I was pulling out of our drive the other day and I spotted an OR guy pulling fibre through ducting. Of course I collared him and he said, yes they were laying fibre. Cool I thought, but on checking the availability checker there is no indication of anything - it just says by Dec 2026. So what gives, when is it likely that we'll get fibre any time soon?
If it was indeed Openreach (sooo many folk get confused between us and contractors/sub-contractors), it sounds like you are part of a DL (Direct Labour) Exchange build.
As any business would, as time has gone by and more and more areas become FTTP ready, we have moved the what you might call 'redundant' DL labour from their copper duties, to help build the FTTP infrastructure. It's quite a way yet froma 50-50 split with DL and Contract builds, but it's slowly getting there.
To the better news, if the cables are being pulled in through the ducts, there's a high probability of FTTP becoming available in the coming months. Don't get too hung-up on the checkers saying such-and-such a date, as these change constantly on our internal systems so for this to then reflect immediately on 'other systems' is impossible.
In my many, many years being employed by BT/OR, I have never witnessed the major sea-change we have today, regarding spend on CAPEX and screwing it down to the pennies.
As mooted above, if they are cabling the ducts then there is a high probability that L2C (Lead to cash - customers being able to order the FTTP service) will follow ASAP.
Hardware is mentioned below by Alex and was indeed a 'thing' for a few Exchanges during covid, but this has all but been resolved.
More-so, we have recently spent a large chunk of cash on securing a percentage of the hardware required to build FTTP (Head End electronics etc).
Bit of a long-winded post, but wanted the readership to be aware that there have been massive changes over the last 14 months regarding the FTTP roll-out.
As always, it won't be the answer that suits everyone (it is what it is).
