New FTTP Connection

[Susie]

I presume that the underground option is underground all the way to your house not just under the road. It’s not a bad option if the cost is ok. Get it agreed and paid this tax year most utilities put their prices up April 

 

if you want to at a later date cut the overhanging tree down on your side I believe your suppose to give the off cuts back so throw them over to your neighbour. 
 

You already have got water and electricity presumably since you knocked a property down.   Are they supplied direct to you not a shared water pipe between two properties. I had a water main coming in from street then split for a pair of semis these were built apx late 1930. I’ve also had an electric supply from street shared between me and my neighbour on an older terrace.   
 

 

 

[dpmiller]

On 13/03/2023 at 21:52, dpmiller said:

 

On a whim I filled that form in at the end of the week, and a blokey phoned today and will be calling tomorrow. Watch this space...

Well that all went better than expected. Regardless of all the "Project Stratum" bull, OR are still expanding their own network themselves. Turns out the next lane over from us has a fibre down it recently, and there's an existing copper line on poles across the back of our site that they're happy to adopt for fibre. Especially when they realised they could get our four properties all on one fibre using the existing infrastructure. Chap went away saying he would make a business case for the network improvement and I'd get something in the post.

 

but...

 

Today this happened 🙂

 

 

that's three very happy households!

[Mr Blobby]

20 hours ago, dpmiller said:

Well that all went better than expected. Regardless of all the "Project Stratum" bull, OR are still expanding their own network themselves. Turns out the next lane over from us has a fibre down it recently, and there's an existing copper line on poles across the back of our site that they're happy to adopt for fibre. Especially when they realised they could get our four properties all on one fibre using the existing infrastructure. Chap went away saying he would make a business case for the network improvement and I'd get something in the post.

 

but...

 

Today this happened 🙂

 

 

that's three very happy households!

 

 

Is that black thing the fibre box?

 

Are you getting your fibre connection from the pole or paying to go underground?

 

My openreach invoice just hit my inbox.  With VAT 😕. I was hoping openreach do like NIE (and builders) and exclude VAT from their invoices for new builds. Is that not so?

Will openreach re-issue the invoice without VAT or do I just have to suck it up and reclaim it at the end of the build?  (or get my builder to pay it and let him claim it back)

 

 

[dpmiller]

@Mr Blobby Yep, that's the fibre box. OR are supplying me duct and rope (chargeable) for the 15m or so to the back of the house; our choices for an overhead are limited because of an intervening NIE line and needing to find a sneaky route into the plant room

[Mr Blobby]

Here's that tree in next doors garden that blocks a connection to the pole on the other side of the road 😬

 

[Mr Blobby]

Does anyone know if openreach allow the ONT to be installed away from the cable entry into the house?

[dpmiller]

yes, I think a separate entrance is even required in some cases?

 

useful info here:New Sites Fibre Handbook May 2022-1.pdf

[dpmiller]

So after a long wait for OR to update their database we were able to order service, and it was installed on Wednesday.

 

The neighbours both seem to have taken Fibrus up on their current offer so... yep, another run of fibres will soon reside on the pole outside our window. Oddly enough tho, we *still* can't order with Fibrus. Seems they're more interested in the Project Stratum money? Our address didn't exist when the survey was carried out.

[vfrdave]

19 hours ago, dpmiller said:

So after a long wait for OR to update their database we were able to order service, and it was installed on Wednesday.

 

The neighbours both seem to have taken Fibrus up on their current offer so... yep, another run of fibres will soon reside on the pole outside our window. Oddly enough tho, we *still* can't order with Fibrus. Seems they're more interested in the Project Stratum money? Our address didn't exist when the survey was carried out.

I was in the same boat re address not being on the list.

I quite literally harassed them and stamped my feet like a petulant child as I had no other fibre offering available.  Eventually they gave in.

Happy to give you contact details of the person that I liaised with.

[dpmiller]

1 hour ago, vfrdave said:

I was in the same boat re address not being on the list.

I quite literally harassed them and stamped my feet like a petulant child as I had no other fibre offering available.  Eventually they gave in.

Happy to give you contact details of the person that I liaised with.

