So UFB was meant to be installed at my place 3 weeks ago (24th Feb was the date given by Chorus). A week previous to that a gentleman wearing a Downer logo on his chest came around to check things out for the install. He surmised that the easiest thing to do was go across to the powerpole and then run from there to the house and then round to where the ONT would be installed, basically following the path that all the other wires to the house are taking (phone, cable, etc). He left, seeming happy with his measurements and that the install would take place as scheduled on the 24th.

Come the 24th, I take the day off from school (re-skilling due to job loss, blah blah blah) as recommended by the Downer wearing gentleman as he said the installs are generally an all-day thing (though Slingshot had told me it was booked for the afternoon).

Large amounts of nothing happened all morning. 'no worries', says I, as it was booked for an afternoon install.

Large amounts of nothing continued to happen. I am starting to wonder if they had knocked on the door and I had missed it or something similarly horrible. Come 3:30pm I ring Slingshot to see what the deal is. They have no idea as everything seems hunky dory from their end and the install is booked in, etc. They say they will put through a query to Chorus but will probably not find out anything that day.

Sure enough, the next day they let me know that Chorus put the install on hold, without actually telling any of the interested parties, because the install involves the use of a "Wellington Power Pole", and apparently they have to investigate what tyoe of connections need to be used and that all Wellington Power jobs are being assessed on a case by case basis.

So, 3 weeks later and all I have so far is a Hold install date of 6/3/2020 at midnight. From what I can tell, to use the powerpole they are going to have to dig up the footpatch to get from the little green box thing out front to the pole, whereas it is just dirt from the box to my house, but that is just speculation on my part.

It would have been really nice (and possibly saved me taking time off) if Chorus had actually let me or Slingshot know that the install was on hold instead of just not doing it and waiting till someone contacted to find out what was going on before they said anything (which they didn't actually do till about 19 hrs after they were asked).

If Chorus are often so reticent about telling people what is happening then I am unsurprised  the uptake of UFB is a tad slow since people like me will be spreading tales of woe and thereby making others weary about going through the exercise, not that there are many places round where I am in Wellington that you can get UFB, which leads me to ask if anyone knows why a large chunk of the city which was lated for UFB by April this year is not put of to a period from mid 2025 to mid 2016?

Thanks to anyone who actually bothers to read this through to the end

Brumfondl