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[Chrysalis]

I think there is still typically ducts even in areas with poles, how they get the cabling around.  For me both CityFibre and Openreach had no street works, they just had to lift some covers and feed it through the ducts, and then the final part when you order FTTP, in my area is from the pole. If you got no poles I assume its then a dig job to get your premises.

[dee.jay]

I'm guessing that the copper might be DIG? There's definitely no ducting from the pavement to where it enters in the house. There is ducting in the pavement, there's a chamber outside the house in the pavement. Would that affect how they deliver fibre? As if it is going to be delivered underground then presumably they will want to put ducting in from the pavement to the house? Would be much easier done by poles, although no idea if that would ever be a possibility. Wouldn't look out of place as the rest of the road has poles, just not the bit I'm on.

Openreach thought my street was DIG. I am firmly of the belief that this was why we were just left abandoned with "No plan" for a long time, whilst the majority of the areas around me where in plan or built. Virgin Media came along and this must have spurred OR into action because they were in and done within a couple of months after VM trenched the pavements. When it came to actually installing it, whilst at the front of the house you don't see the ducting like you get on relatively more modern houses (My house is 30+ years old), they were able to use my copper cable to pull a fibre through. At the time I had already abandoned my copper and had gone full Starlink, so I had no interest in retaining it anyway.

However, there are other folks on the street that have had way more trouble getting OR installed. Some houses have grass/lawn in front so it is fairly trivial for them to install if they have to dig - in our case they were able to pull cable through under the driveway (the entire area in front of our house is patio slabs so we can park our two cars off road) but our neighbours had to have OR dig a hole and dig down to get the fibre installed. Another house has had a new driveway and were told they'd need to dig and they didn't want that - so no FTTP for them.

[Jon21]

The Openreach checker is back to "We're building in this area now". No idea why it keeps chopping and changing but I guess its a guide at best. Has anyone actually seen the "Available to order soon" status? Seems to jump to available to order when its actually ready.

[Chrysalis]

I didnt recall seeing it in my area.  It still said before end of 2026, when they were actively doing works in the area back in early autumn.  I didnt check it very often though, once then, and once again a few days ago after reading Max saying his area was done.

I have seen occasional reports that say it can temporarily say unplanned or something and then suddenly change to available.

[Jon21]

Been in contact with a very helpful gentleman from the CEO office. Still looking around April 2027 for a completion in June 2027. But he did give much more detail as to why. Seems like a lot/most of the existing copper cabling is DiG. Means they are going to have to install ducting. Area is still included in the build but presumably going to be going for the easy to install bits first. Might be done earlier than 2027 but will just have to keep an eye out for any planned works.

[dee.jay]

Openreach thought my street was DiG. We had no date at all. Nexfibre came and dug all the pavements, next thing I know, OR go live within a few months. OR Civils engineer - I heard him say "Oh, I thought this street was all DiG" yet they pulled a fibre through for me without any issues.....

[Jon21]

When they say DiG, which part are they actually referring to? Reason I ask is that when they very first started, there was a crew pulling through blue rope from chamber to chamber. Yet the guy from the CEO team said he'd had a few calls over the last week with the build team. They are saying ducting needs to be installed for the fibre. Email reply minus his contact details below:

Thanks for the email.

 

Apologies that I missed you yesterday, I had to leave the office earlier than anticipated.

 

In terms of an update, I’ve had a few calls with our build team over the last week and they have advised that we are still targeting your area for a build. However, when we have conducted our survey we have found large sections of existing copper cabling which is buried directly in the ground, this means that we will need to install new duct to carry the Fibre cables.

 

We have carried out some work in the area to install new underground duct and some joint boxes, but when we roll out Fibre we break our projects down into smaller sections which is why part of your area has full fibre.

 

Ultimately at this time due to the amount of work that is still required we have had to reevaluate our delivery plans in your area. Our build have advised that we do now aim to pick the project back up around April 2027 with a view to have this completed by June 2027.

 

I know this may be disappointing but we may decide to revisit sooner, if you’d like to come back to me in the next few months I’d be more than happy to speak with our build teams again.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.


Thanks

[XGS_Is_On]

Depends. At a guess, though, given they've rodded and roped bits of your area they're referring to the bits they couldn't rope as they were direct in ground so nothing to rod. If you're looking for a 'gotcha' to take to them there isn't one based on this. Quite the opposite, actually, sounds like a physical survey and build has been done and costs based on that survey and build have made the decision. They're highly unlikely to find some duct they missed that'll make the difference.

[Jon21]

Depends. At a guess, though, given they've rodded and roped bits of your area they're referring to the bits they couldn't rope as they were direct in ground so nothing to rod. If you're looking for a 'gotcha' to take to them there isn't one based on this. Quite the opposite, actually, sounds like a physical survey and build has been done and costs based on that survey and build have made the decision. They're highly unlikely to find some duct they missed that'll make the difference.

I'm happy to wait, not that I've got much choice with that ha  Still seem to be in scope from what they came back with. Got Virgin so it's not like there isn't an option for a Gigabit capable connection. Just ideally would like to move away from them when the time comes.