Thursday 15 September 2016

Superfast broadband - update



I refer to my previous two updates:
This is now the latest situation from OnLincolnshire. The Project Update report for week ended 9th September 2016 shows:

'Ready for service,' all engineering works and commissioning complete. Just awaiting the updates to wholesale computer records which may take a little longer than the usual two week timeframe as this is a brand new cabinet.

I have also been in touch again with Steve Brookes regarding the re-routing of the remaining lines and this is what he had to say:

Q1: With regard to your meeting with BT over the additional work to transfer the remaining lines to Cab 17, has the Change Request now finally been signed?
Answer: Still waiting for sign off. We have escalated this and expect it very soon.

Q2: You mentioned that BT agreed to progress the additional work as a priority, has this now been entered in their work schedule and when can we expect the work to take place?
Answer: Depends on the above, but whilst we will look to complete as soon as possible post signature, I will not incur additional costs over above what is programmed to achieve this.

Q3: If the Change Request has not yet been signed off, what is the reason for the delay?
Answer: BT's inability to react to anything in a timely manner. I believe it is a lack of resource, but they deny this. Should that be true, then it is their intransigence that is the issue.

I really hope this isn't a last minute hiccup after all the lobbying to get this extra work on legacy lines sorted.

How Openreach (BT) Handles Full to Capacity FTTC Broadband Cabinets

Few things are more frustrating than finding out that you can’t get the latest 40-80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet...

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/09/openreach-bt-handles-full-capacity-fttc-broadband-cabinets.html

Broadband Performance Indicator - June 2016

Broadband Performance Indicator detailing BDUK funding of superfast broadband

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/broadband-performance-indicator-june-2016

2 comments:

  1. Hi Geoff

    Just an observation. The Change Request sign off seems to depend on two things.

    1. Money to switch - BT cannot be given an open cheque to complete the cut over however I am sure the cabling, jointing, terminating, exchange jumpering and testing costs have all been costed in correctly with a slight margin for extras as is the norm and Steve is right to monitor this cost.

    2. Manpower and Program of works - Unfortunately this lies with BT and having watched the company over the last few years its evident that BT External Planning and Construction Manpower has been cut to the bone. The BT contractors who originally cut over the old cabinet to the new cabinet over the August bank holiday weekend may not even get payed a penny due to the faults they incurred.
    I understand that the BT engineers time spent on repairing battery contacts/crosses/disconnects/faulty terminations etc deduct their time spent repairing against the contractors time spent changing over. In my day no contractor would ever be employed on such a cut over.

    The lines will be switched - eventually - but BT Programming and experienced BT Planning teams appear seriously lacking in todays world. Content and the billions of pounds BT invest in it seems to be the in thing now at the expense of everything else.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the information Mick.

    ReplyDelete

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