Fibre rollout

We’ve just had 3 bad days with a company digging up our pavements to lay fibre. No one was notified and it’s been horrendous, blocking roads, pavements, driveways. They seem so cavalier and thoughtless. Anyone else got comments on this process? I assume we’re all paying for this and WHY? I get 70mbps from Plusnet using FTTC I don’t need full fibre. Why don’t they go and do it somewhere more deserving. How much is it costing (US?). what audits have they got on these companies to ensure value for money. I despair.

Not everyone can get 70Mb/s on FTTC. Putting up with a few days of disruption for the sake of others is part of being a community and caring for each other like in the olden days.

In reply to a post by Grumpyphil:

We’ve just had 3 bad days with a company digging up our pavements to lay fibre. No one was notified and it’s been horrendous, blocking roads, pavements, driveways. They seem so cavalier and thoughtless. Anyone else got comments on this process?

There are many companies, independently, installing FTTP in the UK. The largest is Openreach, and then you have CityFibre, Nexfibre and then others.

I assume we’re all paying for this and WHY? I get 70mbps from Plusnet using FTTC I don’t need full fibre.

You likely are not paying until you buy an FTTP service.

Why don’t they go and do it somewhere more deserving. How much is it costing (US?). what audits have they got on these companies to ensure value for money. I despair.

If you have high speed FTTC it is likely no tax money (state aid) is used. This is completely commercial.

In a few years the FTTC infrastructure will be time expired and need replacement, at which point you may need to transfer to FTTP to keep getting your 70 Mbps service from Plusnet.

In reply to a post by Grumpyphil:

I assume we’re all paying for this and WHY?

Assume makes an ass of (y)u(o) and me.

As a starting point you need to find out if it is being funded by the Government Project Gigabit scheme. If it is being funded under that scheme then it is correct that the capital costs are being funded from taxation but the end result will be that the ongoing maintenance costs of providing telephony and internet access to each property will be reduced. In global terms this will provide payback of the investment.

If it is not funded from Project Gigabit then your assumption is absolutely wrong. The capital investment is then being undertaken by a private company who will hope to make a return on that investment by selling services to members of the public or by commercial deals. If you do not deal with a company using the services provided by that investment then you have suffered aggravation but it has not cost you a penny.

As a rider to that, please remember that Openreach is a private company and not funded by the government so if you are seeing Openreach vans or contractors it is still not costing you a penny unless you use the services provided by that investment.

It's a bit like saying "I have a generator so why should the electric company install cables because I don't want them". Other people in your area may have need to higher speeds. Other people might not be getting anywhere near as good a speed as you are. Copper degrades and over time the service will deteriorate and speeds will fall. Fibre has lower maintenance costs.

No. I still welcome Openreach to bring in Full Fibre (the future is all digital online) FTTC will revert to FTTP only install for new customers) You will remain on FTTC unless you switch to FTTP 80/20 (no DLM in Openreach FTTP)