Leamington Exchange Issues

I've started a new thread as the one we hijacked was getting very long.

I have just had an email stating that the DSLam issue at the Leamington Spa exchange has now been resolved (thanks Martin for all the updates!!). I've not received a new install date as yet, but at least it is fixed.

Funny as i got told different just a few hours ago from BT Ifinity.

The latest update i have is that the exchange problem is now due to be fixed any time upto 22 Feb.
They are going to re-access on the 22 Feb and if all well then installs will start again on that date.
Should bear in mind that the original fix should have been completed 3 days after 10 Feb.

I really do hope that your update is the most current. I have a install date of 23 Feb.

BTW Thanks for posting the updates and starting the new thread.

Yeah, I saw your post in the other thread. This information is coming from my ISP, who is liaising with OpenReach, so I believe (hope!!!) it to be accurate..

No worries - figured it was better to start a new thread in case anyone else came looking for information about Leamington and wouldn't think to look in the thread about Sky.

I suspect you are going to be the Guinea pig as I assume that the next available appointment won't be for 10 to 14 days, and yours is next Wednesday.

My friend, who was supposed to have his install on Monday (14th), has just received a new install date of Thursday the 24th.

Sorry I have been AWOL from the forums, I was only made aware of some issues the other day when I contacted Aquiss regards some slowness with my FTTC during the day.

I managed to get my FTTC installed just before they started postponing installs due to the problems at Leam, I was Installed at 8am on the 10th Feb and the engineer reckoned I was the first one to get installed on the cabinet.

II was on 3Mb ADSL2+ with Aquiss and am now on FTTC Business 90 with Aquiss.

When it was installed they tested it and said it was synced at 40Mb down and 10Mb up, and also said that uncapped it was capable of something like 57Mb down and 19Mb up, my house is only 150metres from the street VDSL cabinet.

On the whole since the install its been pretty good and on an evening speedtests are usually showing around 37/38Mb down and 8.5Mb up .... but during the daytime hours it can be very poor (I have had as low as 3Mb down on the speedtests, and 24Mb down at the most during 9 to 5 hours, strangeley uploads tend to show 8.5Mb most of the time) for some reason and I have reported this to Aquiss and Martin has been investigating.

I don't know if this is something related to the problems at the Leamington exchange but it would be nice if speeds were consistent during the day too.

Having said that, even with the slowness during the day its still been a complete game changer for me, I tend to do my uploads and downloads during the night anyway and at that time its been running at almost full speed for me which has been great...... ive done some 20GB+ uploads (I am a photographer) to the USA overnight and they just wouldn't have been possible on 3Mb ADSL2+

Sorry to hear some of you guys have had your installs put back, I hope they get the issues sorted soon for you because for us stuck out on Warwick gates miles from the exchange FTTC is a complete revelation!

Thanks for the update!!

Hopefully your daytime speed issues will go away now that the FTTC circuit issues have been resolved.

In reply to a post by Spasch:

Thanks for the update!!

Hopefully your daytime speed issues will go away now that the FTTC circuit issues have been resolved.

Untill all the rest of us get on (~1300 dwellings on Warwick Gates, 288 connections per cab...)

Regards

Dave

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

On the whole since the install its been pretty good and on an evening speedtests are usually showing around 37/38Mb down and 8.5Mb up .... but during the daytime hours it can be very poor

Can you keep sending in tests for me please? I really need the BT speedtester to go red as it will prove a fault. The problem is I'm seeing too many passing BT checks, making it difficult to prove to BT of capacity issues.

I have trained all the staff this week on a new managed process inhouse that we doing with FTTC faults. There is alot of oddness going on in some areas, in your case, slow in the daytime, but great in the evenings (bemusing).

Leamington Spa, to be blunt, is a right mess. I'm aware that we have 27 installs in the area, 4 got installed and the rest have got delayed, though some new dates have now being provided.

I found out a friend of mine on Warwick Gates had Infinity installed via BT last week (and received a HH3!) connected via the Ophelia Drive cab. He commented on how variable the throughput is at the moment particularly during the day. He was experiencing throughput almost alternating between full speed and less than 1mb. I suggested he starts reporting regular speed tests on here to possibly corroborate the issue Martin from Aquiss believes to exist.

Regards

Dave

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Untill all the rest of us get on (~1300 dwellings on Warwick Gates, 288 connections per cab...)

