Leadtime on installations for newly activated exchanges ?

My exchange was originally due to be available for FTTC on the 31st December 2010, that got knocked back to March 31st 2011 before xmas but changed last week to 26th January 2011 ... today

Stuck on a 3mb connection at the moment so I have been chomping at the bit waiting for this, needless to say I placed my order first thing this morning (via Aquiss) and was wondering what sort of lead time I can expect before installation?

Hoping I am ahead of the rush in my area by placing the order at the start of today but prepared for the worst.

Any info appreciated.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

My exchange was originally due to be available for FTTC on the 31st December 2010, that got knocked back to March 31st 2011 before xmas but changed last week to 26th January 2011 ... today

Stuck on a 3mb connection at the moment so I have been chomping at the bit waiting for this, needless to say I placed my order first thing this morning (via Aquiss) and was wondering what sort of lead time I can expect before installation?

Hoping I am ahead of the rush in my area by placing the order at the start of today but prepared for the worst.

Any info appreciated.

I am on the Leamington Spa exchange and also noticed this morning that orders could be placed for ifinity.
Ours also originaly showed the FTTC dates as Dec 2010 and then March 2011 and then for the last couple of days 26 Jan 2011.
I stayed with BT and did my order online this morning. The order process gave me a date of 09/02/2011 which is approx 10 working days.
The BT order process lets you choose the installation date to which the earliest for me was 09/02/2011 between 8.00am to 13.00hrs

PS - Just noticed from your profile that you are on WG - If so i live a few streets from you

Edited by BP1 (Wed 26-Jan-11 18:12:43)

Thanks for the info matey.

IMines also the Leaminton Spa exchange, the date changed to the 26th Jan on the 22nd of Jan I think, I am sad and have been checking it almost daily

I considered going with BT but I do a lot of uploading and downloading and so I prefer the Aquiss FUP.

I work from home so can be available any time for installation so it will be interesting to see what date Openreach come back to Aquiss with for mine. It should be something similar but it wouldn't surprise me at all if provisioning for BT from Openreach was quicker.

Hopefully find out soon.

"It should be something similar but it wouldn't surprise me at all if provisioning for BT from Openreach was quicker."

Not the case.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

"It should be something similar but it wouldn't surprise me at all if provisioning for BT from Openreach was quicker."

Not the case.

Hope your right.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

Thanks for the info matey.

IMines also the Leaminton Spa exchange, the date changed to the 26th Jan on the 22nd of Jan I think, I am sad and have been checking it almost daily

I considered going with BT but I do a lot of uploading and downloading and so I prefer the Aquiss FUP.

I work from home so can be available any time for installation so it will be interesting to see what date Openreach come back to Aquiss with for mine. It should be something similar but it wouldn't surprise me at all if provisioning for BT from Openreach was quicker.

Hopefully find out soon.

Just noticed from your profile that you are on WG - If so i live a few streets from you

In reply to a post by BP1:

Just noticed from your profile that you are on WG - If so i live a few streets from you

Yup Mark Antony Drive just up from the gym, long way from the exchange in Leamington Spa but there's a street cabinet (and a shiny new one next to it) just at the end of my road so I am hoping that's the one I am connected to as its less that 100mm away so should be a nice connection.

The checker currently estimates I will get the following.

32.8Mb download
7.8Mb upload

Trust me, I am. If your cab is that close, you'll be fine. I'm 566m from mine, and I still get the full 40000Kbps down and 10000 up.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

... at the end of my road so I am hoping that's the one I am connected to as its less that 100mm away so should be a nice connection.

Do you live IN the cabinet? or have a tent attached?

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

In reply to a post by BP1:

Just noticed from your profile that you are on WG - If so i live a few streets from you

Yup Mark Antony Drive just up from the gym, long way from the exchange in Leamington Spa but there's a street cabinet (and a shiny new one next to it) just at the end of my road so I am hoping that's the one I am connected to as its less that 100mm away so should be a nice connection.

The checker currently estimates I will get the following.