 All sorted thanks Dave, 300Mb/s with Zen. I'll be interested to see how long it takes next door to get their Fibrus, there was a guy there this morning to do it followed by much headshaking and pointing at poles so... nada.

[PNAmble]

On 06/02/2023 at 07:56, Andehh said:

Just jumping on this thread, I tried the developer portal myself but it asks for a company that is registered with them?

 

I dont want to use my builders firm without his approval, but I would prefer to start this earlier then later.

 

Any advice on how best to contact them other then their generic contact us page? 

 

How did you progress this, a company seems to be a mandatory field I've tried "Selfbuild" and "Selfbuild Project" but don't appear to get registration confirmation

[Andehh]

Pretty sure I just entered house name as the project name, and filled the rest out as normal. They never queried it, and so far so good.... Progressing fairly OK. Though I did need to raise it as a complaint in the end as I signed the contract and they sat on it for 4 weeks... 

[LSB]

On 06/02/2023 at 07:56, Andehh said:

Just jumping on this thread, I tried the developer portal myself but it asks for a company that is registered with them?

 

I dont want to use my builders firm without his approval, but I would prefer to start this earlier then later.

 

Any advice on how best to contact them other then their generic contact us page? 

Alan, did you get hold of OR

 

[Dunc]

I filled in the "contact us" form to ask about how cope with the required "company name" field on the registration form and they phoned me within 24 hours to explain.

They told me that self builders should just use their own name as "company name".

Seems to have worked fine.

[LSB]

9 minutes ago, Dunc said:

I filled in the "contact us" form to ask about how cope with the required "company name" field on the registration form and they phoned me within 24 hours to explain.

They told me that self builders should just use their own name as "company name".

Seems to have worked fine.

I rang on the number that Susie gave and got a lad who was very helpful.  He admitted that the form cannot be submitted without a company so he gave me an email address to send a request to explaining my situation.

He then admitted that the email would just get sent back to him and he could arrange a survey, but he couldn't do it without a referral.

 

the email was nsrecep@openreach.co.uk

 

Correct because I got a reply saying that they had received my request.

My request is slightly odd because the build is 120m from the road and we need to dig a 750 trench for the water pipe and want to put in ducting for fibre at the same time.

But, we don't want a service for probably another couple of years, if ever.  There are other options like Starlink which i may investigate, but I'll kick myself if the ducting isn't there.

 

The lad wasn't sure if they would survey if we don't want a service straight away, but did say he will investigate.

We also need to know for BR in case they insist on fibre and won't accept a satellite service.

 

So, now to wait and see.

 

[Andehh]

Why would you not want a service for a couple of years out of curiosity? Just time their installation for the move in date, and lay the Ducting for them to use now (ie grey Bt Ducting and a draw cord). 

[Susie]

We won’t need the connection for some time but they still gave us all the ductwork and a great drawcord used for all the services. The guy who came out understands we’re self building and could take years as we just wanted everything in one big trench. and he just said that’s ok by the time you’re ready to connect we will probably be on the better cable.  
 

[LSB]

14 hours ago, Andehh said:

Why would you not want a service for a couple of years out of curiosity? Just time their installation for the move in date, and lay the Ducting for them to use now (ie grey Bt Ducting and a draw cord). 

this is a DIY self build and it will take at least another couple years before we can move in, possibly more.

no point paying for a service that we don't need.

But, we have ordered the water from the road to the build and that needs a 750 trench.

BT need to approve the ducting, also for some of the posters here BT have provided it for free.  150m of the stuff is pretty expensive when you are building on a tight budget if we don't need to pay.

The other thing we've noticed is that the BT ducting is pretty rigid, our trench, because of the path it must take is not straight at all.  It needs to go behind out buildings, stables, bike sheds and where 100 ton of concrete is currently dumped until it can be crushed.

 

[MikeSharp01]

9 minutes ago, LSB said:

BT need to approve the ducting

Their concern will be the tightest radius and I would have thought that standard twin wall ducting would be fine provided you have a draw rope in it. I only have 35m runs of the stuff but its dead easy to use. I did ensure I had a 80m draw rope so I could pull it either way without needing a join in the rope I just taped the end of the cables to the mid point of the rope and hauled, and for the big power cable pushed, the cables through. Openreach just want an easy life and the people who arrive to do the job are very pragmatic in my experience.  