Regards

Dave

I've just heard that BT are having more issues in the Leamington area. Hopefully we'll get an update sometime this afternoon.

Do you mind if I ask who you are making contact with for the updates?

I'm heading out of the area tomorrow and traveling back for the install on Thursday and really don't want to do a 500 mile round trip if it's going to get knocked on the head on the day of the install.

Regards

Dave

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Do you mind if I ask who you are making contact with for the updates?

I'm heading out of the area tomorrow and traveling back for the install on Thursday and really don't want to do a 500 mile round trip if it's going to get knocked on the head on the day of the install.

Regards

Dave

Martin from Aquiss is keeping me in the loop as they are processing my order (admittedly I keep bugging him for updates, as I don't have a new install date yet)..

I can fully understand that sentiment.

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Good news!! My friend, who is also due to be installed on the 24th, has also received his confirmation call. My original install also failed in process.

I don't have a new date yet as there is also some kind of issue with placing of manual orders.

My speeds are still up and down quite a bit.

Just tested on Speedtest.net and got 28.77Mb down and 8.26Mb up

but straight after on the bt tester I got 19855 Kbps down and 8191 Kbps

this is on an IP profile of 38717 Kbps and 10000 Kbps

On the plus side its still a massive difference to 3Mb ADSL2+ and its also been very reliable so far, I've had no dropped connections or had to restart my router at any time which was fairly common on ADSL2+. I also used to lose adsl sync sometimes when making or receiving a voice call, I tried replacing micro-filters and checked internal wiring etc. but none of it made any difference...... that problem has also thankfully gone away since the change to FTTC.

I changed to a Cisco E3000 router when I swapped to FTTC and couldn't be happier with that too.

Hope you guys get your installs sorted soon, even with the current problems its a massive step up from ADSL2+

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

I can confirm that my install is on the 23rd.
Like everyone else its fingers crossed that this wont be a second failed install.

In reply to a post by Spasch:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Do you mind if I ask who you are making contact with for the updates?

I'm heading out of the area tomorrow and traveling back for the install on Thursday and really don't want to do a 500 mile round trip if it's going to get knocked on the head on the day of the install.

Regards

Dave

Martin from Aquiss is keeping me in the loop as they are processing my order (admittedly I keep bugging him for updates, as I don't have a new install date yet)..

I can fully understand that sentiment.

If you cant get an install date yet then there must still be problems.
Looks like i may get another install failure on 23rd by the looks of it.
BT tell me it should be ok for an install on 23rd but then again the leamington exchange problem was all suppose to be fixed a couple of weeks ago.

Well we just had a customer with a 2nd install date for tomorrow morning who I've just had to phone to break the news.

BT just informed us it's been cancelled due to problems, with a review date of 1st March.

Bummer, it's looking like another few weeks of Sky LLU broadband.

I wouldn't care but I had a rush of blood to the head and picked up a Netgear WNDR3700 today as I can't easily work with the limitations of a Home Hub 2.

I did try and get BT to ship an HH3 but they stuck to the party line that the HH3's arent available until the end of Feb (even though a friend got one two weeks ago). Sales did offer to cancel my order, I ship the HH2 back and then they re order and ship out a HH3. If the install gets bounced on Thursday I might just take them up on that.

Regards

Dave

In reply to a post by Spasch:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Good news!! My friend, who is also due to be installed on the 24th, has also received his confirmation call. My original install also failed in process.

I don't have a new date yet as there is also some kind of issue with placing of manual orders.

My install is for Friday (25th) morning.

I live in Costard Avenue, so imagine our cabinet is the one on the corner of Othello Avenue and Portia Way.

Got home today to find a message on my answering machine from BT confirming my install appointment.

Fingers crossed.

I now have an email confirming the appointment (as well as yesterday's automated call). Whilst I'm tempted to contact BT I don't want to tempt fate.

I guess I will just head off up to the North-East today with a view to driving back tomorrow but take a spare change of clothes should the dreaded call come in canceling the appointment meaning I can spend an extra day up there.

On another note the Netgear WNDR3700 I picked up for use with the Infinity service is a top piece of gear. I'm now using that for all but the ADSL connection and have it embedded within my core network (all my gear was configured for a 10.1.1.x schema which the Home Hubs don't like). One of my main reasons for getting that unit was the on-board usage monitor within the router itself. I've been reading the horror stories on other forums regarding the BT usage calculation being orders of magnitude out and kicking in the 30 day throttling period way earlier than people are expecting.

