Moving to Milton Keynes & FTTC

I'm moving to Milton Keynes shortly and am wondering what the best way of finding out what is/or will be available at a particular house. I have tried searching by postcode/house number but the BT wholesale checker says that the phone number is the best way to check.

However I don't have a phone number for a prospective property.

I'm moving from ADSL2 20CN 8Mbit, sync 8128, BRAS profile 7.15M/448K (totally different area) and don't want to end up with much slower broadband (or even none at all!). In a couple of areas I have checked with a postcode it is around 512 - 2Mbit, but they are FTTC enabled according to the checker.

Is there a better way of checking as this looks to be a bit of a lottery?

Thanks

Edited by jim22 (Thu 06-Jan-11 10:20:39)

You should be alright for getting FTTC in MK

Milton Keynes is served by a number of exchanges so it is not quite as straightforward to find out if FTTC will be available. You could try inputting the post code into the SamKnows checker and then look on the published list to see if the exchange will be FTTC enabled.

I know Bradwell Abbey (where one FTTP trial is) and the Milton Keynes (based in Bletchley) exchanges have/are to get fibre.

Of course, it is still a bit of a lottery as you will need the phone number to check if a particular cabinet will be enabled.

Edited by kayjaygee (Thu 06-Jan-11 11:44:21)

Only 99.99% way is to buy property that already has the service up and running, with FTTP if the neighbours have it, and in the same close, then other than the final duct/fibre install it should be a certain thing.

If not FTTC then Milton Keynes is very variable broadband speed wise, the layout of town made for long telephone lines, along with other experiments over the years.

Do a search on yell or google for a shop, post office, pub or home business etc in your new area, and use one of those phone numbers on samknows or the BT DSL checker sites.

The postcode/address check might be enough to make you decide whether to contact the estate agent at all, even if it isn't accurate for a specific house, and doesn't distinguish between whether FTTC is planned or FTTC is already live (same for FTTP, which is restricted to parts of the Bradwell Abbey exchange).

After that, ask the estate agent (or letting agent) for details.

They can certainly decide whether to be helpful, but I guess if you specify to the agent before you mention any single property, then they know it is a serious criteria, and you know whether to bother dealing with them again.

If they choose to be helpful, they can ask their client for existing details.
They probably know the client's phone number, and may also be persuaded to give you the results of the DSL check (with number redacted).

Another way would be to get the postcode (easy once you know the address), and use either Google or 192.com, and search for the phone numbers in that postcode (eg include the dialling code in the search). Or find names in the postcode, then use BT.com's directory search to get phone numbers. Or just guess names (eg common surnames like Smith, Jones etc).

A while back, I used the Cabinet/Postcode Map at Timico's blog, to help work out which postcodes shared my cabinet, and from the BT DSL checker figures, I worked out where the cabinet was located (I've also worked out that the cabinet nearer to me has already got FTTC enabled, so I'm getting very impatient waiting for ours...)

Unfortunately, BT objected to the map, so that information is no longer available.

Thankyou for all the helpful replies, it doesn't sound straightforward unfortunately.

I'm originally from MK, and was a member of the original Milton Keynes Broadband Action Group and it's FAR from straightforward.

Due to the way the city grew you may find that you are not connected to the closest exchange as the routing taking as new estate were built are "haphazard" at best.....

As an example, a house on the west edge of Shenley Lodge can physcially see the Shenley Church End* exchange, yet is on a 5km line to Bradwell Abbey exchange that according to BT engineer goes via Shenley Church End and Central Milton Keynes to Fishermead.


*Shenley Church End Exchange is in Emerson Valley, 1.5 miles distance from Shenley Church End and 2 estates away.
** Bradwell Abbey Exchange is in Fishermead, more than 4 miles and 4 estates away