[LSB]

29 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Their concern will be the tightest radius and I would have thought that standard twin wall ducting would be fine provided you have a draw rope in it. I only have 35m runs of the stuff but its dead easy to use. I did ensure I had a 80m draw rope so I could pull it either way without needing a join in the rope I just taped the end of the cables to the mid point of the rope and hauled, and for the big power cable pushed, the cables through. Openreach just want an easy life and the people who arrive to do the job are very pragmatic in my experience.  

Thanks, power comes from a different direction, in this trench will be water * 2 (32mm & 25mm) and fibre.

We'll take your advice re pull rope though and making sure it's long enough for each direction.

 

[MikeSharp01]

1 hour ago, LSB said:

We'll take your advice re pull rope though and making sure it's long enough for each direction.

I got my rope from Screwfix on a 500m drum, super strong, very, very long and not expensive! (https://www.screwfix.com/p/polypropylene-rope-blue-6mm-x-500m/76432) If you need the full 450Kg SWL then you have something very wrong in your duct (Oh and While I  remember - I capped all the ducts off to stop rodents taking up residence! - or worse eating through the pull rope!!!!!)

[Dunc]

On 10/08/2023 at 15:02, Dunc said:

I filled in the "contact us" form to ask about how cope with the required "company name" field on the registration form and they phoned me within 24 hours to explain.

They told me that self builders should just use their own name as "company name".

Seems to have worked fine.

Just coming back on this to confirm I registered with my own name as company name.

I then filled in the very minimal plot registration form and uploaded site and block plans. 

Openreach have just come back with a quote and contract document of £2000 for "Full Fibre gigabit capable infrastructure for your new development". Looks like boiler plate email and contract. It does say that copper or FTTC is available at no cost.

I was surprised that no additional info was required. I am even more surprised because my area (rural Highlands) doesn't have full fibre available 😂.

Of course there's no phone number to follow up with 😕 (all I want right now is to know where the local cabinet is so I can look at ducting under the public road adjacent to the plot while the council have it dug up for other purposes next month).

[PNAmble]

1 hour ago, Dunc said:

Just coming back on this to confirm I registered with my own name as company name.

I then filled in the very minimal plot registration form and uploaded site and block plans. 

Openreach have just come back with a quote and contract document of £2000 for "Full Fibre gigabit capable infrastructure for your new development". Looks like boiler plate email and contract. It does say that copper or FTTC is available at no cost.

I was surprised that no additional info was required. I am even more surprised because my area (rural Highlands) doesn't have full fibre available 😂.

Of course there's no phone number to follow up with 😕 (all I want right now is to know where the local cabinet is so I can look at ducting under the public road adjacent to the plot while the council have it dug up for other purposes next month).

I recently went through this,  I think I then submitted the quote, and a bit later an application form was sent out to me, which I then completed.  they then did a site visit, but also contacted me to discuss, they then produced a plan which is where they will bring in the service.  This also gave me a contact name to discuss anything with.  I was concerned that submitting on the portal would make me pay, but it didn't it just started the process of engagement.  

[LSB]

OR came up with a quote yesterday for the new service of £567

So, not free, but not as high as some people.

But, it has the caveat, final price after inspection.

Now, we are pretty sure that they will need another pole, there is no way of getting underground to our trench as the supply is the other side of the road and I'm wondering if that will be at more considerable expense.

 

Does anyone have any experience of getting an initial quote and then it increasing hugely after inspection, and if their quote does this can we back out and look for alternative.

 

 

[DerbyLad]

Hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread.  Openreach have been and looked at my site and informed there will be no fee for the connection.  I was given a number to ring 5 weeks before I wanted connecting.  I've called the number and been told that I can't order a connection and that I have to chose a provider, such as Vodafone, place an order with them and then they can order the connection from Openreach.  This is a pain as I will be paying for a service that I'm not ready to use.  I don't want to wait till I'm ready to move in as I'm having a footway laid in the front of the plot and I dont want this digging up!  So, I have proceeded to follow their instructions but I've hit an issue, I can't order broadband, as although my property is listed it comes up as not having a service, which of course it doesn't.  So I'm in a chicken and egg situation!! Can anyone offer any advice?