This topic

Full fibre availability

snowstorm — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:58:39 GMT

Hi,

Just over two weeks ago, a couple of Openreach vans closed down my road for a day, and they said that they were installing fibre and to keep checking to see when it is available. It still says "Build planned for 2026" on their website, but I checked out of interest another house about 400m down my road, and it says available. How long do you think it takes normally to activate this last stretch of fibre?

Many thanks

Re: Full fibre availability

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:03:34 GMT

Only Openreach would know that.

Re: Full fibre availability

snowstorm — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:29:43 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, but I was just asking for an estimate of when I could expect to be able to order it, as I have been waiting for high speed internet for years.

Many thanks

Re: Full fibre availability

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:34:08 GMT

The only people who know the answer is Openreach, & they won't talk to you. The only estimate available is sometime between now & never...

Re: Full fibre availability

bulldog147 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:09:09 GMT

Really hate it when Openreach won't talk to us (the customer has every rights to know what going on?)

Re: Full fibre availability

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:38:55 GMT

@bulldog147

"Really hate it when Openreach won't talk to us (the customer has every rights to know what going on?)"

Openreach are talking to the customer - the issue is that their customers are the Internet Service Providers, not the ISPs' end users.

I think that Openreach only communicating with the ISPs is an OFCOM directive and not their choice?

Re: Full fibre availability

chrisjp — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 21:03:31 GMT

Yes, it is an OFCOM directive that Openreach must not talk to ISP customers, only the ISPs can do that.
That was an attempt by OFCOM to separate Openreach (which was originally the engineering part of BT) from BT, so as to promote competition from other ISPs and prevent Openreach favouring BT.
Unfortunately, this ruling has not really worked because Openreach seems to be very bad at keeping BT (and probably other ISPs) informed about what it is doing. It also encourages BT to blame Openreach for any of its failings, and Openreach to blame BT likewise.
So when you raise any issue with BT about a problem with your service, no-one really "owns" the problem, as they would be more likely to do if BT and Openreach were an integrated unit as they used to be.