Are you guys staying with the Home Hubs? (BT Infinity guys that is)

Regards

Dave

I've just had a word (11:00 Tuesday) with an Open Reach engineer who was working on the Ophelia Drive cab on Warwick Gates. He's was doing an installation for a house on Gadshill and confirmed that the installs are going ahead as scheduled but there is a backlog due to the initial problem which he claims was software related at the exchange.

Any confirmed installations for 22nd onwards should now go ahead as planned.

Regards

Dave

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

I've just had a word (11:00 Tuesday) with an Open Reach engineer who was working on the Ophelia Drive cab on Warwick Gates. He's was doing an installation for a house on Gadshill and confirmed that the installs are going ahead as scheduled but there is a backlog due to the initial problem which he claims was software related at the exchange.

Any confirmed installations for 22nd onwards should now go ahead as planned.

Regards

Dave

Excellent news.. I've also just had confirmation of a new install date of 02/03, so lets hope it actually happens this time..

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Just a quick update.
I had my install this morning. The engineers didnt call me. They just turned up at around 11.00am this morning. They connected the faceplate and BTHH3 and everything this time worked. They must have done the cab work prior to turning up. The handheld device synced at over 40M. The speedtest at the PC was just over 38M. They spent no more than 10 minutes in the house.
I honestly thought that the install would fail because they apprently had one fail yesterday according to them. They hinted that most of the problematic installs so far are with the BT HH V3 in Leamington. (No problems with the BTHHv2.0)
They also said that all the leamington installs are back on as of yesterday and so far all except one was unsucceful.
Overall quite a tense wait this morning but so pleased now.

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

In reply to a post by BP1:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

There was an Openreach van parked at the end of Mark Antony Drive when I nipped out earlier today so I reckon someone was having an install

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

In reply to a post by Dilbert:

My speeds are still up and down quite a bit.

Just tested on Speedtest.net and got 28.77Mb down and 8.26Mb up

but straight after on the bt tester I got 19855 Kbps down and 8191 Kbps

this is on an IP profile of 38717 Kbps and 10000 Kbps

On the plus side its still a massive difference to 3Mb ADSL2+ and its also been very reliable so far, I've had no dropped connections or had to restart my router at any time which was fairly common on ADSL2+. I also used to lose adsl sync sometimes when making or receiving a voice call, I tried replacing micro-filters and checked internal wiring etc. but none of it made any difference...... that problem has also thankfully gone away since the change to FTTC.

I changed to a Cisco E3000 router when I swapped to FTTC and couldn't be happier with that too.

Hope you guys get your installs sorted soon, even with the current problems its a massive step up from ADSL2+

My profile is the same as yours.
One thing ive noticed when doing speed tests is it is nearly always as the the profile when doing the test via the lan port on the laptop. I always get lower speed tests when doing them via wireless.
My conclussion is that everything is ok. It probably the wireless being a little problamatic.

Overall very pleased. Prior to FTTC i had ADSL2+ which has been a nightmare since activated on the line last Dec. Have had numerous engineer visits, lift and and shift etc. Since FTTC the problems have all gone.

In reply to a post by BP1:

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

My mate got his installed today (same cab as me).. The wholesale checker originally said 13 down, 4 up and he is getting 20 down & 6 up, which he is well pleased with..

In reply to a post by Spasch:

In reply to a post by BP1:

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

My mate got his installed today (same cab as me).. The wholesale checker originally said 13 down, 4 up and he is getting 20 down & 6 up, which he is well pleased with..

All i can say is that there were a few dissapointments on getting FTTC with the install failures. This also applies to the dreaded time on ADSL2+ since Dec 2010.
But so far its defantly been worth the wait. I think the problems on the installs have now been resolved so there's going to be a lot of happy people.
I'm one of those whos very grateful to BT for providing a prduct which so far is a vast improvement for those people originally on very long lines.

Are you guys staying with the Home Hubs? (BT Infinity guys that is)

Regards

Dave


I did the same as you that is to say i bought a Buffalo WZR-HP-3000NH router. I am currently using the BT HHv3 with the DHCP and wireless disabled. The buffalo is used as a slave with DHCP enabled, wireless, custom DDNS, and DNS pointing to the opendns deluxe account. I only bought this router because the routing of dns servers to opendns was essential in our household regarding controlling the kids internet use. The custom dns settings is not possible on the homehubs.
Its only been two days on FTTC and so far the setup works really great.

