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How long does a commercial fibre installation actually take?

Picture of Austin Awadzi   Austin Awadzi  ·  3 minute read

The timeline question that stalls more deals than any other

When connectivity comes up in a commercial viewing, the conversation usually goes in one of two directions. Either the building has an answer...or it doesn't, and the landlord promises to come back with options.

What happens next in the second scenario is almost always the same. The landlord contacts an ISP. The ISP conducts a survey. A quote arrives, followed by a timeline. And that timeline, typically 12 to 24 weeks for a new commercial fibre installation, brings the deal to a grinding halt.

Twelve to twenty-four weeks is a long time. It's long enough for a motivated tenant to look at three or more other buildings. Long enough for a business that needs to move to decide it can't wait. Long enough for a deal that felt close to simply evaporate.

This post explains the standard ISP timeline, why it takes that long, and how the Fibre Force model, where fibre is pre-installed before any tenant arrives, removes the timeline problem entirely.

Why standard ISP commercial installations take so long

A new commercial fibre installation from an ISP involves several stages, each with its own lead time:

  1. Survey and quotation - An ISP engineer surveys the route from the exchange to the building and from the building entry point to the unit. This typically takes two to four weeks from enquiry to quote.
  2. Wayleave coordination - Wayleave agreements are contractual licenses whereby the landlord allows the ISP access to their land so that they can install, repair and maintain their telecoms equipment in, on, under and through their property. This is the most variable stage. Straightforward cases take a few weeks; contested or complex cases can take months.
  3. Civils and duct work - If new ducts or infrastructure is required from the street to the building, civils work is needed. This requires scheduling, and in some cases, permits applications need to be submitted to the local authorities to request road closures, dedicated road spaces  allocation, or pavement closures.
  4. In-building installation - Once external infrastructure is in place, engineers install cabling from the building entry point to the demise. This is typically the quickest stage, taking a day or two in most cases (depending on the size of the building or the complexity of the internal routes.
  5. ISP provisioning and testing - The service is provisioned and tested. Another one to two weeks.

When you add these stages together, 12 weeks is an optimistic timeline. 24 weeks for a complex route or where wayleave issues arise is entirely normal. The tenant knows this. And so, increasingly do their solicitors, who sometimes build it into heads of terms as a landlord obligation.

The Fibre Force timeline: six weeks, before any tenant arrives

The Fibre Force model inverts the problem entirely. Rather than installing connectivity when a tenant commits, fibre is installed before any tenant arrives, making it a feature of the building, not a project triggered by a lease.

The average Fibre Force implementation runs like this:

  1. Week 1: Free building survey - We survey the building, map every floor, riser, and entry point, and design a connectivity infrastructure plan.
  2. Weeks 1–2: Agreement and wayleave coordination - We handle all wayleave agreements as part of the service. In most cases this is resolved within the survey period.
  3. Weeks 2–5: Installation - Our engineers install carrier-grade fibre across all floors. Noisy work is sequenced for evenings and weekends. Most existing tenants don't realise we're there.
  4. Week 6 - Go live and agent briefing - The building is internet-ready. We brief your leasing agents and supply them with marketing content.

From first conversation to a building where every unit is connected: six weeks on average.

The difference between a 12–24 week ISP timeline and a 6-week Fibre Force implementation isn't just a matter of speed. It's the difference between connectivity being a problem tenants discover and connectivity being a feature landlords lead with.

What affects the Fibre Force timeline?

Most implementations run close to six weeks. The main factors that can extend the timeline are:

  • Building complexity - Larger buildings or those with complex riser configurations may require additional survey and installation time.
  • Existing infrastructure - If there is legacy cabling or previous connectivity equipment that needs to be worked around or removed, this adds time.
  • Access coordination - If the building has many tenants in situ, scheduling installation access around their operations may extend the installation phase.
  • Wayleave complexity - Wayleave agreements sometimes involve third parties who respond slowly. We manage this, but we can't always control the response time of other parties.

We'll give you a realistic timeline at the survey stage, based on what we find. We don't promise six weeks and then surprise you with twelve. The survey exists precisely to identify any factors that affect the plan.

The real question is what happens while you wait

If your building doesn't have pre-installed connectivity, the relevant timeline isn't how long a future installation would take. It's how long your building will continue to lose prospective tenants to the connectivity question while you consider your options.

Every month that passes is another month of viewings where the question comes up and the answer isn't good enough. Another month of deals that could have closed but didn't. The six weeks to implement a solution is, in that context, a very short investment.

If you'd like to find out how quickly we can get your building, contact us today to request a free building survey.