32.8Mb download
7.8Mb upload

I'm fed from cab 82 which is on the the other side of Mark Anthony Drive. Approx cable llength 300M to cab.
I get slightly lower estimate speed for FTTC. Currently sync at 4617kbps on ADSL2.
Still a great improvement and looking forward to the installation date now.

Cant believe about 5 years ago we all had TPON and dial up only on WG. If BT hadn't overlaid all 1600 lines to copper on the estate we would have been stuffed now for FTTC

In reply to a post by BP1:

I'm fed from cab 82 which is on the the other side of Mark Anthony Drive. Approx cable llength 300M to cab.
I get slightly lower estimate speed for FTTC. Currently sync at 4617kbps on ADSL2.
Still a great improvement and looking forward to the installation date now.

Cant believe about 5 years ago we all had TPON and dial up only on WG. If BT hadn't overlaid all 1600 lines to copper on the estate we would have been stuffed now for FTTC

I lived on Eglamour Way before living here, way back when we were told we couldn't get ADSL because of the fibre TPONs, The only option was ISDN2e because back then they had a way of routing you via different cabinets to be on copper all the way to the exchange for ISDN2 but no system for ADSL. It took 3 ISDN2e orders and cancellations before they left me on copper and i could order ADSL . ... was very poor speed due to the cable length though.

How do you know which cabinet your fed from and the line length ? is there a checker for this somewhere or is it something you have found via the order process?

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

... at the end of my road so I am hoping that's the one I am connected to as its less that 100mm away so should be a nice connection.

Do you live IN the cabinet? or have a tent attached?

Sorry I added an extra m there didnt I

I have a friend over in Kenilworth who is actually that far from his cabinet though, the cabinet backs onto the wall of his house, he could attach to it via a 1m cable and still have enough the other side to attached to his router..... I reckon he may just get full speed, the checker even says 40mb / 10mb for his number.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

My exchange was originally due to be available for FTTC on the 31st December 2010, that got knocked back to March 31st 2011 before xmas but changed last week to 26th January 2011 ... today

Stuck on a 3mb connection at the moment so I have been chomping at the bit waiting for this, needless to say I placed my order first thing this morning (via Aquiss) and was wondering what sort of lead time I can expect before installation?

Ah, so you were one of the people that ordered before me on the Leamington exchange.. I ordered at lunchtime and was told that 8 people from Leamington had already ordered this morning..

This just got installed today http://i.imgur.com/3Pttd.jpg

I'm in MK on the SMSU exchange. Just hope it gets wired up pretty soon!

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

This just got installed today http://i.imgur.com/3Pttd.jpg

I'm in MK on the SMSU exchange. Just hope it gets wired up pretty soon!

That's going to really mess up your judgement of the capabilities of the female assistant refs.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Trust me, I am. If your cab is that close, you'll be fine. I'm 566m from mine, and I still get the full 40000Kbps down and 10000 up.

I'm just over 300m from mine (in a straight line, estimate 420m cable) and my profile dropped from it's earlier 38717 to around 33500 over Christmas... it's slowly climbing back up again now, depending on the weather.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

In reply to a post by BP1:

I'm fed from cab 82 which is on the the other side of Mark Anthony Drive. Approx cable llength 300M to cab.
I get slightly lower estimate speed for FTTC. Currently sync at 4617kbps on ADSL2.
Still a great improvement and looking forward to the installation date now.

Cant believe about 5 years ago we all had TPON and dial up only on WG. If BT hadn't overlaid all 1600 lines to copper on the estate we would have been stuffed now for FTTC

I lived on Eglamour Way before living here, way back when we were told we couldn't get ADSL because of the fibre TPONs, The only option was ISDN2e because back then they had a way of routing you via different cabinets to be on copper all the way to the exchange for ISDN2 but no system for ADSL. It took 3 ISDN2e orders and cancellations before they left me on copper and i could order ADSL . ... was very poor speed due to the cable length though.

How do you know which cabinet your fed from and the line length ? is there a checker for this somewhere or is it something you have found via the order process?

