Upgrade to FTTP - OR delay

[prasadm]

My broadband (VDSL) can stay at ~41, but currently the speed seem to be profiled at 35 , which is slightly above the handback and so I am unable to complain. Last time this dropped to 35 , an OR engineer came in and did a DLM reset and the speeds went upto 40+ and stayed there until the Firmware update caused a system reset. (Normal 14 day restarts do not seem to cause speed drop.). The OR engineer said then that I am reporting the wrong fault and it should have been reported to the broadband team and not line fault. This time when I complained BT support team tried to do a remote reset of the router and that has not changed the speed, as I believe this is something in the DSLAM end that  needs fixing. And so for now I am stuck here

So when there was an offer to upgrade to FTTP  I took it, however there is still the installation of the CSP to be done by OR team (the external work).  My order was placed on 6th March, and service activation date was meant to be yesterday. Have chased the BT team, but despite multiple escalations, it seems they have no idea when this work will be done. They wont even tell me an estimated delay as they cant get it from OR. It could be few days or months apparently. BT now says please dont call us, we will let you know when this done.

I cant believe OR is running the show with absolutely no idea of their queue length and potential delay. The reason I am asking for help is due to the fact that I need to be in for the external work to be done or leave the garden gates to be left open. Some of my travel plans during the impending break period is also now in question.

On tne BT portal it says my Premises is Residential UG partial Direct In Ground

1. Is there anything that I can do to get an estimated date ?  Or am I expecting too much ?

2. I have the smart hub 2 delivered for FTTP. Can I use it instead of the HH6 ? Will this cause any issues later ? Or more importantly will it trigger a sync speed reset ?

[imjolly]

you can use the SH2 if you want just ensure the settings are not shown as FTTP  if it is just toggle back to off.  it should not affect your current connection speed.  if you have a number of wireless devices connected to HH6 then you could change the SSID and password of the SH2 to that of your existing HH6 and that way your devices will connect without a problem

you could try FTTP TEAM 08005874787 and see if the can help with FTTP install

[prasadm]

@imjolly  Thanks.  Do we know what the current delays are with OR ? It has already been 3 weeks in my case

FTTP TEAM 08005874787 is the one who is telling me not to call again 😅

[imjolly]

the FTTP team are in best position to know when you are likely to get openreach.  the openreach delay could be caused by many things

[iniltous]

The survey note ‘partial DiG’ , ( direct in ground, no duct  ) means that there is no current way to get the new optical cable to your house wall from the underground chamber ( jointbox ) that contains the FTTP CBT , housing built in the 60’s through to the early 90’s , DiG was the most common way phone cables were provided, In the recent past , when FTTP is provided into DiG areas ,  they were  retro fitted with new duct and access chambers outside each property , then the ‘installer’ has the relatively easy task of getting from the access chamber outside your property ( a small Toby box )  to the house ( normally a ‘soft dig’ across the customers garden ) however this is extremely expensive and provision is made for every address even though many properties will never be  users of  the ‘OR’ network , so the policy now when  areas are partial DIG , requires the installation staff rather than the network build staff to get to the boundary of your property from the jointbox, as well as across your garden , they only consider your ‘order’ rather than all the addresses in your street or road.

Timescale is going to be difficult to predict, but Openreach network build team will have identified your address as a two stage install ,  the checker that shows Residential SDU partial DiG , will also show KCI2 assure, basically the first date given isn’t ( or shouldn’t be ) the contractual date for service, but a date for the first stage of the installation only , this can be changed by OR as  your property may have the joint box directly outside and only a 1m section of duct is all that’s needed to get to your curtilage , or you could be 100m away from the box that contains the CBT , so 100m of duct is required, it’s even possible that the joint box is on the other side of the road and some considerable ‘construction’ is needed to get across the road etc, and the local authority notices have to be observed.

The way Openreach is structured by the regulator Ofcom , doesn’t allow OR to deal with you directly, any interaction is mandated to be between you and your provider, and your provider and OR.

