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Message 1 of 4

No light at the end of this fibre tunnel!

I moved house in December 2024, so in November I checked I could get BT fibre and ordered it. The new house already had all the kit installed (ONS box etc), so BT presumed it'd be a straightforward install, as did I, seeing as the kit was already installed indoors.

After an engineer visit we soon realised the fibre was never installed outside, it didn't connect to anything! Turns out it was never connected as we're set back from the road up a small lane.

It was handed to OpenReach, who since then I have heard nothing from officially. Luckily I was working at home when they just turned up one day! After chatting with OpenReach engineer we agreed a pole would be best put in as I didn't want to be disrupting my neighbour after just moving in, and there was also a chance OpenReach wouldn't bury the cables up the lane without me paying for it.

After returning from work a few weeks later a pole had suddenly appeared! Progress! But nothing since. Nothing from BT, nothing from OpenReach.

I'm tired of having to keep calling BT, only for them to give me a date that they can update me and not following through.

Other than Starlink I can't see any other viable options. Does anyone have any suggestions? Feels like they'll do the work at their own leisure, feel no obligation to get it done quickly or keep customers updated. It just happens when it happens.

BT did give me a 4G mini router to plug the gap until it's all installed which is good service, but to be honest they're not up to much with 15mbps download and 0.05mbps upload speeds!

 

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Message 2 of 4

Re: No light at the end of this fibre tunnel!

Seems very strange, unless a new build , where ONT ‘s ( presumably what you mean , not ONS ) are fitted before occupancy, with retro build FTTP ( so established housing that already had copper access ) , the FTTP kit including the ONT is fitted when an order is received, not before , so why would an installer fit an ONT , before establishing that the serving the CBT exists and is available to the address , as presumably in your case fitting the ONT first then were  unable to connect to a CBT  will cause confusion at the least if that occupant moves out and someone else moves in , you would think the installer would remove the ONT , because if its left  in situ , especially if its not something simple like a hoist required or a blocked duct , its only going to cause the householder as in your case to assume ( incorrectly ) that connection is going to be straightforward .

 

TBH , if the CBT is at a pole top ( are neighbouring properties fed overhead via poles ?) , then if all that’s needed is effectively a dropwire from an existing pole with a CBT , ‘bouncing’ off the newly provided feeder pole to your property , shouldn’t introduce a significant delay , so it’s possible your property was never designed to be fed from the existing pole via the new feeder pole , and if the network was never designed for that , it won’t be as simple as a new pole and a dropwire via it to the existing CBT .

 

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

 

if you put your address in here what does the survey note say , it looks like this ,although this is a modern newbuild address so yours may be different 

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues.

 

 

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Message 3 of 4

Re: No light at the end of this fibre tunnel!

Thanks for your reply - says exactly the same but with OH feed.

The house was built in the 90's so I'm guessing the previous occupants must have ordered fibre at some point, and hit the same issue, strange it was never progressed past that point though.

All the houses I live behind are pole fed I believe, there are wires going to each property from poles at least. Having said that my immediate neighbour (there are 2 houses up the lane) is fed underground somehow, even though OpenReach couldn't see any records of trunking or cables being laid past the pole at the entrance of the lane, and they had a search for them when visiting. He has no wires going to his house from poles.

It all seems very strange!

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Message 4 of 4

Re: No light at the end of this fibre tunnel!

So the FTTP network design for your address was always overhead , so is there any evidence of a previous copper pair service provided overhead ? , if built in the 1990’s although its possible that  every previous occupants never bothered to get ( copper pair ) service , it would be unusual, and if a new pole has been installed , then if it were an overhead services, how could that be possible if a new pole has had to be installed , how was overhead possible unless a cable ‘bounced’ off a neighbour property on route to yours, however this should mean the survey note showing ‘ potential wayleave’ if a third party had to grant permission, so that doesn’t seem likely.

It’s possible that a previous copper service was underground but not ducted , and the survey officer decided to abandon underground ( as too expensive ) and decided overhead ( even if that were not the existing method ) was appropriate, the survey though can allude to this , being KCI2 ( two stage ) and Alternative L2C indicators that SD need to do extra work , does your survey note not indicate any of this ?

 

There are various groups within Openreach , the division that provides the network FND ( Fibre Network Delivery ) and once the network is provided , SD ( Service Delivery ) the division that connect you to the network , once the order is taken , there is no further FND involvement, they have got the network as close as they intended, any extra ‘local’ work , like providing the feeder pole , is a SD job , the tech that arranged for the pole to be installed is SD , and they will now be responsible for managing the rest of the engineering work, although the tech doesn’t hold onto the job , or control the job , their SD management structure should be managing the next steps , if the only issue now is connecting you , via this new pole to the fibre equipment that exists on another pole ,they should be aware and doing something.

BT don’t control this , but they should be able to enquire with Openreach SD the approximate timescale …it’s odd that a previous occupant ordered service then bailed before completion but possibly if they were told a new pole was necessary they may have assumed they would have to pay and cancelled 

 

TBh , it seems your situation is something of an oddity so may take a little while to resolve 

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