In reply to a post by BP1:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

Sure did, same engineer I spoke to the other day rang about 14:30, turned up 20 mins later and I was connected with the HH2 syncing at 40Mb/10Mb by 15:30.

speedtest.net is consistently showing 36mb down/8.5mb up

I swapped out the HH2 for the Netgear 3700 which is working fine. The dual band wireless appears very robust compared to the Belkin Vision N1 I had previously on Sky. Not a cheap replacement but I view it as an investment in the network.

I've yet to really spank it but may set a few giganews downloads running overnight to see how it compares.

Dave

I use Giganews too and on a night when I have left my downloads going I have seen a nice steady 4000KB/s + (rock solid 4400KB/s in the early hours last weekend) from their European server.

Post deleted by BP1

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

In reply to a post by BP1:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

Well I've just taken an automated call confirming the Openreach engineers appointment on Thursday pm so they must be hopefull of the installs progressing. Saying that BP1s visit got knocked on the head during the installation.

Fingers crossed. So who's installs are due when?

Mine is the 24th, I think BP1's is the 23rd

Dave

Did you get connected and installed to FTTC today.

Sure did, same engineer I spoke to the other day rang about 14:30, turned up 20 mins later and I was connected with the HH2 syncing at 40Mb/10Mb by 15:30.

speedtest.net is consistently showing 36mb down/8.5mb up

I swapped out the HH2 for the Netgear 3700 which is working fine. The dual band wireless appears very robust compared to the Belkin Vision N1 I had previously on Sky. Not a cheap replacement but I view it as an investment in the network.

I've yet to really spank it but may set a few giganews downloads running overnight to see how it compares.

Dave

Thats great news that you to are now connected.
Just waiting for Spasch to be connected on 02/03 and that will be everyone on this thread.

One of the best improvements for us is having a steady connection without the router re-syncing on incomming calls. That was the biggest pain on ADSL2+ which 5 engineer visits were unable to resolve since 15 Dec 2010.

Well, my install was this morning.

All went fine, engineer connected his device to the newly fitted socket, it was reporting the full 40ish, which is what he'd expect as the cab is pretty much at the end of my road.

Then i tried speedest.net, and got 26 down, 1.7 or so up (my upstream is a 2 meg one through Zen). He suggested I call Zen as his equipment was showing no fault.

An hour or so later, speed had dropped again, and since then has been up and down like a yoyo - as low as 8 down at one point, never higher than 25 or 26.

The BT speedtest shows my profile as 38 or so, so all looks ok there, but the download speeds have been highly erratic to say the least.

Also, tried taking the router out of the equation, and connecting laptop to modem and instigating a PPoE connection, no difference there.

Not entirely sure what to do now, sit tight and wait, and see how it pans out, or call Zen.

Edited by deleted (Fri 25-Feb-11 13:31:41)

Andrew,

Since I got connected on Thursday I've been hammering the line with usenet traffic at around 4.1-4.4MB/Sec. I have noticed that initial DNS lookups arent as instantaneous as I was expecting. A good example this evening was entering www.bbc.co.uk and on hitting return it took a good second and a half before anything appeared but when it did it all the content appeared as fast as the browser could render it.

I have been messing around between BT's DNS and using OpenDNS (in conjunction with Netgear's Live Parental Controls) so I may not have an optimal setup yet.

I checked my profile and it's 38700 down/10000 up and speedtest.net tests today have been coming in around 25-35mb down and 8mb up. BT Speedtester and the TBB tester show around 5mb less though when done back to back.

Sorry it's not more scientific but after 3'ish MB on Sky and their intermittent connectivity it's a major improvement.

Regards

Dave

A day and a bit later and it seems to have settled down.

I'm getting 35 plus on most speed tests now, but it is interesting reading back through this thread the mention of speeds being much worse during the day than at what you'd consider "busier" periods.

Yesterday afternoon, it was pretty unimpressive. Last night at around 8ish, prime time I would have thought for slow downs, it was absolutely flying. I had something downloading from usenet at nigh on 4mb a second.

Given that when we moved here in 2005, it was still a dial up, TPON wasteland, and given that we've had a max of about 3 meg since then, it's a total, total change for the better.

