Other FTTC available, just not BT Infinity?

Hi All,

I'm moving into a new area which according to the BT wholesale line checker is enabled for FTTC at a speed for 14.6mb/sec. A number of ISPs including Eclipse, AAISP, IDNet, FAST, etc all say they can provide me with an up to 40mb/sec FTTC service.

However, on speaking to BT infinity sales this morning they confirmed that BT Infinity is not rolled out in my area and cannot tell me when it might be. I had assumed that the FTTC equipment would largely be the same regardless of who the provider was but the BT sales person insists that these other ISPs must have installed their own equipment at the exchange to enable their services.

Am I completely wrong in my assumptions here?

Cheers in advance,

David

im not so sure about fitting equipment in the exchange, im pretty sure this isnt the case though.

you may not be able to get it due to the fact they are estimating sub 15m. however on the upside there is a sub 15m product on its way in the future.

It could also be that the exchange is enabled but not the specific cabinet. In that case it depends on how good the checkers are as to whether it might actually pick up on that.

BT Retail dont currently offer a sub 15 mb fttc product at the moment and no, no other supplier will have fitted equiptment in the exchange yet fttc is a wholesale product tho and other providers do offer a sub 15mb product.

The Infinity person is incorrect, as long as your cabinet is enabled and you are close enough.

The estimate is almost always low, but BT Broadband will not at the moment supply under 15Mbps estimated. The others will. I think the limit is 11Mbps else the Openreach engineer cancels is instructed to cancel the install. Though as others have said, a lower limit is expected soon.

The others quoted use the BT Wholesale equipment.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 04-Jan-11 16:46:02)

Thanks chaps, mostly as I suspected then - the capability is there but the fact that I'm missing the cap by 0.4mb in theory is going to cost me another 25 quid a month

Is there any way to push BT Infinity to do a real line test rather than rely on the estimates?

Let me just say...openreach engineers do NOT cancel instals. It's not our decision.

In reply to a post by wichitalineman:

Let me just say...openreach engineers do NOT cancel instals. It's not our decision.

I thought I was chief pedant here .

But yes, I agree. See edited post.

Am I right with the 11Mbps cut-off figure?

Nope cos the estimates come direct from openreach database. suggest maybe going with one of the other providers on a short contract then migrate at the end if your speed is above the 15mb

No, it's 15000 or over.