We had some faults on our line recently. The BT engineesr that came told me the cab details. Also when TPON was overlaid some years ago i recall talking to the workmen who at that time suggested that we were all eg Mark Anthony Drive and the adjoining streets on this side of WG were being fed from the new at that time cab located at Ophellia Drive.

I no where you are now. You live just approx 100 yards from me. I am confident that you are fed from cab 82. As for the cable length to the cab just pace out the walking distance from your home to the cab on Ophellia Drive. which will give you approx length of your line to the cab. You can see the BT drawpits at ground level and the repairs to the underground collapsed duct which was done in the TPON copper overlay time.

I am sure you will get the 40M

Edited by BP1 (Thu 27-Jan-11 09:50:38)

In reply to a post by Spasch:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

My exchange was originally due to be available for FTTC on the 31st December 2010, that got knocked back to March 31st 2011 before xmas but changed last week to 26th January 2011 ... today

Stuck on a 3mb connection at the moment so I have been chomping at the bit waiting for this, needless to say I placed my order first thing this morning (via Aquiss) and was wondering what sort of lead time I can expect before installation?

Ah, so you were one of the people that ordered before me on the Leamington exchange.. I ordered at lunchtime and was told that 8 people from Leamington had already ordered this morning..

Just called BT Ifinity to correct the prefered contact details on my order which was placed very early yesterday morning. I asked if they had much of an interest on FTTC in Leamington. They replied that it was looking good so far. They also stated that mine must have been one of the first orders. This info was based on the 10 day lead time for engineers appointments. As my appointment was showing 8.00am on 9 Feb it looks like the first order subject to any one pror to me requesting for a later timed appointment.

Still no word on my installation date, seems a poor system whereby if you place the order with BT you find out an installation date straight away whereas with other ISP's you have to wait to hear back from them.

Whether Openreach really provision it equally or not that part of it doesn't seem very equal at least.

In reply to a post by billford:

it's slowly climbing back up again now, depending on the weather.

Condensation on the fibre - light can't get through the mist so well.

just pace out the walking distance from your home to the cab on Ophellia Drive

Plus the distance between it and the FTTC cab.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Condensation on the fibre - light can't get through the mist so well.

It's an appealing theory

But I suspect the reason is much more mundane- someone between me and the cabinet has an electrically noisy heating system

I've just ordered Unlimited this morning and the installation date is 11th Feb. I also live on Mark Antony Drive (last house onto Ophelia Drive) and probably less than 50 yards to the Ophelia Drive cab. The checker was quoting 37.5 down/9.8 up.

Previously with BT I couldn't get much more than 2Mb so I switched to Sky's LLU product which upped the speed to around 4.5mb.

I'm a bit concerned about the FUP, particularly the 30 day throttling period so may end up flipping back to SSL Usenet rather than P2P but I'm happy to take the risk.

Dave

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Jan-11 17:07:15)

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

I've just ordered Unlimited this morning and the installation date is 11th Feb. I also live on Mark Antony Drive (last house onto Ophelia Drive) and probably less than 50 yards to the Ophelia Drive cab. The checker was quoting 37.5 down/9.8 up.

Previously with BT I couldn't get much more than 2Mb so I switched to Sky's LLU product which upped the speed to around 4.5mb.

I'm a bit concerned about the FUP, particularly the 30 day throttling period so may end up flipping back to SSL Usenet rather than P2P but I'm happy to take the risk.

Dave

Usenet > P2P every day of the week Dave

Its great to hear other people getting installation dates straight away but its quite unfair that if you order it from one ISP you have to wait 72 hours to find out your installation date whereas you order from BT and get told an install date straight away.

I thought the whole point of Openreach and BT supposedly being separate entities was that each ISP was provisioned and treated equally? it doesn't seem to be the case based on my experience so far.

I ordered mine from Aquiss yesterday and still not a sniff of an install date from Openreach.

it will be getting done equivalently thats a guarantee, however the way you cp progress the order might hold it up.

the appointment books are the same for all cps, btr don't have a special one

I looked at the Aquiss option but couldn't justify the uplift. Static IP addressing would have come in handy but I can bodge it with DynDNS.

