FTTC capacity - advice please! :)

Hello everyone. Let me try to keep this self-pitying account of the Freudian nightmare that has been my FTTC upgrade process short...

My local cabinet (cabinet 90 on 01788XXXXXX - edited as advised) is consistently running out of capacity.

Late last year, the Wholesale Availability checker stated FTTC would be available on January 9, with the standard message "Sorry, this cabinet is currently unavailable. Capacity will be restored as soon as possible."
Early in January, the date moved to January 29.

On January 22, it changed to "Available". I rang my provider (Plusnet) immediately and asked them to book an FTTC install appointment - and they did.

BUT, within a few minutes of the appointment being made, Plusnet received an error, saying the appointment has failed. They have tried twice - the second time directly through Openreach - with the same result. (I'm having a customer service nightmare too with Plusnet, but that's another matter...)

And then this weekend, the Wholesale Checker changed to state FTTC is unavailable again, with a date of February 26, and the same "Sorry..." message.

The local FTTC cabinet, number 90, is one of the larger-sized Huawei ones.

This is driving me insane!

So, could anyone shed any light on either:
1) Can capacity be increased any further? (Since the cabinet is already as big as they get)
2) Why does the fibre appointment fail even when the Available Checker says "Available"?

Thanks so much in advance for any advice,

Connor

Edited by Brookzy (Wed 29-Jan-14 22:11:18)

1. Once fully populated with line cards and all ports full a second cabinet can be added, but with the delays in building it

2. Because databases update at different speeds and the appointment system sometimes just seems to fail anyway

Thanks for your reply!

Is there any way I can find if the cabinet is fully populated?

Brookzy

If it is a big Huawei cab it should cater for 192 lines at max, it is most likely it needs an additional 100 ties between it and it's copper twin. This will take longer than putting new cards in.

It could be that the extra cards are already in to take it from 96 to 144 but only 100 ties exist. ( That is why is opened and closed so fast, only 4 new ports could be used).

Looking at the wholesale checker for your line we can see why the demand is so high as the ADSL spedds are very low.

I would strongly recommend that you check every day and order very fast when it reopens!.

Thanks for the info!

This might be a ridiculous question... but could the two failed appointments have effectively reserved a port each time in the cabinet?

In other words could there still be two ports free but showing as taken?

This might be a ridiculous question... but could the two failed appointments have effectively reserved a port each time in the cabinet?

No.

Well then if that is the case, maybe the appointments failed because capacity was already taken?

Any ideas how long the Wholesale Checker takes to update?

No. But it also depends what you, (and they), mean by an appointment.

If you sign up online to Plusnet you get offered three dates. So you pick one. I assume that the "appointment" they booked with you over the phone was from the same list.

It has been clear for ages that the date/slot you choose online is nearly always not available by the time you order. Your order confirmation gives a different one, not from the list and usually later.

My brain, [self-mocking] which can very very occasionally be wrong [/self-mocking], suggests that Openreach are issuing a list of available appointments for that cabinet, shared between all ISPs, but it is not updated in real time. Maybe daily.

If Plusnet are using that list, which I think is likely, the explanation could be that those three slots had already been taken by earlier orders .

Your situation could be the same, but with the added complication that the cabinet is out of ports. Maybe availability depending on leavers from all connections to it, until it gets added line cards or a second cabinet.

The earlier advice, check daily (as early as possible) seems to be the only way for you at the moment. I think I would do it online.

It might be a good idea to edit your phone number out of this post and leave just the area code.

In reply to a post by kitcat:

If it is a big Huawei cab it should cater for 192 lines at max,

I thought they were 288