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Author Topic: The mystery of FTTP availability  (Read 5964 times)

NEXUS2345

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #30 on: July 06, 2021, 03:00:49 PM »

Many CP's simply don't offer FTTP in many areas, and rather than telling the customer they don't know why they aren't available they make up absolute nonsense.

As is the case more than once in this thread.

OpenReach do no issue UPRN's.

Ah, thank you for the clarification about that. I guess I'm glad I didn't go with that provider seeing as they tried to give me excuses for them not being on the ball.

As j0hn states, UPRN's are the domain of the local authorities, not OR.

We issue NAD keys (unique to each premises) - these are 'address matched' with the Post Office's data-base (well, they were up until literally a week or two ago, I think we're moving away from it now ??) ... if our info matches theirs, we assign a 'Gold key'.

If there's a disparity or a lack of info, we assign bronze or silver NAD keys as a temporary measure. I would imagine 'New builds' to be particularly susceptible to the latter two colours, especially if the Council address list has not been updated ??.

Not saying this is purely relevant to you, just giving an overview of where issues can lie.

This is really interesting info, thank you for some insights!
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tiffy

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #31 on: July 06, 2021, 08:14:32 PM »

I'am sure this OpenReach link is likely well known.
https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fttp-providers
However, I only became aware of this a few days ago on a postal notification informing of FTTP availability at my address.
I was aware of my FTTP availability for quite a few months but OR obviously just getting around to postal notification.

Was surprised that TT, certainly  a major ISP player was not offering FTTP in my area (N.I.)
Also Plusnet not offering FTTP anywhere.
Neither would be my choice when the time comes to migrate anyway. 
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RealAleMadrid

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #32 on: July 06, 2021, 09:09:09 PM »

@Tiffy  Apart from their trial which ran for several years and still has customers on FTTP, Plusnet have not yet offered a FTTP product for general consumption. The likely reason is their systems cannot cope with a service that does not have a physical phone line number associated with it. However they are threatening to offer FTTP later this year, a bit vague but it will happen at some point.
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patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #33 on: July 07, 2021, 02:24:11 PM »

A new development today - Openreach rodded and roped each property via the ducting. Still cannot order though. Maybe it was waiting for this update for the work to be classed as fully complete and ready for provisioning.
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tiffy

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #34 on: July 07, 2021, 06:08:18 PM »

@Tiffy  Apart from their trial which ran for several years and still has customers on FTTP, Plusnet have not yet offered a FTTP product for general consumption. The likely reason is their systems cannot cope with a service that does not have a physical phone line number associated with it. However they are threatening to offer FTTP later this year, a bit vague but it will happen at some point.

Many thanks for the update on Plusnet.
Having left Plusnet last December after close to 11 years patronage and 2 years of unresolved administration issues they will never be my choice for FTTP (or indeed any) service ever again.
Still, plenty of FTTP choices available, may remain with Zen or review any new customer offers with BT at the end of my current FTTC contract. 
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BT FTTP 150/30, BT Smart Hub 2

patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #35 on: October 05, 2021, 04:44:43 PM »

So three more months have gone by since my last observation. BT postcode checker still doesn't believe that my home can get anything better than 40Mb DSL, and BT's well priced 900Mb service has suddenly got a lot more expensive. However other ISPs such as Sky do now show that FttP is available for my home.

At the start of September I ordered 500Mb from Sky and this morning was my Openreach appointment, after waiting a whole month. And predictably they failed to attend with no communication whatsoever. No one will tell me why or what I can do about it. Bloody woeful experience. I had exactly the same treatment in 2013 when I bought the house and got the phone and DSL service connected, and it even happened multiple times.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2021, 04:47:43 PM by patters »
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patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #36 on: October 05, 2021, 07:15:18 PM »

To rub salt into the wound, I just received a notification from Sky's provisioning system giving the reason for the failure as "The engineer could gain access to your property". Why wouldn't they just call the customer contact number if they had any doubts?! FFS.

EDIT - just called Sky, Openreach claimed their guy attended and waited for 15 mins outside. He must have been on the wrong street, and he conveniently didn't bother to call me, nor to take a photo of this house that wasn't in fact mine.

Apparently I will now have to wait another month for another opportunity for an engineer to possibly do the same thing to me. And I can't even move to a different provider because they will all have to use Openreach.

Surely they should have some reserve appointments for people they have completely messed around. Nope.

#LevellingUpBritain
« Last Edit: October 05, 2021, 08:17:35 PM by patters »
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Ixel

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #37 on: October 05, 2021, 08:35:37 PM »

Unlucky! I wonder if it was an actual Openreach engineer and not a subcontractor who would've turned up. The subcontractors Openreach use generally appear to have a poor reputation.
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jelv

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #38 on: October 06, 2021, 09:56:36 AM »

they informed me that Openreach had yet to issue a UPRN for the address

Can you find your UPRN on https://www.findmyaddress.co.uk/search ?

