Business Fibre connectivity roll-out

[#1]

When I moved into my current premises, a couple of years ago the FTTC roll-out date was Sept 2013.

• I was not surprised when the date slipped a few months to Dec 2013.


• When I checked again in  Jan 2014 it had slipped to Dec 2014


• I've just checked in Jan 2015 and it has slipped to Between April - September 2015, which I now take to really mean some time in 2016

While we're close to the exchange (catapult distance) and get a good ADSL speed on copper it doesn't really provide what I need for video conference work with my clients. I'd be happier with a fibre solution. I'm not heavily influenced by monthly subscription rates, indeed we pay top whack for the services we use via PN. I do know however that had I been running the project management and delivery slipped without a good reason I would have been fired and my clients would be suing for damages. However it seems such failures of project management by BT Openreach go unpunished and any published availability dates have no credibility whatsoever.
I know the Regulator prevents the retail side of BT and PlusNet from having any meaningful day to day contacts with Openreach,  However PN could be much more vocal on behalf of its business clients and extract some real honest information from Openreach about the reasons for the delays and prospective delivery dates. I've "registered interest" with both PlusNet and BT so it is not as if don't know where there's demand. You must surely be already monitoring when slippage of  delivery dates (by cabinet) occurs.
It can't be a planning issue; approval for cabinet was given April 2013.  The Exchange is live for optical fibre. The question is why can't we get information from BT?

[#2]

Quote from: AlaricAdair

While we're close to the exchange (catapult distance)

Are you on an EO (exchange direct connect) line?  FTTC on EO lines is not something for which BT has a technical solution at present, beyond sticking a new distribution cabinet between you and the exchange.

[#3]

At present the line is classic plain old copper analogue voice delivered above the ground via a telegraph pole to ceramic insulators mounted on our house corner. ADSL runs over that at circa 18Mbs download thanks to the short distance. The existing and prospective street cabinet is between the exchange and the telephone pole.
I believe the only barrier to delivery is OR lack of attention which is easy when in a monopoly situation. I believe this will only be dealt with properly when the street ducts of our national infrastructure are opened to real competition and true competitors allow to pull fibre. Maybe I should complain to the EC about competitive barriers. The Government seems keen on paying for full double page advertisements for superfast broadband in the national press, yet seems unable to sort out BT OpenReach.

Edit: Complaint sent to Joe Garner at OpenReach; the EU one being researched.

[#4]

I could argue that the EU will not allow the UK Government to sort out BT.
Ofcom are appointed by the Government to govern BT and other telecoms provider's activities.  You might recall that in the middle of 2014 Ofcom came up with a raft of improvement targets for BT, however they were not able to mandate compliance without first getting EU approval.
This country is never going to do what needs doing whilst the EU prevents our government governing the country in a manner which best suits our needs.

[#5]

The EU can be intrusive, but it sometimes forces actions good for the public though against the wishes of the business lobby groups.  This happened with mobile telecom charges.
OpenReach are private business looking after a national infrastructure, but are doing a poor job of project management and control. However they appear to be under little effective oversight or sanction.  In the City of London in the 1980-90s when true competition for telecoms service provision was introduced BT rapidly improved their game. However in the regions where they have effective monopoly OpenReach are giving poor value for money to their ultimate end customers. The telecoms regulator should force BT to share their street ducts with other telecom providers, if necessary splitting OpenReach away from BT.
Update: I've been able to find the latest date for our cabinet, I've attached it below, but to be honest would not be surprised to see further slippage. This level of information is hidden by the BT OpenReach websites

[#6]

This makes for dissapointing reading.
My exchange has been enabled and bits of my village have superfast(ish) available to order but I'm waiting for my cabinet to be upgraded apparently.
Now that bits of the Village have been done, no further rollout dates are available and reading about your ever slipping dates I may have to consider spending some money with Virgin media.
I don't really want to do that as it is probably just as wobbly as ever but has the potential to be faster.
Is there any way to light a fire under BT and get something moving ?

[#7]

Hi,
What does this site says - http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/default.aspx ?
If it gives a EO result, try the "Register Interest" route.

[#8]

EO ?
It gives an EA status but I suppose a register interest re-visit wont do any harm.....
Poking around on samknows told me I was using cabinet-1.
At a guess this is the first bit of BT infrastructure ever built when all this were fields or something.
It's probably still in Black&White and can only be worked on by engineers wearing a jacket+tie that own a pipe.

[#9]

Sorry - ES
EA - rather implies that order taking must be just around the corner.

[#10]

Quote from: Townman

Hi, If it gives a EO result, try the "Register Interest" route.

It gives EA - which essentially means "we've equipped the exchange for fibre but are unable to give a reliable estimate of when it will reach your street if at all." I've no problem with not being top of the queue for installations. Someone has to be last while other people are first.  What really annoys me is the constant slipping of dates while not providing any credible information as to the cause. I've built many large infrastructure projects to tight timelines and frequently varying client demands for services/changes. I soon learned to dispose of or fire project leaders who slipped delivery dates without due cause in an environment of news suppression.
BT (Openreach) behave very much as a monopoly, it needs to be faced with real competition so that it gets its act into shape. Meanwhile back at PlusNet it is the customer facing staff, such as customer services, who take the heat for OpenReach's failings.
It may not be a problem much longer as I've this week found some riverside offices with a rent of £1 / sq ft / annum, plus parking, plus good transport!  They are looking promising and have bandwidth for internet video conferencing

[#11]

Could not agree with you more.  Openreach's performance at all levels is not fit for purpose.  You are not the first and will not be the last business which has had to move premises to obtain decent broadband services.

[#12]

So far no response from OpenReach CEO office other than an acknowledgement, They must be content with the poor project management allowed to a monopoly. A month is about to have passed so I'll just step it up a notch.

[#13]

Quote from: CrashBangWallop

Poking around on samknows told me I was using cabinet-1.

You don't need to poke around: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome will tell you (or at least it tells you what BT's records say you are on and in a few very rare cases that proves to be wrong).

[#14]

I've had a response from the office of OpenReach's CEO. The usual boilerplate nonsense with little information in the message. BT now claiming that orders will be taken from April 2015, while my cabinet checker showing the RFS date for the cabinet is the end of Sept 2015. Some non-specific "installation problems" were mentioned for my cabinet in their response, but they evaded answering my point about poor project management being an abuse of a monopoly supplier position. It's time for me to up the ante a bit and complain to the EU commissioner.
While walking my dogs in the area recently I've noticed that by pure coincidence after a hiatus of several months there's been a sudden surge over the past three weeks of street fibre cabinet installations in five locations in the locality.

[#15]

Quote from: jelv

Quote from: CrashBangWallop Poking around on samknows told me I was using cabinet-1. You don't need to poke around: http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome will tell you (or at least it tells you what BT's records say you are on and in a few very rare cases that proves to be wrong).

Thanks for that link, it looks very much like the page I ended up at from Samknows.
I am still trying to understand the different methods of getting connected to the PSTN from my own front door, my BT line goes to a Pole with a junction box and dissapears underground.
There are several cabinets in the village with "BT SUPERFAST INTERNET" stickers on them but none of the adjacent properties seem to have phone lines from a pole, they are either underground or not connected.

Plusnet stopped  working for me last night and I had to continue working from a 3G hotspot, it wasn't noticeably slower than plusnet for the work I needed to do.
This much anticipated superfast broadbean needs to arrive soon or I will, as a business user, kick BT/Plusnet into touch, stability is your best asset so please dont break anything again.

Ta