Infinity Install - extra charge for "Data Extension Kit"?

Hi, my parents are considering getting BT Infinity - at the moment they don't have internet at all. However, their master socket is in a closet with no mains power, so they would need a "BT Infinity Data Extension Kit" to run the cable through to a room with electricity.

I phoned up BT to find out if there would be a charge for this, and they were pretty useless - they said that if an engineer visit was required for the installation, then he would fit it for free, but otherwise there would be a charge.

So - is there any way to find out if an engineer visit will be required for the installation? And if not, how do I "flag" the installation to make sure that an engineer comes around to fit the extension kit, as otherwise they'll have a completely unusable internet connection? What's the charge likely to be if we have to pay?

Apologies for all the questions, my parents aren't very technical and they won't be able to sort this out themselves...

Cheers,

Tim.

Providers choice usually as to whether they order the £49 self-install no engineer visit or £99 install from the supplier Openreach

The £49 is often reduced or absorbed into the contract. What the retailer charges is up to them.

Is there an option on the online order entry to specify the Data Extension Kit? (It may be called the Home Wiring Solution, which is what Openreach call it these days).

If there is, it must at some stage before committing the order tell you the cost.

The "up to 38MBps" product is definitely self-install. I have a feeling the 76Mbps one is as well these days but I'm not sure.

If it is self-install there is a possibility of less than the optimum performance if you use an extension socket, just as now. Look at the "Impacted" estimates on this checker. Make sure you use their phone number or full address, not the pure postcode option.

If you have optimised the wiring to the extension, which we can help you with if you haven't, the performance will normally be OK. If you copy and paste the estimates from the table, including the ADSLx ones, and tell us what their connection speed is now, we may be able to advise a bit better.

You can also make and run a data extension cable yourself for them if necessary. It isn't too difficult. Or are they too far away?

If you order Infinity 1, that is self-install.

If you order Infinity 2, you get an engineer to visit who can fit a data-extension kit for free.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Providers choice usually as to whether they order the £49 self-install no engineer visit or £99 install from the supplier Openreach

The £49 is often reduced or absorbed into the contract. What the retailer charges is up to them.

They're going to go with BT as the supplier, just to simplify the billing. As someone has said, they only want "basic" fibre so I suspect it will be self install...

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Is there an option on the online order entry to specify the Data Extension Kit? (It may be called the Home Wiring Solution, which is what Openreach call it these days).

If there is, it must at some stage before committing the order tell you the cost.

The "up to 38MBps" product is definitely self-install. I have a feeling the 76Mbps one is as well these days but I'm not sure.

If it is self-install there is a possibility of less than the optimum performance if you use an extension socket, just as now. Look at the "Impacted" estimates on this checker. Make sure you use their phone number or full address, not the pure postcode option.

If you have optimised the wiring to the extension, which we can help you with if you haven't, the performance will normally be OK. If you copy and paste the estimates from the table, including the ADSLx ones, and tell us what their connection speed is now, we may be able to advise a bit better.

You can also make and run a data extension cable yourself for them if necessary. It isn't too difficult. Or are they too far away?

They have an extension socket, but I have no idea what quality it is, it's probably decades old. There's no possibility for me to go an optimise it, sadly, I'm in London and they're in Belfast.

The BT checker is predicting 38Mb-56Mb for Fibre, or 3.5Mb - 8.5Mb for vanilla ADSL, does that help?

FTTC Range A (Clean) 55.8 38.1 14.5 8.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 47.5 27.4 14.5 6.9 -- Available


Since they want the cheapest fibre possible, I suspect it will be self install, which is a pain...

Edited by timjon (Sat 01-Nov-14 17:48:47)

The checker I gave you is more specific, and is basically what the BT one gets its info from . It's the A and B lines that we need. I'm only interested in the ADSLx estimates if you know what they actually get, as there could be a clue to the quality of their wiring in the difference.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The checker I gave you is more specific, and is basically what the BT one gets its info from . It's the A and B lines that we need. I'm only interested in the ADSLx estimates if you know what they actually get, as there could be a clue to the quality of their wiring in the difference.

Overlapping edits! Here you go:

FTTC Range A (Clean) 55.8 38.1 14.5 8.9 -- Available
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 47.5 27.4 14.5 6.9 -- Available

They don't actually have ADSL (or any kind of internet) at the moment, so there's no way to tell the quality of their extension wiring...

Edited by timjon (Sat 01-Nov-14 17:50:21)

What type of master socket do they have? A modern or an old one? If it needs updating then that may be one way.

Good thinking.