In reply to a post by andrewrobins:

A day and a bit later and it seems to have settled down.

I'm getting 35 plus on most speed tests now, but it is interesting reading back through this thread the mention of speeds being much worse during the day than at what you'd consider "busier" periods.

Yesterday afternoon, it was pretty unimpressive. Last night at around 8ish, prime time I would have thought for slow downs, it was absolutely flying. I had something downloading from usenet at nigh on 4mb a second.

Given that when we moved here in 2005, it was still a dial up, TPON wasteland, and given that we've had a max of about 3 meg since then, it's a total, total change for the better.

Hi andrewrobins - Crikey last time i posted to you was in the TPON days
I have had no real problems on FTTC since connected. Yes occasionally the speedtester is a little eratic but compared to what we had before i am totaly satisfied with the service. I use the BT HH 3 which did a FW update on friday night. I use opendns configured within my network and thank BT for the great improvement on WG.
And yes i do remember them bad days of TPON. Can you believe in less than five years BT took us away from that dreaded TPON and then the long line issues to todays FTTC.

Can someone help. I live on Caliban Mews and I am getting told that BT infinity is not even being rolled out in my area yet! I saw and spoke to the Open Reach guys before Christmas installing the fibre optic cable, and everyone seems to be getting connected all over Warwick Gates.
I don't understand why BT are insistent that I am unable to get Infinity!

In reply to a post by Jiinkr:

Can someone help. I live on Caliban Mews and I am getting told that BT infinity is not even being rolled out in my area yet! I saw and spoke to the Open Reach guys before Christmas installing the fibre optic cable, and everyone seems to be getting connected all over Warwick Gates.
I don't understand why BT are insistent that I am unable to get Infinity!

You need to go to the BT Wholesale checker and BT Infinty checker. Put your phone number in and see what the checker tells you. It maybe that the line your cab is being fed from is not yet ready for FTTC. Come back with the checker results.
I was under the impression that everyone on WG were going to get FTTC eventually. This is based on what our MP said prior to the elections (Labour MP). who is no longer our MP (Now conservative)

I would also recommend Aquiss who have been very helpful here. I would have gone with Aquiss now knowing how good to help they have been here.

In reply to a post by BP1:

I would also recommend Aquiss who have been very helpful here. I would have gone with Aquiss now knowing how good to help they have been here.

Completely agree, its one of the reasons why I stuck with them when I changed to FTTC.

I have had some serious issues with BT over the years so having someone like Martin at Aquiss acting as a buffer between me and them is very much appreciated.

Its a lot easier to get sense out of Martin at Aquiss then it s from one of the script monkeys at BT and I am sure Martins routes into BT/Opeareach are much better as a wholesaler than the average consumer.

I had the same issue when I first moved to Warwick gates and found myself connected via TPON. With BT's systems back then I just couldn't get ADSL, failures at each attempt several times over a period of months, finally got connected after going to Nildram (who were very good back then) and got me routed via different cabinets and provisioned on ADSL.

In reply to a post by Spasch:

In reply to a post by Fatlab:

I've just had a word (11:00 Tuesday) with an Open Reach engineer who was working on the Ophelia Drive cab on Warwick Gates. He's was doing an installation for a house on Gadshill and confirmed that the installs are going ahead as scheduled but there is a backlog due to the initial problem which he claims was software related at the exchange.

Any confirmed installations for 22nd onwards should now go ahead as planned.

Regards

Dave

Excellent news.. I've also just had confirmation of a new install date of 02/03, so lets hope it actually happens this time..

Good Luck for tommorows install

In reply to a post by BP1:

Good Luck for tommorows install

Thanks!!
Unfortunately, I am going to be in Southampton, so no playing until I get home and get the kids to bed (around 8PM, fortunately)..

The wife called around 9:30 to say the OR man had left and wanted to know how to connect the router.. Not called back to say it's not working, so I am assuming all is good..

Hello BP1, yes, it's been a fair old while.

Thank God those days are far distant. We moved here knowing there was no broadband but that they were "doing" the copper overlay. Had six months of dial up only which is enough to break anyone's spirits!

Seems a long time ago now, though!

Spoke to BT, and they were no help whatsoever. Reminded me of a Little Britain sketch. I am going to try Openreach tomorrow and see if they can shed any light on the situation.

Really frustrating as I have been waiting to get FTTC since it was announced!

