This is a request to those CPs on list who unbundle BT exchanges, and use the Internal Cablelink product to interconnect with other CPs (e.g. for backhaul).
At the moment, an Internal Cablelink takes between 20 and 25 working days (i.e. 4 to 5 weeks) to be delivered. This is equivalent to a Cross-connect within a datacentre, which we typically see installed in 2-5 days (if not quicker). I've raised a SOR on Openreach (SOR 8460), to request that Openreach look to speed up the delivery. The actually wording is: "As a CP within BT Exchanges, we often need to interconnect with other CPs for backhaul purposes, and therefore need to consume the Ethernet Cablelink product. In some situations, the 20-25 working day leadtime for the Cablelink product is causing significant additional delays to the commisioning project for a newly unbundled exchange (particularly where the backhaul provider is able to provide their component of the backhaul, sometimes nationally, in the same or even shorter leadtime). We would like the ability to request an expedite on the Cablelink provision (particularly an internal variant, which should be an easy product to deliver), with a target of delivery within 5-10 working days of order acceptance. This results in poor customer satisfaction, especially where we are waiting to deliver an end-to-end service to an end user served from the newly unbundled exchange. An alternate solution to this SOR would be to reduce the standard contractual leadtime for Internal Variant Cablelinks to 10 working days (to include the additional time required to provide a patch panel). This would bring Internal Variant Cablelink timescales closer in line with industry norms within the datacentre market (which is typically 2-5 working day leadtime!)." If you think this is a good idea, please can you vote for the SOR in the SOR Management tool, or provide feedback via your Openreach SRM. Many thanks, Simon
