Basingstoke FTTC - more cabinets this summer!

Dear all
I am pleased to be able to advise that Openreach have confirmed to the Basingstoke Broadband Campaign that 20 more FTTC cabs are to be deployed in Basingstoke this summer as part of an infill programme.

Press Release (which we have worked with BT Openreach on) is below. We are told that the new rollout will include all remaining cabinets in Hatch Warren (except Beggarwood) and most of the remaining cabinets in Chineham.

We will keep this forum posted on progress!

With Best Regards

Tim Robinson
Basingstoke Broadband Campaign


Basingstoke Broadband Campaign
PRESS RELEASE
Basingstoke, 22nd February 2011
BT confirms details of additional super-fast
broadband deployment for Basingstoke
Background
For many years, Basingstoke has been in something of a broadband slow lane. Many of the
residential areas in the outskirts of Basingstoke have suffered from very slow and in some
cases non-existent broadband service, as a result of long telephone lines from the town
centre telephone exchange.
In the spring of 2010, BT’s Openreach division deployed super-fast fibre optic broadband to a
proportion of Basingstoke residents and businesses. The initial deployment targeted specific
areas of the town which analysis showed to be commercially viable. However, this
deployment still left considerable parts of the town with internet access well below the
government's target of 2 Mbit per second.
Since the initial deployment last year, The Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, along with
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Hampshire County Council and Maria Miller MP,
has done a lot of work to identify parts of the town which would benefit from further
deployment of super-fast broadband.
Details
Openreach has today confirmed the details of the infill programme that they announced late
last year, which will see additional cabinets added to the rollout across the country. Within this
programme, a further 20 cabinets will be upgraded in Basingstoke to support super-fast
broadband by late Summer 2011. These additional cabinets will provide more than 7,000
extra Basingstoke Homes and Businesses with the opportunity to benefit from high-speed
Internet from a variety of communications providers.
Kevin McNulty, General Manager - NGA Customer Engagement at Openreach told the
Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, "Basingstoke was amongst some of the first areas in the
country to receive super-fast broadband. Now that we've got some experience of early
deployment in Basingstoke, we feel confident enough with the technology to roll it out in areas
that didn't meet our initial planning criteria. As the deployment takes place, the line checker
communications providers use to check service availability will be updated to reflect the
additional service areas.”
Jaffa Brown, of the Basingstoke Broadband Campaign, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that Openreach has engaged with us so constructively. The
result is that many more residents will soon be able to benefit from super-fast broadband
service.
Whilst this represents a significant increase in availability of super-fast broadband, we do
understand that there will inevitably be gaps in coverage for reasons of network topology and
cost of deployment. The Basingstoke Broadband Campaign is actively working to find
solutions to overcome these relatively small pockets where Openreach cannot deploy superfast
broadband in a way that fits their commercial model.”

sounds good. Not doing them all though - any views why ?

I assume planning permission, avaliabilty of power company and good old fashion economics.

I notice the places that had a huge backlash from the local community, Harringay and St Albans spring to mind haven't had any more infill yet.

They have several crieria for planning which seem to be confidential within Openreach. However, the ones that have been alluded to in discussions include:

Number of active customers on a cab (too few = not enough customers to make it viable, too many = can't fit tie pairs into cab)
average length of D-side lines to premises from the cabs (too many long lines = lower speed and does not meet the minimum speed guarantees BT want for FTTC
cost of getting fibre there,
cost/availability of power,
planning issues in conservation areas,
local competition (i.e. Virgin Media!) Perversely, if VM are there, they see this as 'competition' and want to 'compete'. Bizarre, as most businsees try and go where the competition isn't!

There's probably others...

Rgds
Tim

The competition angle is interesting, and from a revenue perspective it actually makes perfect sense.

1. If BT win a customer from Virgin Media, they increase their revenue from that customer by 100%
2. If BT upgrade an existing customer from ADSL/2/2+ to VDSL, they increase their revenue from that customer by perhaps 30%

For example, as an existing BT customer I pay 12/mo for line rental and 15/mo for ADSL: 27/mo. A migration to FTTC would see that increase to 37/mo: netting BT an extra 10/mo

If I were in a Virgin Media area and switched to BT, they would get: 12/mo line rental, 25/mo Infinity, 13/mo for Vision: netting BT an extra 50/mo

even less if a customer goes from BT broadband option 3 to Infinity Option 2, they will see less than £2 per month extra.

That's good news for new customers, but what about those of us stuck in a have but have not spot. Most of Kempshott Rise was connected to FTTC in the first phase, but fall just under the artificially imposed 15Mbit limit. So we cannot order FTTC from BT. In fact this could lead to defection to ISP's that will offer a sub 15Mbit product. Come on BT, sort it out.

Robert

but fall just under the artificially imposed 15Mbit limit.

15Mbit was set as a limit, as this was deemed the required rate to stream HD TV.

In fact this could lead to defection to ISP's that will offer a sub 15Mbit product

Could? It already has!

Submit an order with an alternative supplier, most of whom will submit an order to "try and see" rather than relying on the BT estimate.

As an example from this very forum, ADSL24 accepted an order that was refused by BT because the estimate was 3.4Mbps. It went live at 19Mbps!

Do you have contact details for the Kevin McNulty, General Manager - NGA Customer Engagement at Openreach?

Also what did you say to BT that made them change their mind?