Speedtest.net on the Birmingham server gave me 28 down and 8 up. The down being double the wholesale checker's estimate.

In reply to a post by Jiinkr:

Spoke to BT, and they were no help whatsoever. Reminded me of a Little Britain sketch. I am going to try Openreach tomorrow and see if they can shed any light on the situation.

Really frustrating as I have been waiting to get FTTC since it was announced!

Looks like the BT Wholesale checker for your post code does not show FTTC. They may have not done your cab. What results do you get on the checker with your phone number

In reply to a post by Spasch:

Speedtest.net on the Birmingham server gave me 28 down and 8 up. The down being double the wholesale checker's estimate.

Great news youve been finally connected.

In reply to a post by Jiinkr:

Spoke to BT, and they were no help whatsoever. Reminded me of a Little Britain sketch. I am going to try Openreach tomorrow and see if they can shed any light on the situation.

Really frustrating as I have been waiting to get FTTC since it was announced!

Did you get anywhere with openreach? I'm on Bolingbroke Drive and it is extremely frustrating that so many people around the estate are getting FTTC and when I search on my number it doesn't seem to be planned!

I got nowhere. BT were no better than useless and couldn't tell me anything. They were using Samknows to find out what was going on.

Aquiss stated 'Whilst FTTC is in your area (the main town), your street cabinet has not been enabled to support fibre services at this time.' Strange how people in the next street on the same estate can get FTTC!!

Is there a way of finding out which cabinet you are connected to? There are plenty of the new cabinets going up around here I find it hard to believe they would miss random ones out, I was going to have a walk around to check...

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Mar-11 21:51:20)

I'm not aware of any mechanism other than talking to the engineer. I'm connected to the cab at the corner of Ophelia Drive and Mark Antony Drive which is only around 30 yards from the house.

I also believe that is the one with the most direct connection to the exchange as when they did the copper overlay the route was from the exchange up past the Ford plant, over the bridge at the Moorings and then straight up Tachbrook Park Drive past Sainsburys. The reason I mention that is that it was one of the first cabs worked on as part of the FTTC roll out and the first batch to go live.

BTW speeds and connection are rock solid, the router has been up 19 days and the connection 16 days. Speedtest.net via a wi-fi connection is giving a consistent 36.5Mb down, 8.5Mb up with a 14ms ping.

Regards

Dave

I guess I'll just have to wait and keep checking. My speed hasn't even hit 1mb yet...
Cheers,
Rich

I don't know. I'd also like to find out. It seems very random. I have a friend in Glendower Approach and it he tells me one end of his street can get FTTC but the other can't! Something doesn't seem to add up.

To fill in some coverage: a friend on Tamora Close got a letter from BT offering him Infinity a week or so ago...

I have tried the phone number as well and it doesn't mention FTTC is avaiable, while when I try one of my friends on the estate the result comes back positive.

Does anyone know how to check what cabnets are enabled?

Unfortunatly the only way now to no which cab you are connected to is by BT wholesale providing this info. Or possibily an isp who is willing to share this info.
I only got to no mine from asking an engineer who came around sometime back to fix a line fault. There are many cabs on the estate but i've only seen 4 FTTC ones. It does look as some have been missed out for the time being.

HI
I live on Warwick Gates and although I see lots of cabinets .. I cant have Infinity. No reason why and no way of getting sense out of BT. I just wonder if I am connected to the one old cabinet that hasnt got a new FTTC Cabinet next to it!

Just how much of this estate can actually get Infinity? It seems totally insane that BT would fall short of covering the whole estate and then leave part without a roll-out plan.

My real frustration (as indicated earlier) is that there appears to be no-one to speak to about the situation to understand the reasons why and whether the plans can be changed.

The history of internet access with BT on our estate is a farce from TPON though copper install with low speeds all the way through the promise of fibre, now it appears being under delivered......I guess I will have to move!
Thx

Quite a few people on here got access to a BT document detailing postcodes and cabinet level plans. If you put up your postcode, someone (or myself) can have a look.

