This topic

Fibre cables put in street - what next?

SantiFik — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 08:23:45 GMT

Hi - a few days ago, Openreach dug up the pavements/roads outside my house and installed full fibre. Yesterday, some more people came and were fiddling with various wires etc. It's all been completed, road/pavements resealed.

What happens next? What is the standard timeline for now being able to oder a full fibre broadband package? The internet in my area is absolutely dreadful (20 mb/s) so really keen to have this asap.

Thanks

Re: Fibre cables put in street - what next?

WSH — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 08:52:27 GMT

Oh, there’s usually a lot more to do behind the scenes. It may be 12 to 18 months before it is ready for service (RFS). Keep an eye on the BT Checker here:

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

You are looking for when it says something like this at the bottom…

“Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG congested duct.

FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered.”

Ignore any mention of “FTTP on Demand”. That is an expensive business product and you have to pay thousands toward the install.

Alternatively, you could register an interest with Openreach here:

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/express-interest-in-full-fibre

and they will email you when it is ready. (Your ISP may take a couple of weeks more to catch up with this notification though).

Re: Fibre cables put in street - what next?

iniltous — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:00:32 GMT

12-18 months is woefully pessimistic, it may be 12-18 days , the point is , you can’t predict it ….if the work tgat you observed was done to connect CBT’s to splitter node that’s already lit , then potentially a few days and it’s ready for service, if this ‘local to you work’ has been done , but the ‘spine’ work upto the splitter node it is fed from hasn’t been done , it may be months , it may even get abandoned and put on the back burner for years ….

It’s good advice to keep an eye on the checker , when WBC FTTP is ‘available’ then as far as Openreach are concerned it’s ready , individual ISP’s may vary with how quick they can offer services over it , some are quicker to use this newly commissioned equipment than others ..so if you have a particular ISP in mind and they say ‘Not Yet’ others could say Yes , don’t take the first ISP saying No as it’s not available from anyone.

FWIW , it’s more common to only do work downstream of the splitter node once that splitter is ready and lit up , so personally I’d think it’s likely to be days or a couple if weeks rather than months or years before it’s RFS , but that’s not guaranteed

Re: Fibre cables put in street - what next?

WSH — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:54:10 GMT

@iniltous I was going by what happened here, but a fair point and I bow to your greater experience.

Re: Fibre cables put in street - what next?

Kimberlin — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:05:44 GMT

@SantiFik

Aside from the excellent answer provided, no one here knows, it’s entirely guesswork.

Re: Fibre cables put in street - what next?

iniltous — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:58:25 GMT

You may be right, I can’t definitively say the OP won’t have many months to wait , but that’s the exception rather than the rule , a delay of that magnitude would be something of an edge case and would indicate some kind of unforeseen event that’s deemed too expensive to fix from the existing installation budget for that ‘PON’ .
The FTTP rollout is phased, spine work , the OLT (headend) to aggregation node cabling and splicing , followed by Aggregation Node to Splitter Node cabling and splicing , lastly providing and connect up the individual CBTs to the splitter , it’s somewhat pointless providing CBTs and cabling them back in advance to where you intend to place a splitter , so anyone ‘noticing’ CBTs going in is witnessing the end of a normal rollout not the start , invariably you only program CBT work once the splitter has been installed, commissioned and is already ready for service , basically the majority of the work is already done before a CBT is fitted .

It’s unusual for any major delay …..but it is possible , and as there are budgeting constraints, it’s conceivable that an individual CBT or small group of CBTs are fitted but can’t be actually be cabled back to the splitter (when the majority of the PON is delivered satisfactorily ) say a blocked duct is deemed too expensive to fix/replace so effectively excludes that CBT or CBT’s , so they have been installed but not connected, they are deferred , unable to connected to the splitter, the addresses associated with those CBT don’t show availability.

In a case like that someone may find that most of their area can order FTTP but they and a few very near neighbours can’t , unluckily for them , their CBT is fitted but not ‘ready’ , but there is no reason to assume failure as its the least likely outcome, it much more likely to be successful.