Full fibre install date keeps changing`

[MickyCop]

With NOW.  Found I could get full fibre at significantly cheaper cost.  NOW owned by Sky and you go round in loops before speaking to customer service (SKY don't like NOW broadband powered by SKY customers  and NOW won't speak if you are powered by SKY). Eventually a SKY rep offered SKY full fibre significantly cheaper.  Agreed install date of 13 August.  Put back to 2 Sept.  BT Openreach installed and dug path up.  Install date still 2 Sept.  Then 5 Oct.  Then 2 Sept then 3 Nov.  About to cancel and install changed to 7 Sept.  Now just received another text to change to 3 November.  What is going on.  Next door neighbour is with SKY and all OK, my connection is t'd off his.  Engineer confirmed all OK to go and cables ready.  What is the issue?  Spoken to neighbours on SKY and they are all OK with no delays when full fibre available over the last couple of months.  Seriously p'd off.

[jamesn123]

Hi @MickyCop 

Delays like this are typically down to Openreach not Sky. Sky will want the earliest available install date and wouldnt push it to Nov for no reason. Typically Openreach departments have a hard time communicating with each other and even if an Openreach engineer tells you its all ready to go, another department may not be aware or think differently. Unfortunately there isnt a lot you can do other than wait for the install date to go ahead. Cancelling with Sky could cause you further delays as the next ISP you choose will still need to go through the same process with Openreach. 

[MickyCop]

Thank you.  Cable tied up on my outside wall ready for an engineer to install inside the home.  I can only assume a shortage of engineers.   Found threads where it's been over 6 months from order to actual use so may try Virgin instead if the date changes again.

[Tommy2]

This will be down to Openrecah, it may be that theyve idnetified difficulties installing the fibre in your case, do you know what your current infrastructure is i.e is it ducting, direct burial cable or overhead ? and are there issues with access and permissions, these could all be raesons for delays. In my case I had to wiat a long time for setup as Openreach couldnt find out where my duct terminated at, it was only when another OPenreach engineer with lcoal knwoledge attended and pointed out that it terminated in a manhole in a garvel bed down a private bed behind our hosue taht they were able to progress.

[jamesn123]

@Tommy2 

As OP mentioned it sounds like its ducting and all work has been completed i.e the cable is up from the ground and tied to the wall ready for the CSP/ONT install. In this case I dont think there is any access issues or non-standard work required. 

[Tommy2]

apologies I missed that bit @jamesn123  however, I cant see it stated that the ducting is complete all teh way to the hosue, only a path has been dug up. 

[MickyCop]

Thanks both.

BT Openreach checked route and marked up pavement, front garden and front house wall for cable entrance.  Pavement dug up and t-off from next door.  Engineer came back and dug up a route from pavement across front garden to house wall.  Cable laid, left tidy with a tie up on the front house wall at ground level where I have an existing aerial cable (I guess could try and re-use that route to inside house).  It's just awaiting an engineer to come back and drill a hole through the outside wall to internal and install the ONT.  I have had router for weeks!

[TimmyBGood]

@MickyCop 

Perhaps be aware that the external four-core cable doesn't actually enter the property: it remains spooled within an external passive enclosure (the Customer Service Point or CSP) where one core is fusion-spliced to a single-core optical pigtail which has a green SC/APC jack pre-terminated on the other end.  It's the pigtail which goes inside, for the jack to plug into the Optical Network Terminal (ONT)

It sounds like you are now waiting for someone with fusion splice training to be available, but it's certainly possible a previous stage of the installation hasn't been marked as complete and so they haven't been booked.

[MickyCop]

Thanks, Timmy

You are spot on as I just checked; it needs splicing and external enclosure, so it may well be no trained engineer available.  I recall several months ago my next door neighbour had the garden dig, cable lay, and external splicing all on the same day as I was at home working and saw him fitting the external box to the wall.   Didn't think to check the state of the cable until now.