FTTP Install - KCI2 Assure

Hello

I am in NW London and very recently received an Openreach alert email saying Fibre available. I am with EE on their standard up to 80Mbit FTTC product. This was quite surprising as at the end of December I was told via an email enquiry on the Openreach website that my street was not in any build plan (I emailed to check this was not a mistake after the checker said no build plans, and their reply said the same thing).

Anyway, I was able to place a Full Fibre 500 order with EE at the start of the month and I had done my homework on the Wholesale checker:

- WBC FTTP (1000/220) is available
- But it is "KCI2 Assure" and
- Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG partial Direct In Ground.

The house is 1920s and all phone lines on the street are underground. I assume due to the above description there is no ducting and it is just a wire underground for the copper. You can see the phone line come through at the front of the house, and I presume it is coming in under the front driveway.

The drive is block paving so I am hoping not too complicated to get the fibre in, although there is no soft/garden area. I understand that it will be two stage which is fine, as clearly there will be some external work to do.

But my question is:

- After a week nothing has happened, and I just get texts from EE saying hoping to confirm external work in X days with X increasing with each message. It was initially 3 working days, then 8 working days (although the EE website said 5 working days).
- Nobody has contacted me with any other information (eg date for the external survey)
- When I call EE they cannot tell me anything extra, other than the next update is 13 February.
- BIDB.uk is not showing any works for my road, but plenty of Openreach work on some surrounding roads.
- Do I just wait and hope somebody contacts me soon? How long do I give it before trying to escalate, and who do I escalate it with?
- I have FTTC in place so there is not a rush, but I would just rather get the external work scheduled in without the uncertainty, and would rather something happens sooner or later.

If anybody has any recommendations that would be appreciated. Even if it just to say best to just wait it out!

A more concise version is:

If my EE FTTP order is not updating at all - ordered 2 Feb, but no engineer visit arranged or anything at all (it’s a 2 stage install per the wholesale checker) and EE just say waiting for openreach to get back to them, when I call EE.

Do I just wait / hope for the best. Or is there a way of ‘encouraging’ them to escalate with Openreach (since I know that I cannot contact Openreach myself).

Worth saying there won't be an appointment for the first visit as that will be used to assess what work is required. In many cases if a route from the CBT to the property exists they will use the first visit to run the fibre to the outside of the property but in your case it will need civils booked for the DIG and I can't be sure if you will be notified of that work beforehand. I would suggest you sit tight as the completion of your install (the one where you get an appointment) may be a little while off yet. I've seen some extreme installs where it took 3 months because of the need for a permit and Traffic Management but I am not saying it will be that long just giving you an extreme scenario.

Edited by PCJM40 (Thu 13-Feb-25 22:31:29)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I would suggest you sit tight as the completion of your install (the one where you get an appointment) may be a little while off yet. I've seen some extreme installs where it took 3 months because of the need for a permit and Traffic Management but I am not saying it will be that long just giving you an extreme scenario.

Thanks that’s helpful to know and provides some reassurance following another generic update from EE saying that the next update (to tell me when the next update is) is 7 working days away.

I think it’s just extra frustrating as my house is near the exchange so I see Openreach vans coming and going all the time but not actually doing anything on my road.