Changed RFS date (31st March to 16th Feb)

Should I get excited, my RFS date has changed from the 31st of March to the 16th of Feb... THATS NEXT WEEK!!!

Has anyone else's?

(chesterfield exchange btw)

Yup mine changed from 31st March 2011 (after previously changing to that from the 31st Dec 2010) to the 26th Jan 2011 ... so good to see they shaved a couple of months off their revised date after putting it back 3 months.

Just to forewarn you though, your installation date could be a couple of weeks after that based on my experience.

I ordered mine the morning of the very first day it was available on the 26th Jan and the first available install date was the 10th Feb, so expect to wait a couple of extra weeks for a working connection after the RFS date if that's the norm, which it seemed to be for my cabinet from what others posted. Maybe install dates have shorter lead times in other areas but best to be prepared for a wait and hopefully have a nice surprise.

My mate had his order processed in Leam on Friday past (4th) and has an install date of the 14th, so less time than ours (maybe because we ordered on the busiest day??)..

The date will be the earliest a technician is available. They have plenty of other work to do and that will be scheduled in already plus time has to be allocated for business repairs (same day, next day, next working day &c) so you will be added to the queue which could be 10 days long. It is unlikely that anyone will get an install date less than a week - especially as BT (or teh ISP) has to order and ship teh router direct to you which can take 2 or 3 days.

Yep, it's true, the first 12 cabs in Chesterfield go live on 16th February, sadly my cab isn't getting FTTC at all. I'd expect to see more cabs going live in Chez over the next few weeks, same as Mosborough, that went live last week. Expecting to see Dronfield get the first dates in the next few weeks.

Only 12 going live next week? It seems a strange way of doing things, from a few post-codes I've checked there is no order or pattern to it, a cabinet just up the road from me is live on the 16th February, but mine is still 31st March. I'm pretty sure all of them near me are finished.

Seems strange just 12, but I know ours hasn't been touched for over a month now, so it's definitely ready, where as one in Calow (near work) was only put in last week and still has a big hole round it.

i checked my number the other day, noticed it had changed again, Im Hasland says il get 7.2mb ! still better than 3 i suppose, lving down churchside for you !

In reply to a post by danielowenuk:

Should I get excited, my RFS date has changed from the 31st of March to the 16th of Feb... THATS NEXT WEEK!!!

Has anyone else's?

(chesterfield exchange btw)

I'm not on the Chesterfield exchange but the same happened to me. Date changed from 30th September 2010, to 31st December 2010, to 15th January 2011 and then to 31st March 2011. People I know at work who live very close to me and are on the same exchange as me got connected on 17th January. Mine still said 31st March.

Then one day at the end of January mine changed to 3rd February 2011.

I just *happened* to be online at midnight as the clock ticked over to 3rd, checked my number on the BT site at about 5 seconds passed midnight and my availability date had changed to "Now" so I ordered Infinity.

Its being fitted next Thursday, 17th

I just hope it turns out to have been worth the wait !!

In reply to a post by bobbyboyuk:

i checked my number the other day, noticed it had changed again, Im Hasland says il get 7.2mb ! still better than 3 i suppose, lving down churchside for you !

I didn't think they would fit anything under 15Mbs?

they removed the 15mb limit

Silly question but how do you check your RFS date?

FTTC cabs have been installed in my area for about 2-3 weeks now without any BT van's around them but the checkers still only show IPStream MAX as being available, no mention of FTTC...

It shows on the BT Infinity checker for my address.

Will I require a MAC if I am moving from Sky?

By that I mean I with Sky for Line Rental & Broadband.

If it is Sky line rental and Sky Connect, not Sky LLU Broadband, then yes.

If it is Sky LLU Broadband and Sky line rental then technically no, but it is advisable to get one. However your problem will be that in this case your line does not count as a "BT line", and you need to get it back to someone who supplies that. See this thread.

Just phoned for my MAC only to be informed that on sky line rental they don't provide a MAC.

This makes sense really, you can't have sky line rental and another BB provider, so why bother with MAC.

I think they have to provide a MAC for the broadband.

Did you read the other thread. I advise you to do as that poster did, liaise with BT and get the line moved first.

BT are telling me it works differently, they are saying they can take control of the line rental then enable Infinity in one go, I have had it confirmed twice today.