Given your Usenet > P2P comment I'm assuming there must have been something other than the FUP that moved you away from BT?

I'm not a big fan of them and remember the [censored] and hassle with TPON and having to pay£100/month for an ISDN2e line and spoof the 60 minute time out for free calls with the Internet Anytime package via a somewhat expensive Cisco 803 router ....

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

I thought the whole point of Openreach and BT supposedly being separate entities was that each ISP was provisioned and treated equally? it doesn't seem to be the case based on my experience so far.

I ordered mine from Aquiss yesterday and still not a sniff of an install date from Openreach.

You seem intent on creating conspiracies where there are none.
Ask your ISP why they are not able to process your order and make an appointment with Openreach and advise you of the date sooner.

In reply to a post by andyboygsi:

it will be getting done equivalently thats a guarantee, however the way you cp progress the order might hold it up.

the appointment books are the same for all cps, btr don't have a special one

I think that remains to be seen, if they come back to me with a date beyond the 11th of Feb then its clear that its definitely not the case.

I think that remains to be seen, if they come back to me with a date beyond the 11th of Feb then its clear that its definitely not the case.

I'll give you some bandwidth after the 11th

Dave

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

I looked at the Aquiss option but couldn't justify the uplift. Static IP addressing would have come in handy but I can bodge it with DynDNS.

Given your Usenet > P2P comment I'm assuming there must have been something other than the FUP that moved you away from BT?

I'm not a big fan of them and remember the [censored] and hassle with TPON and having to pay£100/month for an ISDN2e line and spoof the 60 minute time out for free calls with the Internet Anytime package via a somewhat expensive Cisco 803 router ....

I have a bit of a history with BT from way back in dial up days (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/11/01/bt_sends_woman_467page_bill/), had issues before that one and then all the messing around when on a TPON to force through an ADSL order (BT engineer left with a crate of beer that day) and generally rate them as one of the worst companies on the planet so I just couldn't bear the thought of going back to them as an ISP.

Aquiss have a fair and clear cut FUP and the unlimited off peak usage is what appeals to me as I am happy to schedule all my uploading and downloading to run during the night as I have been doing that for years anyway.

The thing thats most frustrating about Mark Antony drive is all the cable TV hatches and ducting, that's got no cable in them!!!! I asked Virgin several times if they would lay cable here and they even entered into conversations with me about it once and said they would look into it but it all went very quiet when BT announced their FTTC plans for this area and I haven't heard from them since.

Waited a long time for a decent connection so I guess another few weeks wont kill me

In reply to a post by panda:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

I thought the whole point of Openreach and BT supposedly being separate entities was that each ISP was provisioned and treated equally? it doesn't seem to be the case based on my experience so far.

I ordered mine from Aquiss yesterday and still not a sniff of an install date from Openreach.

You seem intent on creating conspiracies where there are none.
Ask your ISP why they are not able to process your order and make an appointment with Openreach and advise you of the date sooner.

I've spoken to Martin at Aquiss several times in the last 24 hours and been told they are waiting for Openreach to come back to them with an install date.

I aren't trying to create conspiracies at all thanks, I am just comparing my real life experience to that of others peoples on this forum.

Its fine when people say what should happen and what should be standard practice but the reality so far seems quite different.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

In reply to a post by panda:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

I thought the whole point of Openreach and BT supposedly being separate entities was that each ISP was provisioned and treated equally? it doesn't seem to be the case based on my experience so far.

I ordered mine from Aquiss yesterday and still not a sniff of an install date from Openreach.

You seem intent on creating conspiracies where there are none.
Ask your ISP why they are not able to process your order and make an appointment with Openreach and advise you of the date sooner.

I've spoken to Martin at Aquiss several times in the last 24 hours and been told they are waiting for Openreach to come back to them with an install date.

I aren't trying to create conspiracies at all thanks, I am just comparing my real life experience to that of others peoples on this forum.

Its fine when people say what should happen and what should be standard practice but the reality so far seems quite different.

