Hello everyone!
I hope you have had a great Christmas and New Year celebrations.
I have a small update on the installation of fibre from the exchange to the cabinet. I have been pushing Gigaloch to update me on what's going on as we were told Openreach would complete the install before Christmas. As we know now, this has not been the case.
I have seen the correspondence between Gigaloch and Sky (Fibre provider of the backhaul) and in all honesty, both parties have been doing their best to get Openreach to complete the work.
Below is Gigaloch's response to my request for information.
Sky:-
Openreach have sent the below update explaining why the ECD is so far out. Currently this hasn't changed but they have advised that it is likely once they clear the influx of emergency call outs. 'Due to our partner receiving a recent influx of emergency/damage repair estimates caused by storm damage (where customers are out of service), their contractor is concentrating on prioritizing these estimates along with HLEs (high level escalations). Once these start to come down to a more manageable level, they will then re-prioritise the remainder of their workstack and provide a new ECD'
Gigaloch:-
With this being the case, we are reverting back to installing the duct and cable ourselves to speed up the process. This was the plan prior to Openreach stating the works would happen before Christmas. As we were told that this was the case, it was sensible to let it go ahead. However, due to severe damage to the Openreach network during the storms, repairs have taken priority for Openreach. We had already been surveyed, planned and meetings with Openreach have taken place to allow our contractors to install the duct ourselves prior to this. Obviously there is a significant cost involved with this type of installation, but we are committed to pushing forward as quickly as we possibly can to get this issue resolved.
Couple of things from the above - I have no idea what an ECD is. I can only assume this is something like a date for work to begin.
Secondly, Gigaloch are looking to move forward with doing the work themselves. Had Openreach just allowed this to happen in the first instance we would not be having this conversation. It is a testimate to Gigaloch's commitment to our build by spending more money to ensure this service comes to our properties.
I think we can all take comfort in the knowledge that they are going to make this work for us all.