You are now connected with Josephine
Josephine: Welcome to BT, the most complete broadband provider. My name is Josephine.
Josephine: Hello Daniel
Josephine: How may I assist you with your order today?
Daniel Owen: good morning, I am wanting to switch to BT infinity on Wednesday (infinity is enabled on wednesday)
Daniel Owen: I am currently with Sky for line rental, if I order online will sky also sort the line rental move back to BT?
Josephine: Who is your current Phone and Broadband provider?
Daniel Owen: Sky
Josephine: Yes if you order, we will also sort out the phone lien for you as well

You will have to ignore her reading and typing skills

We are now routing you to one of our chat team...

You are now connected with Allie

Allie: Welcome to BT, the most complete broadband provider. My name is Allie.

Allie: How may I help you today Daniel?

Daniel Owen: good afternoon, I am currently with Sky for my line rental, will I need to move my telephone line rental back to BT before I can order BT Infinity?

Allie: Yes you would Daniel.

Allie: May I please take your full address to check your estimated broadband speed?

Daniel Owen: I already have all the estimates thanks, but I want to be clear, when infinity goes live (16th of Feb), can I not just call up and say "I want to move my line rental and broadband"?

Daniel Owen: will I need to call and move my phone line first?

Allie: You most certainly can, or you can have it set up online too. Have you got an existing BT socket?

Daniel Owen: yes, we were with BT before we moved to Sky

Daniel Owen: will there be any downtime

Allie: You can then change your line rental back to BT and order infinity from the internet too.

Allie: Please allow up to three hours for your installation. During this time, the engineer will make sure you can connect to the Internet. Also your telephone line won't work for up to 10 minutes while your engineer connects you to fibre broadband at your local BT cabinet.

Allie: It usually takes up to 12 days to switch your line over from another provider, once we've processed your order

Allie: I hope that helps?

Daniel Owen: and how long does it normally take to move the line rental or will that be done at the same time?

Allie: From the time that you place your order this will take 12 days to switch over.

No problem then .

Enjoy! Let us know how things go.

Not the best start....

Called them this morning and.... no infinity on your line sir...

Cue pantomine moment, "oh yes there is"

According to a lady at BT it can take 24 hours for their system to update, that is of course despite knowing for weeks when the go live date was lol

Anyway she is calling me back in the morning.

No call back but I wasn't really expecting one to be honest.

Called them this morning and spoke to a guy who was actually really good very efficient knew exactly what he was talking about.

Line will be moved before engineer vist and he will be coming on the 4th of March.

Hopefully everything runs smoothly.

Deep breath.....

Got a call over the weekend, that I missed so picked up my voicemail;

"As I am not on a BT line they will need to move my line before they can process my BT Infinity order"

Ok thanks for leaving that voicemail cancelling my order but that leaves a few things up in the air. Firstly if they are confident of the line move on the 4th why not install the broadband on the same day? Secondly why confirm an engineer visit for the 4th of March? Thanks for that, pretty useless day off work that is! Thirdly as I will now be on BT but with Sky broadband will that require a MAC?

Frustrating that more than one (3 infact) have either misled me or not known the answer and blagged it when asked the direct question "will it all happen on the same day?".

From the other thread it seems you don't need a MAC.

What you will need to do is make sure Sky stop charging you at the right time for each service. (After the move of each, else they may cancel the service).

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 21-Feb-11 09:16:22)

Every single one of the.... hmm plusnet, nildram, bethere, bt... can't remember them all, but every single one has continue to charge for at least a month after I have left so I would expect that.



Slightly calmed down now, but it's still not great service.

In reply to a post by DaveTomlinson:

Yep, it's true, the first 12 cabs in Chesterfield go live on 16th February, sadly my cab isn't getting FTTC at all. I'd expect to see more cabs going live in Chez over the next few weeks, same as Mosborough, that went live last week. Expecting to see Dronfield get the first dates in the next few weeks.

I don't suppose you have any new information on more cabinets being enabled in Chesterfield? One up the road from me is live, but no others in the area are. It seemed like they were all finished at the same time.

I don't think they were all finished at the same time, the one in calow (on way to work) still has a hole around it and barriers.

I mean the ones near me. In Walton they all went in around November and there hasn't been any work for several weeks now, yet only one of them is live.

Hello

I think FTTC should be going live in Holme Hall area on 1st march. I've found this website what seems more accurate than the BT site cos it's still says 31st march on BT site but on this says 1st March.....