A lesson i learn't from the TPON days was that some isp's have problems with their ordering system. In the TPON days if you remember on the checker TPON was stated and most of the isp's took their info on this rather than trying for a manual order to see if any spare copper was available from BT wholesale. Some isp's do not want to manually check with openreach if the computer says no.

Keep badgering Aquiss and say that others you no from other isp;s seem not to have problems getting install dates.

Edited by BP1 (Thu 27-Jan-11 19:09:20)

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

I've spoken to Martin at Aquiss several times in the last 24 hours

Impatient then?

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

and been told they are waiting for Openreach to come back to them with an install date.

There are exceptions to every rule, but generally if the order was placed via the automated systems, appointment availability is usually returned in minutes/hours. If it was placed manually, it can take considerably longer.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

I aren't trying to create conspiracies at all thanks, I am just comparing my real life experience to that of others peoples on this forum.

And alluding that any difference in service must be due to BT Retail being given preferential treatment by Openreach. If that were the case, I'm sure numerous ISPs will be providing their complaints and evidence to the regulator for investigation, who can impose fines/sanctions upon BT if found to be true.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

Its fine when people say what should happen and what should be standard practice but the reality so far seems quite different.

Perhaps the grassy knoll obscures your view.

maybe theres a premium for early appointments which your cp is not willing to pay ut others are

In reply to a post by BP1:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

In reply to a post by panda:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

You seem intent on creating conspiracies where there are none.
Ask your ISP why they are not able to process your order and make an appointment with Openreach and advise you of the date sooner.

I've spoken to Martin at Aquiss several times in the last 24 hours and been told they are waiting for Openreach to come back to them with an install date.

I aren't trying to create conspiracies at all thanks, I am just comparing my real life experience to that of others peoples on this forum.

Its fine when people say what should happen and what should be standard practice but the reality so far seems quite different.

A lesson i learn't from the TPON days was that some isp's have problems with their ordering system. In the TPON days if you remember on the checker TPON was stated and most of the isp's took their info on this rather than trying for a manual order to see if any spare copper was available from BT wholesale. Some isp's do not want to manually check with openreach if the computer says no.

Keep badgering Aquiss and say that others you no from other isp;s seem not to have problems getting install dates.

I actually swapped to BT to try and get round the TPON issue back then but despite numerous attempts and about 30 conversations with people at BT I failed miserably. In the end it was Nildram (who were very good back then) that managed to get it sorted for me ... and of course the nice BT engineer that changed my routing.

Anyway I got an install date of the 10th Feb for FTTC so I guess they are provisioning it the same, shame that the processes cant be as transparent at the ordering stage between the different ISP's. How much of that is down to the ISP or Openreach I don't really know all I can go on is what my ISP says the process is.

so your cp negotiated and earlier than has been highlighted appointment slot. oh well the thread may aswell be closed.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

In reply to a post by BP1:

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

I've spoken to Martin at Aquiss several times in the last 24 hours and been told they are waiting for Openreach to come back to them with an install date.

I aren't trying to create conspiracies at all thanks, I am just comparing my real life experience to that of others peoples on this forum.

Its fine when people say what should happen and what should be standard practice but the reality so far seems quite different.

A lesson i learn't from the TPON days was that some isp's have problems with their ordering system. In the TPON days if you remember on the checker TPON was stated and most of the isp's took their info on this rather than trying for a manual order to see if any spare copper was available from BT wholesale. Some isp's do not want to manually check with openreach if the computer says no.

Keep badgering Aquiss and say that others you no from other isp;s seem not to have problems getting install dates.

I actually swapped to BT to try and get round the TPON issue back then but despite numerous attempts and about 30 conversations with people at BT I failed miserably. In the end it was Nildram (who were very good back then) that managed to get it sorted for me ... and of course the nice BT engineer that changed my routing.

Anyway I got an install date of the 10th Feb for FTTC so I guess they are provisioning it the same, shame that the processes cant be as transparent at the ordering stage between the different ISP's. How much of that is down to the ISP or Openreach I don't really know all I can go on is what my ISP says the process is.