[prasadm]

Wow !.. Didnt realise it was this complicated. Thanks a lot for this explanation.

But then BT should have known this and should have given us a more realistic timeframe, right ?  I could then plan my life around it, rather than waiting daily 😩

[prasadm]

Here is a bit of update on what happened since.

So an OR team came around forthe external cabling, and they found a block on the duct, which required another team to come and clear. That team then came in on the 17th and cleared the block, and left a nylon wire from the cable exit point in my property and the unblocked area. The gentleman said I should get the balance work done in the next 3 days (seemed like an SLA) , I assume based on his experience. However, the next day the status on my order says "external work all completed", which clearly it hasn't been. I called up the BT number (not sure if it was the FTTP team or CS - couldn't figure out as they use the option of calling back) and they said all the rest of the work including balance external cabling, CSP termination, internal cabling andtermination and setting up of the SH2 and the rest of it will be done by the person who is now planned to come in on 16th of May.

I did question the 1 month wait but they were reluctant to escalate although the statement given was was, if OR team finds an earlier date then they will contact me. Didn't feel very convincing . The messages that have been given to me seems different to what I have found out from various posts in this forum, in that the external team is supposed to complete the external cabling and termination on CSP, and the person from OR who will come to put through my broadband will lay the last mile fibercable, connect to SH2 and activate broadband connection. I  don't understand for something that has already been delayed so much, why would there be a delay of another 1 month for the work to be completed if the external work has been completed (in their system that is, of course as I said not all of the external work has been completed. Oh, my initial service switchover date was 30th March, and now it shows 16th May. Order was placed on 6th of March

[pippincp]

As it turned out to be a blocked duct the external work has been completed. It appears it wasn't partial DiG after all. The next engineer will install from CBT to CSB then all the inside work.

OR will contact you if an earlier date becomes available.

[prasadm]

On 16th as promised, cable was laid, my ONT was powered up, but just a blinking green light. The installation engineer said the cable is all okay up until the box on the street where it is terminated and BT has to fix it.   When I called BT they say it is with OR network team who will assign an engineer in 5 days who will then decide when to do the work. Asked BT if they could escalate it within OR and the person seemed annoyed but said he will. Up until today no further information 7 days later.😩

But I saw this on the Track order in my account. Funny ! Not sure what the issue really is..😞

[FIZZYLP]

Hello 👋🏿 

when you place an order with any 650+ providers that uses the BT Network, then they request a date known as a customer agreed date, Openreach then say yes they can commit or no they cannot commit due to resourcing, the date Openreach pick is known as a customer committed date. 

Then due to FTTP engineering shortages in certain locations or due to infrastructure problems this can add delays of up to 45 days on top of the order.

due to engineer availability on the day you may receive a contractor or the engineer has to skip your visit adding further delays.

they get 20-30 minutes pre job, anything longer will impact other customers.

or engineers arrive and they require civils to attend to fix or install equipment which can a lead time of 30 days.

sometimes they require to submit an application to your local government for permission to dig known as a A55 form, your local government have 3 months to respond.

Sometimes customers don’t really understand what’s involved in the install and turn the engineer away adding further delays.

3rd party access, permission from landlord/landowner etc can all add delays to the order.

Because how Openreach operates a Business to Business this means BT is their customer not yourself this means they have different processes.

if you call up to chase an engineer on the same day it’s hard for any provider to provide information as Openreach will say it’s the committed date and they are will committing.

if the engineer no shows then Openreach cannot provide any updates or reschedule the appointment until the next business day.

this system allows Openreach to get all the information from all internal departments then see what’s still required then update BT.

Any delays will automatically trigger an offline team to chase order and provide yourself with any updates but due to 98% of FTTP orders being in delay this has increased offlines work stack so this is coursing delays for this information to be relayed to yourselves by about 5 days by which point you’ve probably already have contacted BT regarding it.

FTTP Order’s are very complicated, very house and very area in different and the same install processes cannot be applied.

Self Serve can help you track your order and see what’s going on.

This question is far to complex for a simple answer sorry…