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[Derpy]

I am a long time reader/lurker here and you guys always seem to be the ones who have the best chance of knowing whats going on with openreach albeit limited to what you have experienced.

My street is part of the north Scotland r100 build and using the r100 checker last year I could see that every address besides mine was getting upgraded to FTTP. I queried with the r100 team and they said it was because I was supposed to have greater than 25MB internet (I dont) but that there was a chance I would be covered anyway depending on the install even though I was not part of the r100 contract for our street.

My address is in the middle of the street with a BT manhole outside the drive (where they have added a 8 house pon? but no ducting seems to lead to me directly from there), the street has only one way in road wise and I am nearly in the middle of the rows for the length of the street.

When openreach boys turned up for a survey last summer I asked them if I would be covered and they thought I would but I dont know how sure they actually were.
The last few months has had work done and the last 2 weeks has seen ducts being dug and ran down the street in parts and the cutting in the tarmac to cross the road lets me see which houses have been ran to the edge of as well as the paint.
So far nothing has happened with my house although half to 2/3 the street has been dug into and in the process of having fibre ran to their boundaries by the looks of it for ducting.

Quite a few houses now have small hatches (maybe 15cm x 15cm approx) and ducting ran to them and so far the contractors have bypassed my house.

I am hoping to catch openreach or the contractors to find out whats going on but no luck so far and if I am covered.

I pray to all that is that I am covered and its just a quirk of the build where I dont need this extra ducting BUT it is r100 and I suspect silliness may ensue where because the scottish gov are paying for it all to be done for all the addresses in my small street besides mine openreach just wont do the work and I will be the only house without.

All premises are old builds and although not every single house has been ducted to I am not sure on the build years of each house to guess if thats a factor.

Very nervous I miss out as its been a hard slog with the slow internet and a full family house all trying to use it, I regularly have to try and use a hotspot to leave bandwidth for the children/partner so they have some internet.

Sorry its a bit of a ramble.

[tiffy]

My circumstances were very similar to yours, resident in a small approx 50 dwelling private development of up to 50 years vintage, POTS all UG distribution, un-ducted direct burial armoured cable (DIG) to each dwelling.
OR sub-contractors spent approx a month at the beginning of last year running fibre throughout the estate using existing ducting where possible and installing quite a considerable amount of new ducting where necessary for the fibre runs, individual property "toby boxes" where only installed at the opposite side of the street to the main existing cable duct (footway chamber) runs.

In my case a 4 way fibre CBT was installed in the footway chamber directly outside my front garden wall, there were no property exits from this chamber the POTS being fed from the footway chamber at the adjacent property.
So what happened with my FTTP install last month was, OR sub-contractors appeared approx a week before the fibre install date and installed a toby box directly beside the footway chamber with direct ducted access to the chamber.
On the install day, a pair of OR sub-contractors arrived, drilled throught the toby box under the garden wall, ran ducted fibre across the front garden to the chosen house entry point, I had already installed a duct under the path and drilled through the wall, installing the ONT.

From your description, I would imagine that you will also require the installation of a toby box as some method of exit for the fibre from the footway chamber where the CBT resides is obviously necessary.

I have observed quite a few recent FTTP installations in our general area, with UG distribution even where POTS ducting exists a complete fibre run to the existing phone master socket is rarely achievable, in most cases the existing POTS duct is broken into as close as possible to the property, the fibre extracted and run externally to the new designated entry point.

Of course your particular area may well have different installation methods but the principal is certainly the same.
I have no idea if my area (NW Northern Ireland) was part of any form of grant scheme for this particular fibre installation.     

[Derpy]

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
So it looks like there are some different sized Toby boxes like you say with small ones outside boundaries of properties feeding to larger ones.

Before you were able to order BT didnt put a small box for you pre-emptively I take it? they came after and added it for you even though other properties had been pre-emptively done earlier?
I am just trying to figure out why some properties have a small toby box and some dont.

The BT manhole directly next to my drive has a CBT in it now but does not seem to run directly to my property, just down the street and across to houses that have got both a large and small toby boxes installed.

Our street is approx 300m long from the entrance and I am approx 175m into that street. I checked on the R100 program and every address besides mine and the house opposite have a message saying they are putting in FTTP for them. I am told I already have a fast enough connection (I dont but its gov...) and the other house can get a grant.

As I said above, I am just very nervous we miss out because of contract quirks.

[craigski]

Who initiated this R100 project in your area? We had a similar (Gigabit Voucher version) rollout in my local village that was lead by community, who had a task team that liaised directly with OR project team. Maybe you could contact them, rather than OR?

[Derpy]

Who initiated this R100 project in your area?

I believe its part of the Scottish gov north lot so I dont know if there was anyone locally properly involved or advocating for it.
When I contacted r100 before last summer when I discovered all the addresses in my street besides mine and another missing out I got told to see what happens in the summer (last year) when build details may come out. They had planned to have the work done for the rest by the end of 2021 but it got delayed and was supposed to be completed at the end of March but its still ongoing.
It was the initial survey team (about 8-10) from OR that I spoke to thought I would get it but that was last summer.

[tiffy]

Before you were able to order BT didnt put a small box for you pre-emptively I take it? they came after and added it for you even though other properties had been pre-emptively done earlier?

I could actually have placed an FTTP order a few days after the CBT outside my property was commissioned when availability was shown on the BTw checker, I opted not to but wait until my current 1 year FTTC contract expired as I was changing ISP.

I am just trying to figure out why some properties have a small toby box and some dont.

