Broadband News

It's progress. Shame that ego and politics meant this "stuff" was so delayed from progressing 18 months ago. I get despairing of the quality of governance which needlessly hampers deployment of key infrastructure. Hey ho.

“Build work for these 227 areas is likely to start in the next 14 months”
It’s been ongoing for a while in the area I live in, Henley-in-Arden, for months. No news on the completion date though.

Seems strange that the announcement has come long after we knew locally that fibre was being installed.

Some of these areas stretch the definition of Rural. ( eg Merthyr not rural however Cefn-Coed-Cymer, Pontsticill very rural!)

Sad to see that they haven't decided to infill some exchanges that are currently sandwiched between 2 FTTP enabled exchanges.

I'm attached to the Kelvedon exchange, which is between Witham (FTTP enabled partially) and Coggeshall (FTTP enabled) and contains a sizeable amount of homes across the 3, which would really benefit from FTTP as the old copper network is currently breaking left, right and centre.

Apart from wondering how the F my village of 100 ish (last census I say was something like 110) got fttp, I do realise its probably as they can then get fibre to farms and then roll it right up to the border, and cause we have a school.. and the main town is doing well so spoke and wheel roll out.

I am wondering how many of these "exchanges are just "we can replace all of this side of town with one cabinet now, lets designate it an exchange to boost the number in our press statement"

> Some of these areas stretch the definition of Rural

For a town as large as Sevenoaks, I would have thought they'd announce it as part of Fibre First (although Sevenoaks Weald is rural)

@Bryer

Witham 5.1% FTTP
Coggeshal 1.9% FTTP
Kelvedon 0% FTTP

While Witham and Coggeshal have some FTTP just because the exchange is FTTP enabled does not mean everyone can get it. The figures show that availability is very limited, obviously 0% is a lot worse.

This announcement is not about creating more exchanges, in fact the FTTP roll-outs will lead to the 5000+ exchanges shrinking to around 1200 eventually.

On boosting the numbers in the press statement, notice how we (thinkbroadband) added the current Openreach FTTP levels to the table so that in six months time people can look back and see what progress has or has not been made.

It's a great start, I think we will be surprised at how quickly coverage expands over the next 18+ months now the ball is starting to roll and pick up speed!

@andrew

Thanks for the figures, the copper network is the original from the 1950's when parts of Feering and Kelvedon underwent massive development.

We've just had the whole of our road relaid with copper due to water ingress causing massive outages etc.

It's the same across the village from what I'm hearing, they could of just laid fibre instead of relaying miles of copper, which they will be digging up again when they roll out FTTP.

To only lay fibre brings lots of regulatory issues and other unknowns that are set to be discovered by a trial in Salisbury. On new build homes fibre only is very common, but different scenario and Ofcom approved that previously.

As for digging up again, if the copper is in ducting then no need to dig it up, there should be space for running the fibre and installing the splitters/manifolds in the pavement chambers.

Kelso, Sprouston exchange (was previously part of kelso cab 5 and 6 to my memory ) day +1

4 or 5 openreach vans, and a full size highway maintenance truck full of duct, barriers and a mini digger. in a village of 100 or so

Openreach's usually open ended timescales seem to have got better

Hi Broadband Watcher.
I think you will find that the Bordon work is complete at Kingsley and also work is in progress in the Alton area see roadworks Elgin reference PON showing 1500 mr ducting.run.
In Bordon new build aprox 80 Houses Dukes Taylor/ Wimpy are fibre not showing on TBB maps.

Presume you are talking about Fibre First in Bordon rather than Openreach in this case.

Hi Andrew.
The the Post Code is GU359FH i was given contact sale and they may give you the others.
There are a few at Liphook Area in Hewshott Lane very long lines with fibre also.

The Smallburgh, Norfolk, exchange was fibre enabled years ago. I live nearby in Dilham.

We were forever told that, as an EO line, we would never get fibre. Then early last autumn after a lot of badgering we were told FTTP should be available in August this year.

I checked in December and was surprised and pleased to find that we are now fully FTTP and orders are being taken though not by my ISP (PlusNet) but with BT.

Please add this exchange to your list.

@Blackmamba As I said this is Fibre First roll-out and not Openreach in that postcode. Contact sale again no idea what you mean.

You might be getting confused as its not showing up on the maps as they had such a small footprint have not rendered it before.

The missing bits of FTTP around Dilham should appear in the checker in the morning and on maps later on Thursday/Friday

Hi Andrew.. I visited the site before Xmas with sales on a plot number and I could see fibre had been cabled the transaction was Done last week. The phase has aprox 180 houses but I do not have the Post Codes. The new builds in Bordon are producing 2 houses per week.

Verwood is a proper town, not a market town, however, Ringwood is a market town, so when does that go on this list?

Oh wait, it won't because OR have been bodging it all together to keep us just over the 25 mbps minimum.

And that was Openreach fibre? If so which house did you visit exactly?

@alucidnation Based on what is happening in the trial villages, the existing FTTC speeds have no bearing on whether this commercial roll-out of FTTP will reach you.

Turns out my previous comment about the large openreach presence in the Sprouston area is just for a On Demmand install according to an angineer,

Also what does "being built to" mean, does it mean full install or that a cabinets being placed and you have to pay to be connected.

Openreach FTTP does not add cabinets when rolling out FTTP.

'Being Built to' means that some/most/all (we don't know how many) premises in the named locations that are part of the exchange area will see FTTP available. This means a FTTP manifold will be on the pole or pavement chamber for the property.

There is a list price for the connection fee, but this is usually only £50 or in some cases free as providers merge it into the monthly costs.

Hi Andrew. Thanks for Liphook Hewshott Lane, the Bordon one was a relative working when they received the keys.

Just checked my post code on the Openreach checker and is now showing I am in the plans for rollout (Minster Exchange) Other postcodes in other areas of the same exchange do not show the same.... I am on a new build estate that is fully ducted so I guess they are going for the quick wins first.

We do currently have FTTC but due to the ever increasing size of the estate we already have 3 fibre cabinets next to each other, guess they have finally had enough of keep building more :)