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_availabi...

Click on broadband checker and type your phone number or you can type in house number and postcode. Give's loads of information

Right, finally got to speak to someone with a clue.

Got a letter yesterday saying "sorry you are leaving sky, your broadband will be cancelled on the 4th of March".

Ahh!! So bt telling me that the broadband would be moved along with the line rental is BS.

Called BT and got BT india then go put through to Dawn who was lovely and explained that they were hoping to do a SIM move, but it wasn't going to happen.

I explained that I didn't want to be without net access at all, she is going to call me on the 5th of March (a saturday) speed up my infinity order and give me a free FON voucher. I don't mind if they are honest and give me an explanation!

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Hello

I think FTTC should be going live in Holme Hall area on 1st march. I've found this website what seems more accurate than the BT site cos it's still says 31st march on BT site but on this says 1st March.....

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_availabi...

Click on broadband checker and type your phone number or you can type in house number and postcode. Give's loads of information

While SamKnows has plenty of good information, the only site that can be definitively believed, regarding FTTC go live dates, is the BT Wholesale checker. All the ISPs get their information from this DB.

In reply to a post by Spasch:

the only site that can be definitively believed, regarding FTTC go live dates, is the BT Wholesale checker. All the ISPs get their information from this DB.

Even that's only more-or-less true... last August I put my number into my ISP's checker and it said I could have FTTC. So I said "Yes please" and the order went though, installed about 10 days later on the 24th Aug.

The BT checker was still saying 30th September...

Right little bit more progress.

The bad bit first, picked up my package from the post office on Friday, NOT a V3 as I was promised

Called them and they are sending out a V3 today, and I get to keep the V2 as a doorstop.... er I mean spare.

The good bit; line was moved over on friday without any hassle, and they have kept my original number.

Dawn from BT phoned me as promised on saturday to arrange FON that I can access from my little boys bedroom windowsill (not a great deal of use but at least they did as they said).

Was then called to arrange infinity order that is being done next monday.

It's a week without broadband, but it could be worse.

In reply to a post by Yerman164:

I mean the ones near me. In Walton they all went in around November and there hasn't been any work for several weeks now, yet only one of them is live.

Date for my cab has now been put back to 30th June. What are BT playing at? Houses just 500m away from me can order FTTC now, along with a lot of Chesterfield.

Same here, most here can now order FTTC, my date is now 30th June.

My cab has been humming away for months now. BT are a joke tbh.

ONLINE!!!!

So far I am pretty much stoked, it's very early days only an hour or two in but

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1201599347.png

37Mb when I was estimated 25Mb is pretty damn impressive.

Engineer said sync was 40/10

Nice guy actually shifted my master socket to a better position.

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Mar-11 19:53:57)

Sam now says I can get it but BT doesn't! Whats a good site to check with Bill?

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Sam now says I can get it but BT doesn't! Whats a good site to check with Bill?

Good question

BT said I couldn't get it for another 6 weeks (didn't check SamKnows), but I thought "What the hell..." and tried to order it online from my ISP. The order went through as sweet as you like.

But the "online" bit seems to be important- someone else (same ISP) tried to order by phone and was told it wasn't available yet. So he tried online and it went through

BT appear to have (at least) two databases which don't keep very good sync. Best I can suggest is to try and order it online and see what happens.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Sam now says I can get it but BT doesn't! Whats a good site to check with Bill?

The BT wholesale checker is the only one worth paying attention to, all the ISP's take the results from that when you put your phone number in on their website.

Sam knows says I can get FTTC now, but I can't. My cab has just changed to 30th June.

In reply to a post by danielowenuk:

ONLINE!!!!

So far I am pretty much stoked, it's very early days only an hour or two in but

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1201599347.png

37Mb when I was estimated 25Mb is pretty damn impressive.

Engineer said sync was 40/10

Nice guy actually shifted my master socket to a better position.

Nice one, good to see someone online in Chesterfield! Do you know how far away you are from your cabinet? Seems a good sync when you were estimated only 25meg.

Could you post a result from pingtest.net please, I'm curious to see what that's like. I know the result you posted has a ping on it, but it's usually lower on pingtest.net.

I am about 500m from cab.

22ms on pingtest

but the likes of the bbc and google both say 14ms

In reply to a post by Yerman164:

The BT wholesale checker is the only one worth paying attention to, all the ISP's take the results from that when you put your phone number in on their website.

