Images of items I have purchased (except trainers [no feet pics])

FMF said:
Was it a relatively new development? Interested in hearing how you approached Openreach to do this.
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Relatively new development - finished 2018. By using the openreach fibre checker I was able to determine that 3 of 9 streets (of which one was mine) were excluded from what was to be a future FTTP project in early 2021. I approached neighbours on my street directly and others via a post on the site development facebook group that I also admin.

This is my playbook:
  1. Get the vast majority who would miss out on the project to register their interest for FTTP here
  2. Get as many as you can to open a ticket here asking why they have excluded you from the plans (This is lower level)
  3. Contact your areas equivalent to what for me is called Superfast West Yorkshire (now called West Yorkshire Combined Authority for Broadband). I got in touch with the Programme Manager for Broadband and essentially copied in a similar email to as in step 4 below. He contacted openreach and responded saying that its all about cost and that this is now being reviewed.
  4. Send a polite email to Clive Selley (Openreach CEO) and explain the full situation giving every detail (I sent a site plan with both the roads getting and not getting FTTP highlighted in different colours). Create a template of this email for your other neighbours to use too and get them all to email individually. He will likely ask the Infrastructure Solutions Executive Level Complaints Team to handle the complaint. In my case they were able to advise that it was all to do with there not being enough budget in the original project to cover all areas and that the original project was to commence in early 2021. They then got the Delivery Manager for the area to do a review and I'm still waiting for them to officially confirm that they are covering my street and the other 2.
Now as it happens, the above series of events somehow caused a chain reaction and within days of commencing the above playbook, Openreach subcontractors were on site checking the ducts to check for blockages and to see whats what. 3 weeks later, actual openreach vans showed up this time and they again repeated checks of the ducts and one of the chaps on site advised that this is now a "high escalation" project as a result of complaints and that plans are now revised and they would be laying cable in the entirety of the development within weeks. "Within weeks" actually turned out to be the following Monday and 7 vans showed up and they laid fibre in all streets including the ones not in original plans. He also pointed out where the aggregation node was - just over the roundabout after the site entrance so no very far at all. Advised his plan was to lay the fibre over the course of 3 days and then have it all connected the following week (i.e. this week). He seemed very keen not to waste time and make sure it was all connected ASAP with it being a "high escalation" project.

I called my contact in the Infrastructure Solutions Executive Level Complaints Team as they were laying fibre to get an "official" confirmation but he knew nothing about it and had not heard back regarding the review of the costings that was supposed to be taking place. Frustratingly for him, the delivery managers and other teams haven't replied to his emails despite him chasing. Hoping to find out whats what in a few days but we cannot deny the fact they have actually laid the fibre in streets that were not part of the original plans and simultaneously accelerated the build out of this project to from what was to be early next year, to a matter of weeks after complaining.

Throughout the whole situation, my modus operandi was to be polite in every email I sent. I can't speak for the rest of my neighbours though. I'm thinking having a bunch of emails sent to them like missiles possibly helped but I could be wrong. Either way, IMO Openreach operates as a bunch of silo's that don't talk to each other and communication between various departments is very poor. I've been checking both https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband and https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ everyday this week to see if anything changes. I did ask the chap laying the fibre why it still says "We don't have any plans to upgrade your area right now, but tell us you're interested and we'll keep you up to date when things change." on the website. He advised that until he completes all the paperwork once he's connected it all up, nothing will change on that fibre checker. Again, reiterates my belief that communication is very poor between departments.

Anyway, hope the above helps you in one way or another. Keeping my fingers crossed for a go live on the fibre checkers either this week or next and then I can get my order in. One way or another, I will have my 900Mbit!! :cool:
 
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dl8860 said:
I might be being really ignorant, but why is ultrafast stuff for residential like that taking priority over parts of the country that don't have adequate service as it is?
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Off topic for the images thread, but its profitability (or lack thereof). Generally areas with a bad service are expensive to sort out - maybe a geographic thing, or an infrastructure thing, or lack of people willing to pay more for faster services.
 
dl8860 said:
I might be being really ignorant, but why is ultrafast stuff for residential like that taking priority over parts of the country that don't have adequate service as it is?
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Easier (and probably cheaper) to put all of the infrastructure in place on a new development before building starts rather than digging up existing roads, getting complaints, etc.

There’s quite a lot of info on the Openreach website about where they’re planning to deploy FTTP next.
 
dl8860 said:
I might be being really ignorant, but why is ultrafast stuff for residential like that taking priority over parts of the country that don't have adequate service as it is?
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ahar said:
Off topic for the images thread, but its profitability (or lack thereof). Generally areas with a bad service are expensive to sort out - maybe a geographic thing, or an infrastructure thing, or lack of people willing to pay more for faster services.
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Stu999 said:
Easier (and probably cheaper) to put all of the infrastructure in place on a new development before building starts rather than digging up existing roads, getting complaints, etc.

There’s quite a lot of info on the Openreach website about where they’re planning to deploy FTTP next.
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highways have just spent a stupid amount of time replacing all of the pavements around our fairly rural 0.3km cul-de-sac. we have FTTC at 70/20 on a good day, but better than a lot of surrounding areas. you'd think that would've been the perfect opportunity to run in ducting for FTTP or VM while they'd dug up all the pavements. but apparently not.
 
dl8860 said:
I might be being really ignorant, but why is ultrafast stuff for residential like that taking priority over parts of the country that don't have adequate service as it is?
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TRory manifesto election promise. £5bn pledged to get FTTP to the hardest to reach 20% of the country in rural areas to some 3.5 million households by 2025.

Obviously ISPs will put fibre into the premises into more heavily populated areas anyway without government incentives.
 
Stu999 said:
Easier (and probably cheaper) to put all of the infrastructure in place on a new development before building starts rather than digging up existing roads, getting complaints, etc.
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Often a condition of planning consent for new developments is that the developer pays for the civil engineering to provide fibre to the homes. Helps councils meet their broadband targets without funding anything out of the public purse.
 
Some more goodies for the home gym. Bench and dip attachment from bulldog gear. Bench is a hefty 50kg.

Log cabin floor is a little uneven so I've used some lego as a shim when it's in the rack.

inb4 how stable the bench is.

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