If so, what happens when you look up by UPRN on https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL ?
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patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #39 on: November 13, 2021, 07:37:53 PM »

So, another month on since Openreach failed to honour their appointment and I had an engineer turn up at the very limit of the time window (1300 attendance for an 0800-1300 window). The installation focused on drilling the wall first on the basis that's the part I have to be present for.

After that the engineer went to check the duct path to the CBT. He had no drawings and was speculating on the cable path. I had to point out which way the rope was routed to the first duct. I had learned this from the guys who rodded and roped it all months ago. He couldn't spot how to route between the last duct and the one with the CBT. He mentioned that he had to stop when it got dark (risk to the public of falling into open ducts). I offered to help to try and get the job done. Having seen them, I would agree that the duct placement and pipe orientations are not intuitive, but it seems utterly mental that the engineers are not given schematics, especially since the whole thing was surveyed and rodded and roped only a few months ago.

He decided to request help and another engineer arrived. Between them the two guys decided that there was no connectivity. As the light was fading I suggested they try rodding the only two exits from the duct containing the CBT (a simple logical approach) but one of the guys just overruled saying "listen mate I've been doing this for 30 years". They concluded, with no actual evidence since they didn't even try pulling ropes or rodding, that the road would need digging up and spray painted all over the brick paving in front of several of my neighbours' houses. They left, promising an escalation. They say this paint will wear off but I don't believe it, there's a six month old dotted line across the road that was sprayed under similar circumstances that has only slightly faded. The neighbours were immediately on WhatsApp, understandably concluding it was vandalism.

Next day I was away at work. No contact email nor SMS from Openreach. Another engineer arrived and fortunately my wife was in. It turns out the guys the previous day were wrong and he managed to get the fibre to my house and splice it. He had used the duct path I had asked the guys to try the previous day which they were adamant couldn't be correct. My wife had to leave, and so the engineer left without being able to confirm the ONT registration. The link was up but the ONT device wasn't correctly registered so the PON light was blinking. It should be solid.

On the third day I did get an SMS at about 8am telling me a guy had been assigned to the job. When he arrived he quickly registered the ONT and this allowed the router to connect successfully. However, I took a closer look at the exterior box. The engineer who mounted it had half driven the screws because he hadn't drilled pilot holes into the timber cladding on my house, so the box was wobbling about. I opened it to fix that, and discovered that the fibre was horribly kinked as it entered the box. The engineer present that day agreed it wasn't right and kindly fixed that and re-spliced. I ended up spending a significant part of two of the three days working with the engineers for this when I needed to be focused on my own job.

TLDR; The overall experience with Openreach is pretty awful. Two and a half days to do something which should by now be fairly routine, not to mention the no-show for the first appointment which they blamed on me (with no phone call on the day, nor a photo to prove where they had been, and yet I was in all day). So all told it took 2 months from order to install, with an actual implementation time of 3 days, and the communication to me was virtually non-existent.

My constructive feedback: issue duct schematics to the installers, and improve comms with the customer when repeat visits are scheduled. Only one of my two repeat visits had this.


I will not be changing providers in future simply because I cannot run the risk of having to deal with Openreach again. Those risks are the quality of the work, communications issues and resulting confusion, and the cost is a big chunk of my own time, usually during working hours.

Sadly I had a fairly similar Openreach experience when I first got this house (new PSTN line provisioning, and then early FttC adopter), and as a result I had stayed with a single supplier for the last 8 years. For me this latest experience is the continuation of a trend.

Finally though I do now have 500Mb down and 70Mb up thank goodness, though my home seems to have shifted from London to Portsmouth! ;D
« Last Edit: November 13, 2021, 08:13:27 PM by patters »
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #40 on: November 13, 2021, 08:11:48 PM »

Changing between Openreach providers should not need any more engineers, as long as you stick with FTTP.

Also that's the server location in the speedtest, not you. ;)
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Black Sheep

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #41 on: November 14, 2021, 10:53:09 AM »

Duct and cable schematics are freely available to all engineers  - Magic Maps App, Geo-Hub or Network Records.
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meritez

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #42 on: November 14, 2021, 02:00:11 PM »

I can get Openreach FTTP:
Vodafone  :)
Sky  :)
Gamma  :)
Talktalk address does not even show up  :lol:

Rushden Northamptonshire, Virgin also rolled out 1GB here but I'd prefer Fibre to Co-axial. ;)

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patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #43 on: November 14, 2021, 09:49:29 PM »

Duct and cable schematics are freely available to all engineers  - Magic Maps App, Geo-Hub or Network Records.

Then the installers really must love making life difficult for themselves. I cannot understand it. If I had access to information to make my job easier I would certainly use it. :wall:
« Last Edit: November 14, 2021, 09:51:49 PM by patters »
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patters

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Re: The mystery of FTTP availability
« Reply #44 on: November 20, 2021, 01:58:11 PM »

I'll post this here in case it helps someone. If you need to get power to the Openreach Nokia ONT but you don't want to run a mains extension - this is the appropriate 12V DC extension cable you need (which I discovered from a bit of trial and error):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383423097541?var=651852504222
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