In reference to forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/3980278-re-changed-rfs-date-31st-...:

BT said I couldn't get it for another 6 weeks (didn't check SamKnows), but I thought "What the hell..." and tried to order it online from my ISP. The order went through as sweet as you like.

The BT wholesale checker is the only one worth paying attention to, all the ISP's take the results from that when you put your phone number in on their website.

Not really. BT supply the ISP's with details of cab/postcode/uplift ratio when the cabs are ready to go live.

The administrive side of things (updating all the postcodes/lines on the checker) seems to lag behind the ISP's, whose interest it's in to get people connected.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

The BT wholesale checker is the only one worth paying attention to, all the ISP's take the results from that when you put your phone number in on their website.

Not really. BT supply the ISP's with details of cab/postcode/uplift ratio when the cabs are ready to go live.

The administrive side of things (updating all the postcodes/lines on the checker) seems to lag behind the ISP's, whose interest it's in to get people connected.

I'm not sure what's wrong with what I said. Generally speaking you can usually only order FTTC after the BT wholesale checker has been updated saying your line is live. There may be the odd example like Billford's where people have managed to get it before, but I don't think that's common place.

From what I've seen, the ISP's checkers all change at the same time as the BT Wholesale checker. For instance my cab changed today to 30th June, and every ISP checker updated likewise.

Also when the BT Wholesale checker is down when they're performing updates then the checker for other ISP's is also down, so it seems to me they're just using that.

Some ISP's e.g. Aquiss even tell you the exact same text the BT checker gives you.

When the engineer came out I was talking about the uptake of FTTC.

He said that they have only ran 100 pairs to the cabinet, and yet the fibre to the cabinet was 88000Mb, that seems a little pie in the sky as it would (potentially allow for 880Mb per end user).

Does anyone know what sort of fibre they run to the cab?

Are you sure he didnt mean 8800Mbs?

I think someone here told us that the standard cabinet supplied up to 288 lines. Divide that and you get 30 odd Meg each? Allow 2 lines per property and thats 60 odd?

Who knows! But that sort of figure would make more sense for allowed capacity.

I think I read somewhere that the fibres were 155 meg each??

Anybody?

He definitely said 88 thousand, and definitely said only 100 pairs in the cab could be bs though

Someone like Zarjaz would be the person to ask.

My cabinet has gone live today in Chesterfield, by coincidence the date of 31st March was correct all along.

It turns out I wasn't connected to the cabinet I thought I was, which was installed back in November and went live several weeks ago.

The cab I'm connected to was only installed 2 weeks ago and yet it's just gone live today, pretty impressive work by BT. I've not heard about a cab going live so quickly before.

Install date of 7th April for BT Infinity.

In reply to a post by danielowenuk:

Nice guy actually shifted my master socket to a better position.

I like them to move mine as it is in a stupid place, jammed right up against the window frame in the far right corner screwed the the sill.

I guess i'll have to have the brew and biccies ready.

To be fair he called up and said

"is the socket close to the pc?"

to which I said

"Ahhh I want to talk to you about that"

So he did kinda agree before I broke out the tea and biscuits, I think the process allows them to move sockets.

Just had my BT Infinity installed this morning. Great engineer that did the job, changed an extension socket to a master socket and screwed the BT modem onto the wall so it looks very neat.

I'm about 400-500 metres from the cabinet I'd guess, the estimate was 29.3meg down and 7meg upload from the BT checker.

I'm syncing at the full 40/10 and the engineer let me look at his checker that tells you the maximum the line can support which said 63meg down and 20meg up. Sounds promising for the future, especially considering the distance to the cab.

Speedtest:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2985/1240722788.png

Great engineer that did the job, changed an extension socket to a master socket

I assume you mean that he blanked off the existing master and used the cable to the secondary as the new master feed? Wouldn't want two masters on one line.

If it's decent fibre it's purely about what you stick at either end. As far as the pairs go he may have been referring to tie pairs from the legacy cabinet to the new one. I'm unsure of the value to BT of having every pair with a tie cable straight off the bat.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

I assume you mean that he blanked off the existing master and used the cable to the secondary as the new master feed? Wouldn't want two masters on one line.

I'm not sure to be honest, the old master socket is still there but I've not tested to see if it works. Maybe he's just made the old master socket an extension now? Either way it doesn't really matter, he did a good job.