Upgrading the Fibre (Installation Questions)

[mrburtuk]

Hi, 

Posting on behalf of a friend looking upgrade from FTTC 76Mbps Broadband to FTTP.

They want to upgrade but are worried about the fact that BT (Openreach) would need to dig up a portion of their front Garden; They presume this would be the case as that's how the FTTC copper is installed, they also do not have a telephone pole as all previous installations are done underground. 

My question is that how much control does the customer have to direct the installation of the fibre by Openreach, I remember being guided through the Fibre to building tie in, ONT and to the router placement but I'm unaware of this is standard practice at Openreach. Effectively if a customer decreed to no damage to a part of the property is that something reasonable to ask? 

All the best, Aaron 

[Colin_London]

I found my engineers very amenable - they initially didn’t like my proposed route but when I agreed to sign off for any damage (it was fairly clear the plaster would get blown when an internal hole was drilled) they agreed to do it.

The plaster did blow but as I agreed to the risk I was happy to sign off on it.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

If someone were to upgrade to FTTP from Openreach FTTC to FTTP and the existing copper cable was underground but not in a duct then excavation is obviously required, and the customer can have an input on the route taken from the footpath to the house wall and ultimately has the option to cancel if a mutually acceptable route cannot be agreed, but similarly if the customer dismisses a perfectly reasonable route and wants an unnecessarily convoluted route the Openreach installer may refuse that .
Generally a mutually agreed route is found ,but ,  if ( for example ) someone had a front garden that was entirely hard landscaped ( so no grass or soft surfaces ) and won’t allow excavation of the hard landscaping like imprinted concrete, unless OR agreed to completely replace the surface ( so no evidence of it being disturbed , no ‘scars’ ) then they shouldn’t order FTTP as it would never be an acceptable condition to renew a complete driveway , grass grows back and block pavers can be taken up and put back down leaving no witness marks , but imprinted or resin bonded driveways are different