UltraFast in Edinburgh - is there a plan?

[gspearson]

Does anyone know what is happening in Edinburgh?  

Early last year an OR squad asked me for access to the land behind my house as they were clearing trees to give overhead access to our single street pole (in a private lane behind the houses).  I agreed and a squad worked for a couple of days eventually leaving a blue rope in the air marking the line the OR fibre connection would take.

I got excited.

This week CityFibre is digging up all the streets around here (Portobello) and laying underground fibre right past my front door - but this would require excavation of my garden to connect and would come in at the wrong side of the terraced building.  CityFibre seems to be supplying Vodafone.

I've been on BT broadband for at least 20 years and have no wish to change.  So will I have OR >BT behind the house (good) and CityFibre>Vodafone (not sure)  or has OR given in/up?  OR told me this week that they would not be connecting my street for at least a year.  The CityFibre leaflets are coming through the door now. We already have Virgin in the street and I am on BT/FTTC  - thus possibly 4 ways to connect to broadband,

Is there a plan?

[licquorice]

Only Openreach will know I'm afraid, this is a BT retail forum and has no connection with Openreach.

[Dode]

From the Openreach site:

6th July

"Openreach today announced that 80,000 homes and businesses across Edinburgh can now access some of the fastest, most reliable broadband anywhere in the UK.

They’re able to connect to the latest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology, with fibre optic cables laid all the way to people’s front doors.

The gigabit-capable, ultra-reliable technology is now live across the city – including Abbeyhill, Corstorphine, Davidson’s Mains, Newington, Fairemilehead, Fountainbridge and Liberton. Most of the build is also complete in Colinton, Granton, Leith and Morningside.

Engineers are returning to work in the city following the easing of lockdown restrictions, with work restarting in areas including Stockbridge and the West End, Craiglockhart and Portobello. Upgrades will start in Maybury, West Edinburgh, and the city centre’s Waverley exchange area later this year.

Local residents and businesses are being urged to check if they can order the latest broadband services at www.openreach.com as the capital looks to bounce back from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic."

[gspearson]

@licquorice I've been using the forum for a long time and know your response is right.  But as CityFibre has been digging for a year I thought someone here might already have faced the issue - stay with BT/FTTC (capped at 60Mb download because of aluminium lines) or leap into the high speed dark with CF/VF.  Are we really getting 3 fibre networks (including Virgin, not a fibre network)?

The answers come from the community, sometimes even from me (not as good as yours!)

[licquorice]

Yes, sorry, should have realised you knew the standard answer and was looking for personal experience of the local situation.

[gspearson]

I'm in Portobello - within walking distance of the centre of the city

From OR on 7 August: 

Hi Geoff,

I wanted to let you know that we’ve successfully received your request to be kept up to date on information about Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband.

At the moment, ******* Terrace isn’t planned to have Ultrafast Full Fibre built in the next year. I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear. Building our new Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband to the whole of the U.K. is a massive engineering project that takes years to complete, but rest assured we’re working as fast as we can. Currently we’re passing a home or business every 14 seconds.

We’re always adding new areas into our build plan, and now that you’ve given us your details, I’ll let you know when things change. 

In the meantime, there’s a couple of options you could consider:

1. Our Community Fibre Partnership scheme: We partner directly with communities that are in harder to reach places to help subsidise network build. Communities work together to raise funds and potentially get government grants to bring Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband to them. You can find out more about this scheme at https://www.openreach.com/community-fibre
2. Help get more people interested in your area: The more people in a community or area that register their interest on our website – just like you – the more likely it is we’ll come to your area – help spread the word and get more people to register at openreach.com/ultrafast

We also have lots of information on our website about how we’re building Ultrafast Full Fibre at https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first and https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/questions-about-fibre-availability