ESPCK Exchange - New cabinets, fibre laid, now what?

Hi.

Last summer, Openreach added new cabinets to the Penicuik ESPCK exchange (cab 21 specifically), which is only a short distance from home, instead of the several miles to the existing.

All the cabinets are in, the fibres are in place, even the little yellow signs are tacked to every pole. Last I was told, these were due to be in service by the end of 2019, which has of course been and gone without any more signs of activity.

Does anyone have any means to find out what the current timeline is? It usually takes a couple of months for the Scottish govt. to respond, and it's obviously third-hand by the time I get to see any estimates.

Cab 21 is live and accepting orders. Does dslchecker confirm your line is via cab 21?

Edited by witchunt (Thu 23-Jan-20 09:48:49)

My line is on 11, but miles out in the sticks.

I'm certain 21 was the number used on the roadworks permissions, I'll see if I can find those again.

Edit - can't find them without downloading the entire Scottish 2019 archive for roadworks permissions! I'll have a look at the cabinet and see if there's an identifier on it.

Edited by shtu (Fri 24-Jan-20 14:30:54)

Interesting. It's definitely cabinet 21 that has been installed nearby - it's stencilled on the front of it!

I feel a phone call coming on, 21 is roughly 5 miles closer than 11.

CodeLook says Cab 21 services only 33 properties across the following 2 postcodes

16% of EH46 7BG (also served by Cab 9 and 11)
25% of EH46 7BQ (also served by Cab 4 , 6 and 11)

Edited by dect (Sat 25-Jan-20 22:48:25)

21 was only installed to provide service to nearby properties. If the OP is still some distance away then that explains why their lines is still from cab 11

In reply to a post by witchunt:

21 was only installed to provide service to nearby properties. If the OP is still some distance away then that explains why their lines is still from cab 11

I couldn't work out if those 33 properties were previously a subset of another cab or previously EO.

I'm 300m away, there's only 3 properties closer.

I'm in EH46 7BD.


Edit - just for fun, tried the checks across the usual suspects,


ScotGuv's checker, using phone number - "Your cabinet is live but you are too far from the cabinet to see any increase. Your premises has already been connected to a fibre enabled cabinet, but your speeds are less than 24mbps."

Openreach, using address - "we’ll be upgrading your area to Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) soon."

BT Retail's "upgrade my broadband", using bt account - Offers an upgrade to Halo 2, ie, FTTC.


Hmm, interesting call when I get in work on Monday.

Edited by shtu (Sun 26-Jan-20 11:32:49)

In reply to a post by shtu:

I'm 300m away, there's only 3 properties closer.

I'm in EH46 7BD.

Sadly you're not in one of the postcodes Cab 21 reportedly serves. The fact that its only 300m away is sadly not relevant as you would need a network rearrangement for your property to be fed from it.

Edit: Interesting just checked the BT DSL checker and it says some properties in EH46 7BD are on cab 21 although not all of them.

Edited by dect (Sun 26-Jan-20 12:15:29)

Ta. I'll see what they have to say on Monday, as one route seems to suggest it is order-able. Maybe they're only doing the network change as and when people ask for an upgrade, the existing cable is right on the same path.