Thats great news youve finally got an install date.
Lets hope all goes well for all of us

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

Anyway I got an install date of the 10th Feb for FTTC so I guess they are provisioning it the same, shame that the processes cant be as transparent at the ordering stage between the different ISP's. How much of that is down to the ISP or Openreach I don't really know all I can go on is what my ISP says the process is.

Ditto - 10/2/2011 8AM - 1PM

BT Retail use the same links into BT Wholesale and Openreach that all other CP's use. It is not a case of BT Retail getting preferential treatment, as this would leave them open to large fines.

Suggest it is a problem with the CP.

Also keep in mind that Aquiss are a business ISP, so orders from businesses will take priority (although they must be picking up a fair old whack of residential customers)..

In reply to a post by Spasch:

(although they must be picking up a fair old whack of residential customers)..

Yup, we are indeed.

The last 2 days, FTTC orders have actually been higher in volume than ADSL orders. However, this could be accounted by a few nice sized areas, with keen local support, coming on stream for the first time.

Edited by aquiss (Fri 28-Jan-11 13:12:46)

I'm waiting to move to you too, as soon as BT get the job done around here. They are now saying March 31 moved from 31 Dec '10.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by billford:

it's slowly climbing back up again now, depending on the weather.

Condensation on the fibre - light can't get through the mist so well.

The weather gets cold again- profile drops to ~33500 and interleave goes back on

Roll on summer

In reply to a post by TheHorseman:

I'm waiting to move to you too, as soon as BT get the job done around here. They are now saying March 31 moved from 31 Dec '10.

Keep checking it, that's exactly what happened with mine and then they changed it to the 26th January on the 22nd of January ... hopefully yours comes forward rather than going back and further. I have friends who were looking forward to it arriving on the 31st of Dec 2010 only to see their date changed to 31st Dec 2011 ... being hit with a 3 month delay 2 weeks before its due is one thing, but 1 year delay with just two weeks to go would be hard to take!

In reply to a post by TheHorseman:

I'm waiting to move to you too, as soon as BT get the job done around here. They are now saying March 31 moved from 31 Dec '10.

Keep checking weekly. We are seeing many of the areas which were moved from Dec 2010 to March 2011 actually going live already. Personally I think the bad winter weather just put them behind a few weeks, rather than months.

In reply to a post by aquiss:

In reply to a post by TheHorseman:

I'm waiting to move to you too, as soon as BT get the job done around here. They are now saying March 31 moved from 31 Dec '10.

Keep checking weekly. We are seeing many of the areas which were moved from Dec 2010 to March 2011 actually going live already. Personally I think the bad winter weather just put them behind a few weeks, rather than months.

I check most days (sad or what), todays check still shows 31 March. I'm hoping that it'll be moved forwards a bit, the FTTC cab is there but I don't know how much has been done to it yet.

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by billford:

it's slowly climbing back up again now, depending on the weather.

Condensation on the fibre - light can't get through the mist so well.

The weather gets cold again- profile drops to ~33500 and interleave goes back on

Roll on summer

I wonder if it's "Many a true word spoken in jest"? Not what I actually suggested, but something of that ilk? The summer will tell, as you say. Or more realistically, next winter will.

Now if British Rail suggested that trains had to run slower because the distance between the rails changed ....

(I first thought "decreased", so causing a braking effect, changed my mind and wrote "increased", so slower on safety grounds, then decided on "changed" because so many variables crowded in on me).

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I wonder if it's "Many a true word spoken in jest"? Not what I actually suggested, but something of that ilk? The summer will tell, as you say. Or more realistically, next winter will.

Occam's Razor... somebody's heating system

Partly I say that because I had a similar situation with ADSL2+ during the previous winter, ie no fibre.

I could get at line stats then of course, and the diurnal pattern fitted a domestic heating system very well, but the short-term profile didn't fit mine.

There's lots of variety on individual exchanges too.

My can is live (and I have infinity) - went live late December. However a friend a few roads away (with cab in place) isn't live yet and being told Mar 2010, and another friend up the road has the same issue

Meanwhile many areas have no assigned date, and no cab work done -- mostly areas closer than we are to the exchange (we're 4.7km)