FTTP Capacity and Cablelinks

I live in very rural Herefordshire and for the last 4 years there has been a project named Fastershire trying to bring fibre to the yokels. Fastershire have paid £30M pounds to Openreach for the work so far. On 31 March the Openreach website finally announced that I could place an order for FTTP. On 1 April I placed an order with Zen (BT was the only other alternative). On the 4 April Zen were told by Openreach that there was 'no capacity' and that they were 'waiting for parts'.Specifically the lack of 'cablelinks' was mentioned. After 4 years and £30M this seems incredible. Surely fibre is meant to largely solve capacity issues. It is impossible to get any sense out of either Fastershire or Openreach can anyone shed any light on what might be happening

See. There is a Gigaclear Project with that name, but it may not be relevant depending on uour post code.

There's two separate things in play here. The first is the Openreach network from the end user to the handover point (usually a phone exchange, but not necessarily your local exchange - the fibre networks often run back to a nearby larger exchange). The second is the backhaul networks between that handover point and the ISP. The link between the Openreach handover point and a backhaul network is called a Cablelink. You cannot obtain service from an ISP unless the Openreach network is connected via a Cablelink to the ISP's chosen backhaul network from that handover point.

Fastershire, like the other BDUK projects, focuses solely on delivering the Openreach network when the contract goes to Openreach. BT Wholesale normally get their network infrastructure in place and order the necessary Cablelinks so that ISPs using BT Wholesale can offer service from the 'go live' date. Other backhaul networks can be slower off the mark, either to order the necessary Cablelink(s) or to get their infrastructure to that handover point.

Zen have their own backhaul network that covers much of the country. They use BT Wholesale in those areas their backhaul network doesn't cover. What I suspect has happened is that Zen intend to use their own backhaul network from your handover point, but there is a delay - likely only of a few weeks - in Openreach providing the Cablelink(s) that Zen have ordered. Providing a Cablelink might involve upgrading Openreach owned hardware at the handover point if there are no ports left.


If you post in the Zen forum, mentioning your exchange and that you are attempting to order FTTP, you may well get some further information. I suspect any additional delay will only be a few weeks at most.

Gigaclear have been awarded Phase 2 of the Fastershire project. I suspect that given Openreach have already strung fibre on all the poles round our area (but as far as I know connected only 1 user!), Gigaclear are unlikely to see us as a priority

Thank you for this post. It's the first explanation that makes any sense of what is going on. There is an interesting twist though. A very near neighbour who is a BT customer placed an order with BT. Openreach were due to visit him last thursday to connect his house to the pole but phoned at the last minute saying the 'lacked cablelinks'. So they appear to have no capacity even for their own customers!! Any thoughts?

There may be confusion in what Openreach are saying.

Bear in mind that Openreach are not end-user facing, and the "When and Where" site or whatever it is may not fully reflect this. Once Openreach have installed one or more cabinets and the "headend" kit at wherever they are terminating the fibre, then they make GEA (which is FTTC and/or FTTP) available to order.

However, that is for CPs, (Communications Providers which includes both wholesalers and ISPs), to order whatever they need to supply it to end users. The GEA cable-link is the essential further bit of kit that a CP has to purchase from Openreach, to link the headend kit to their backhaul.

In this case it is BT Wholesale and perhaps Zen that haven't yet had their cable-link installed.

What does this checker have to say? It's the only one that really matters in terms of supply, rather than forecasts.

Link to the Zen forum thread: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/zen/t/4540709-fttp-...

I suggest we keep the general discussion here - the post in the Zen thread should hopefully be noticed by a Zen rep.


As Bob has suggested, your neighbour's experience suggests that even BT Wholesale hasn't got the necessary Cablelinks in place. This is an extremely unusual state of affairs, as normally BT Wholesale gets Cablelinks in place as soon as Openreach release new FTTx infrastructure to service.

I suspect this is a temporary state of affairs, pending installation of the necessary Cablelinks and any related Openreach infrastructure at the handover point. An ISP rep might well be able to get a more coherent explanation out of Openreach.

For my phone number it is FTTP Available. But when asked Openreach say no to Zen when it comes to offering an initial connection date

This sounds very similar to my experience which started in November last year see this thread : http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4526743-lon...

I ordered FTTC when it showed as available on the checker on 21/11/2016. When nothing happened for weeks BT's excuse was provision of cablelink required. Then some story about all the cablelinks at Hereford exchange needed replacing which I didn't believe. This was followed by roadworks required at Hereford exchange which I thought didn't seem likely as cablelinks are fibre connections between equipment inside the exchange.

Anyway after almost 14 weeks delay on 25th February my FTTC connection was activated. I won't ever know what the problem was but it is all working now at 80Mbps down and 20Mbps up so I can't complain about that. The slightly annoying thing is that a few hundred yards up the road on the edge of the village FTTP is available!

Which exchange are you on?

The issue is that there is no connection between the Openreach network and BT Wholesale network within the handover exchange. As BT TSO cannot build the circuit prior to installation (this needs to be done so your traffic can be identified and knows where to go), the order gets cancelled.

It's very rare for this to happen but when it does, there can be a whole range of explanations. It currently takes around 30 working days for a new cablelink to be installed (Openreach don't actually do it themselves).

I guess the Op is in the Garway area served by Skenfrith exchange, handover exchange is probably Hereford, they seem to have problems with cablelinks there!

My local exchange is Skenfrith just over the border in Wales. The exchange is a small wooden hut in a field!

In reply to a post by BillGarway:

My local exchange is Skenfrith just over the border in Wales. The exchange is a small wooden hut in a field!

That building won't play a part in your FTTP service in any way.

I know it well. Here's a photo I took last year showing the fibre being prepared along the road: https://twitter.com/HmmmUK/status/781918799037628416

My Mum is on the Welsh side of the border and the BT status shows as "in the next month" for ordering.

Why do you say this? How do you think the FTTP connection will be made? Presumably to an exchange somewhere?

FTTP is not related to your telephone line as it is a fibre connection. This will go to an exchange but in rural areas this tends to be a larger headend exchange where there are connections ( the dreaded cablelinks) to the various ISP networks that connect to the internet. The fibres can travel for many miles to get to this exchange. My telephone exchange is Trumpet a small brick shed rather than a wooden one, but the FTTC cabinet I am connected to is linked to Hereford exchange.

As for getting your connection working there is not much you or your ISP can do until the various parts of BT get their act together and connect everything up. It is frustrating that the checker says you can order FTTP but it seems that it doesn't always give the full picture. My connection was delayed for over 3 months and for virtually all that time the checkers said FTTC was available.

In reply to a post by b4dger:

I know it well. Here's a photo I took last year showing the fibre being prepared along the road: https://twitter.com/HmmmUK/status/781918799037628416

My Mum is on the Welsh side of the border and the BT status shows as "in the next month" for ordering.

Nice picture. Those are the closest most of us will get to FTTP from Openreach for the foreseeable.