My contract with Virgin Media is up for renewal in a couple of weeks, so to avoid paying over £100 a month for out-of-contract service I would have to renew for a 2 year period. The full fibre status on the Openreach website changed a couple of months ago to 'we'll be building in the next year', and so I'm in a bit of a quandary as to what to do for the best.
I'd like to move to fibre broadband ASAP and drop Virgin, which I think would be hugely cheaper, but to do that as soon as it's available would mean paying that heavy out-of-contract bill for an unknown amount of time. I wouldn't mind if I knew that (for example) the new FTTP lines would be rolling out in the summer, but unfortunately, I don't know that. Is there a way to get a more accurate timeline?
Also, if I don't order a FTTP line immediately it's offered, would that cause problems in 2 years time if I wanted to move later? Or would it be relatively simple to have my house connected at that time? Its an ordinary suburban street, and I don't have any BT line at the moment - only the Virgin co-ax cable to the house.
Nobody here can tell you when it will be available, only Openreach will know.
You don't have to order FTTP as soon as it becomes available, you can order it whenever you like.
There is no way to get an accurate date for the rollout as many things could arise that may delay it. Changing in 2 yrs time should be just as easy as it would be when FTTP goes live sometime this year.
Once the FTTP infrastructure in place it is only a matter of weeks, if that, to be connected up to it so that should not be an issue.
As regards when will the actual infrastructure be installed and be up and running to the point that it can be ordered only Openreach know that and it is unlikely they will give a fixed date for that because there are many things that can throw it of schedule.
Not much help to you as it will be a case of watch and wait.
If you live in a good 4g/5g reception area you could consider getting a mobile broadband contract through one of the mobile phone companies.
They do varies length of contract with some as short as a month and costs about £20/£30 per month which may work out a lot cheaper than Virgin.