As mentioned earlier, same circumstances here where it was obvious that additional toby box exits would be required to the dwellings where no exits already existed from the CBT chambers!
Although the fibre infrastructure was installed by OR sub-contractors I certainly witnessed a few OR inspectors/surveyors visits during the install period so presume the final product was accepted and signed off?

My toby box was installed on the day scheduled for "engineers external survey", about 9 days before the install, I was moving from Zen to BT so it was obvious that someone realised that additional "external" work was required before the actual fibre install.

Your circumstances may be effected by the particular rollout scheme applicable to your area, sorry can't help with that.
To be honest, can't see that the addition of a toby box to access your CBT footway chamber would be a big stumbling block, mine took about 45 min's, that's including re-tarmac'ing and time off to drink the supplied coffee and eat biscuits!   

[robwfs]

I am a long time reader/lurker here and you guys always seem to be the ones who have the best chance of knowing whats going on with openreach albeit limited to what you have experienced.

Derpy, can you PM me your address and I can try to find out more information for you? I've got access to contacts at R100/Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme so may be able to get a proper answer.

[Derpy]

I could actually have placed an FTTP order a few days after the CBT outside my property was commissioned when availability was shown on the BTw checker, I opted not to but wait until my current 1 year FTTC contract expired as I was changing ISP.

As mentioned earlier, same circumstances here where it was obvious that additional toby box exits would be required to the dwellings where no exits already existed from the CBT chambers!
Although the fibre infrastructure was installed by OR sub-contractors I certainly witnessed a few OR inspectors/surveyors visits during the install period so presume the final product was accepted and signed off?

My toby box was installed on the day scheduled for "engineers external survey", about 9 days before the install, I was moving from Zen to BT so it was obvious that someone realised that additional "external" work was required before the actual fibre install.

Your circumstances may be effected by the particular rollout scheme applicable to your area, sorry can't help with that.
To be honest, can't see that the addition of a toby box to access your CBT footway chamber would be a big stumbling block, mine took about 45 min's, that's including re-tarmac'ing and time off to drink the supplied coffee and eat biscuits!   

Thanks, thats a bit reassuring, obviously being a Scottish project over the huge work in Northern Ireland there still may be quirks but thats encouraging based on your experience.

Derpy, can you PM me your address and I can try to find out more information for you? I've got access to contacts at R100/Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme so may be able to get a proper answer.

Sent, thanks.

[Derpy]

It looks like the wholesale checker has changed for my address (attached)
Seems hopeful.

[robwfs]

Yep, just checked on OR's internal checker and you are good to order now. It's KCI2 Assure which means you've got a minimum 9-day lead time on install and they'll send a surveyor round first to figure out how they will actually get it into your house. Given that there will be a bit of work involved to get it across your garden/drive, then it'll probably take a good few weeks from order to going live but at least you're over that first hurdle!

[Derpy]

Yep, just checked on OR's internal checker and you are good to order now. It's KCI2 Assure which means you've got a minimum 9-day lead time on install and they'll send a surveyor round first to figure out how they will actually get it into your house. Given that there will be a bit of work involved to get it across your garden/drive, then it'll probably take a good few weeks from order to going live but at least you're over that first hurdle!

Cheers, and thanks for answering my questions via PM.
I tried Sky, talktalk and bt and none are showing it yet but we will see tomorrow.

[Derpy]

Interestingly today all FTTP listed above have disappeared from BT Wholesale and it now says FTTP not available for the street.

[j0hn]

It was never actually available on the BT Wholesale checker.
Under "Available" column it shows --
Also if you notice the bottom of your screenshot it states FTTP is in Planned Status.

It's not uncommon for it to disappear completely and then return during the planning stages.

[Alex Atkin UK]

It's not uncommon for it to disappear completely and then return during the planning stages.

Yup, there is no FTTP row at all for the properties across the road from me now.
Previously had been FTTPoD then as above screenshot (except the small print always said "FTTP is not available"), even though ISPs had it listed as available to order.  Its all very confusing at this stage.

[Derpy]

So an update, last Thursday wholesale was updated between 3am and 1pm with my status changing to 330mbps ONT available to order. On Sunday that changed to 1000mbps.
Sky and Talktalk still dont have FTTP on my street yet so I decided to go with IDNet in the interim as its a 1 month contract.
I ordered IDNet on Tuesday at lunchtime and a guy from Openreach came this morning who actually had done the survey for the R100 work here to rod and rope.
He thought I was DIG but he found a duct he thought may lead to the house so he decided to rod and he said he hit a possible blockage but he thought it must be close to the house.
I had no idea where the line came in but eventually we found a hatch leading below the floors and with the assistance of a smaller openreach guy he called they were able to get it rodded.
I thought things were going well and at least we had a path forward for the install but the guy had obviously had weetabix for breakfast as he decided to get on and just put the ONT in.

The 2 of them worked for the next couple of hours getting the CSP put in to my electrical cupboard rather than outside as it was easier and then running it into my office where the ONT was going so I now have a brand new ONT sitting next to me.
Because the job was rod and rope the guy couldnt commission the ONT as the iphone app wouldnt let him but he hopes it will get sorted in the next day or so.

I have to say that has to be the fastest install I have read in a long time. Ordered lunch one day with ONT installed the next day and hopefully fingers crossed its commissioned soon.

Was really interesting watching the splicer going as well.

The other 4 houses that cant get it, he has no idea why they were left out of the R100 program and he said himself its bloody stupid but it was what they were told to do. He said my house was not on the program but he thinks because I was just very lucky to be included because of the proximity to the CBT and possibly the duct. My house he thinks is the only house with a duct on the street.