Ho hum. Ho Hum !

I have been pointed in the direction of BT's announcements of its analysis of trial installations for the roll-outs of FTTP.

You may recall in one of my later posts I had speculated about how and when that last few metres of cable would be laid from the manifold/junctions to our individual premises.

Well it seems that during the trials it has become evident that those last few metres have proven to be the most labour-intensive phase and whilst BT had estimated that this would take an average of 4 hours to achieve, apparently 7 hours to two days is proving to be the range norm. BT's preferred method is and was to "blow" the cable into position.

I should apologise for not including this info in the last update because BT's announcement was in the public domain when I wrote last, I just did not spot it.

In BT's inimitable tragi-comedy of errors, the impact of this delay is once more to see our anticipated June/July 2011 date moving to December 2011 (unconfirmed). Overall this represents some 15 months delay.

The unacceptable part is that BT has realised that a major portion of the problem lies in the excavation and clearing of existing ducts that are blocked. This must have been entirely foreseeable given the nature of its day-to-day operations.

In the purist British way, comically, BT has attempted to mitigate the problem by getting the Army in by recruiting circa 200 ex-army bods to do the heavy work.

The different problems lie in four categories of exisitng installations:

1. Relatively new build property with ducts laid in ground - good straight forward install.
2. Property where phone line is fed overhead from telephone pole - relatively easy install
3. Older property where narrow bore metal ducts have potentially blocked up over the years - more difficult install including possible excavation and laying of new duct
4. Property where cable has been buried in ground without duct - difficult installation with inevitable excavation and laying of new duct
   

With an eye to a fair wind let's hope BT can sort this out quickly.

For those who want more detail:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/25/...t_delayed/

I am running out of comedic commentary to add to this - any help appreciated.