Evening All,
Long time lurker, 1st time poster!
My area was one of the early Jan 2020 areas announced for FTTP under the Rural Market Towns + Villages program and thought others might be interested in the timeline (I noted a few other areas have a similar thread going)
Ever since we was announced I have been an avid watcher of roadworks.org (not so much now they have nuked the detail the gits!) and the local neighbourhood watch on contractor activity around our footway boxes once things started happening
We currently have 3! FTTC cabinets all neatly lined up in a row (and yet we still have a never ending waiting list) so FTTP really cannot come too soon for us here.
The timeline from what I have witnessed where I live is as follows;
Late September: Initial surveying being completed where a lot of OR guys were down each footway box checking against a tablet (guessing checking routes?)
October-December: All ducts were fitted with blue rope by a 3rd party contractor
January-February: CBT's and splitters installed into the footway boxes by the same contractor
Then it went very quiet! Until late April where a lot of splicing activity was seen at the various splitters across the area as well as another contactor installing blue ropes from each property to the CBT locations via the ducting (mine was actually blocked, but someone came back out and managed to clear it, phew!)
Most recently I have seen OR back (first time in a while) who have been spending time at each splitter (possibly inspecting the work of the previous contractors?) and also some light testing being carried out at a few CBT's.
I am hoping (at least for our new build area) that we are getting close and the PON(s) are in the final commissioning/test phase (*** *** is mine) if anyone in the know has info to add I would definitely appreciate the update
I should add that both exchange areas have had a LOT of work done, outside of our new build estate most of the poles (around Minster at least) are now sporting a CBT so looks like at least in this area they are going for a pretty blanket coverage!
I will keep this thread updated as I notice things start to go live in case anyone else locally is interested.
For me this is going to be one of those big step changes, I will always remember going from dialup to 2mb ADSL, then from that to ADSL2, then for the last 10 years FTTC.
Bring it on.
-K