Nightmare cost of cable laying for Full Fibre

[RonnyG]

Sky has told my brother-in-law that he will have to pay around £2,300 for full fibre, as the cable to his property will need to be longer than 21 meters. Is this correct? I have never heard of anyone having to pay for cable laying before, no matter what length it was. We desperately need to get this sorted but cannot afford a huge sum like that.

[JimM1]

@RonnyG Yes it does happen, and all depends on what the request for the service was. £2300 is the bottom off the pile, some are up in the 20K bracket!

[RonnyG]

Thanks JimM1

The situation is that he lives in a close which has virtually every other house cabled. Sky initially told him that they could hook him up via a junction box outside his neighbour's house but then appeared to change their mind and are saying that they will have to lay a new cable of more than 21 metres in length, running from the top end of the close to his property which already has an external connection box installed by Sky.
Sky sent him a router and assured him it would all be hooked up by October 2nd. Then just a couple of days ago they dropped the bombshell about extra costs. He is distraught as he has not had any broadband for some months and this amount of money is simply beyond his budget.
I always assumed that cabling was part of normal installation, no matter what the length. Aside from it being over 21 metres there appears to be nothing extraordinary about the link-up. Especially as all his neighbours are hooked up and have not had to pay any extra fees.

[JimM1]

@RonnyG Do you know what the connection service is to the home, is it OR Openreach, or CF CityFibre for the cable feed. Not every home is included in the supplied Fibre to the home, and that fact that the neighbours have it is off no significance in the whole scheme off things, could have all been done for them under an expired Grant system, just know way off knowing that detail now, but does sound like you want it then the suppliers want payment to do so, and sky just will not give that kind off service cost away under NO circumstance!

Check all the links below! Use address checkers and postcode to the home! 

BT Broadband

The Full Fibre Broadband Network | CityFibre

What’s Full Fibre broadband? | Sky Help | Sky.com | Sky Help | Sky.com this one see the how do i get it if available from sky!

Would also check 100% that the direct is to sky, and not some Fraud account trying hard to scam the cost, there is no way off being fully correct especially if online or talking to sky direct, will link to the correct number if you need calling to sky!

[RonnyG]

The connection service is OpenReach. Initially hey said that they were waiting for a PTW order to make the shorter connection from the neighbour's house to his property which would have been free. The PTW order was apparently never received but my Brother In Law checked with the neighbours and they assured him they had received no such communication from OR and that they had no problem with the cable being run from their junction point.

I then discovered that the email address for the SEO of OpenReach is available on line and that people were reporting success in contacting them that way. I suggested to my B.I.L that he try this and that is when things started to move. The whole process was elevated to their High Level Escalations Department and everything was running smoothly until the charge issue came up. For some reason, according to Sky, they could no longer use the neighbour's box and would have to run this new longer cable from the road and down the full length of the close. Hence the charge.
It is definitely Sky who are stage managing but as I understand it, the charge is imposed by OR.
Many thanks for the links.

[JimM1]

@RonnyG The cable Infrasructure has he/haw to do with sky, that is all down to OR, they supply, they connect, they organise everything, all they do is say sky OK were done, or sky we want this to complete. Sky have zero input in anything but will not give it away free if OR come back and say wait a minute it was this way, oops cannot do it that way now so have to do it this way. There is a budget to get FF and if it is not at the home then kind off a stalemate it seems!

Something is by the sound off it not straight forward, that is what needs to be got to the bottom off! Could be that all the Fibre connections are now sold out in the point, just do not know your answer to it all!

[TimmyBGood]

@RonnyG 

When provisioning a new FTTP circuit Openreach has a set amount which they will cover: this is currently a maximum of £3400

Beyond that there's an expectation that property owner will be offered the option of either paying Excess Construction Charges (ECCs) or not having the job carried out.

Where this conflicts with the Universal Service Obligation it's important to note that BT is the designated USO provider.

https://www.bt.com/broadband/USO