your road. Having had a number of chats with the altnet engineers who have (yey!) finally brought fibre up our street earlier this year, they said that there aren't any good solutions to a problem like yours (which is also shared with many streets around here).

I'm glad you have full fibre narrowband!

In reply to a post by daern:

Digging everything up to put in new ducts is often prohibitively expensive. Slinging up poles and overhead lines is much cheaper, but you'd be amazed, even in an area with rubbish internet service, how much opposition there can be to poles. A whole street in my estate still remains unconnected to the altnet because a few people protested about a single, key pole that was required to hook them up. Unfortunately, I think the moment has now passed, the civils guys have moved on, and it will be a long time before they get connected up.

Good luck, but I feel your pain.

On our build, which was done from start to finish in a quarter (which is lightning fast for OR) there was a road that was ducted, those people complained about the single pole that was erected but the head of the deployment gang talked to them and it was ok. He said that if people knew before hand the benefits of faster internet you do get less issues.