Before the general elections our labour MP was in talks with BT about poor internet on our estate. It was also him that was able to get a lot of info and statements from BT at that time and share this with the residents. We eventually had all our lines of which there were some 1200+ on the estate and less than five years old replaced from TPON to copper. Eventually broadband was available to everyone on the estate. Times have moved on since then and the demand for the current fibre product is quite high. The old labour MP before the election was also trying to get all our cabs considered for fibre with BT. There was a few staements in the local paper about this a few years ago which seemed to apply that this was the route that BT were going to take. However since then he has gone and we now have a new conservative MP. Unfortunatly he is not really interested. I no of a few people that have written to him. They just get a party political reply back on how the goverment is looking at all posibilities. BT also seemed to have changed their program to only a few new fibre cabs on the estate. It seems that some are lucky and some not. Also as you have indicated getting info from BT or anyone on what the future hold for our estate is very poor. I think more people need to get in touch with the new MP and hopefully if there is enough people writing to him he may take on this case and get that information link back with the residents.
I am sorry but i dont realy have alot of faith with our new MP. Both him and our local councillor who lives on our esate have been very quite regarding local issues.

It looks as if the fibre cabs have missed you also. I am sorry but i really dont no what the future holds for our estate.

I can generate a list of all the postcodes which are not to be done, but it's quite long.

Overall the planned coverage is reasonable:

85 of 115 cabinets (73%)
1774 of 1966 postcodes * (88%)

* only the postcodes in the document, there may be others not in the plan and not in the document at all

Pretty frustrating if you're in the "not to be done" list, though.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Quite a few people on here got access to a BT document detailing postcodes and cabinet level plans. If you put up your postcode, someone (or myself) can have a look.

Cabinet Postcodes

It strikes me there are two issues;

a) BT put their customers at arms length and so you cant get a straight (or any answer).
My neighbour was told by BT business that its all done and dusted - was based on the 'show interest' and the only route is to complain to the council??

b) Its down to cabinet upgrade investment (of course) - But how were the decisions made?.
I have spent quite some time putting addresses into the ADSL wholesale checker to map availability around where I live and its quite apparent that the problem is cabinet number 124 which hasnt been upgraded. Half of my post code can get Infinity (up to 3 doors away) but the rest of us not.
(I did find one strange anomaly - one house on Lady Grey Avenue can apparently get 14MB ADSL and Infinity! (close houses cannot)
There is only one other cabinet (112) on the estate that hasn't had the fibre treatment.

The postcode list you provided (thank you) shows my postcode to have 51.42% lines deployed - and the rest with no information.

It sucks! but there are lots here in the same boat....I feel a campaign and publicity on the way!

Edited by deleted (Fri 03-Jun-11 19:40:36)

In reply to a post by aimhigh:

It strikes me there are two issues;

a) BT put their customers at arms length and so you cant get a straight (or any answer).
My neighbour was told by BT business that its all done and dusted - was based on the 'show interest' and the only route is to complain to the council??

b) Its down to cabinet upgrade investment (of course) - But how were the decisions made?.
I have spent quite some time putting addresses into the ADSL wholesale checker to map availability around where I live and its quite apparent that the problem is cabinet number 124 which hasnt been upgraded. Half of my post code can get Infinity (up to 3 doors away) but the rest of us not.
(I did find one strange anomaly - one house on Lady Grey Avenue can apparently get 14MB ADSL and Infinity! (close houses cannot)
There is only one other cabinet (112) on the estate that hasn't had the fibre treatment.

The postcode list you provided (thank you) shows my postcode to have 51.42% lines deployed - and the rest with no information.

It sucks! but there are lots here in the same boat....I feel a campaign and publicity on the way!

WG has PCP's scattered around some quite close to others. An example is the big cab on Ophellia Av which has a fibre cab next to it. Then if you look at Bollingrove Dr you will see a cab at the end of this road which has no fibre. However some of the lines in Bollingrove Dr are fed from the Orphellia Av cab while others are fed from the Bollingrove Dr cab. This is where you will find that some can have the Infinity while others on the same road can't.
Any campain requires a lot of support and then someone to present these issues to the relevant people within BT. Its getting hold of the correct contact within BT to listen and provide info which is the main problem you will encounter. This is why as per my previous post i mentioned the MP. The old labour MP was very good and did alot for resolving issues for WG. Unfortantly he didnt get enough support in the last elections and therefore no longer represents us. However i find our local current councillor and MP very quite at the moment with local issues at WG. Like i said in my previous post i no of a couple of people who did write to the current MP and the response was very poor. Perhaps with a larger group of people he might want to listen. I say contact your MP hoping he may be able to find the correct person in BT who can help and get that link back for info as per the previous MP. Also the councillor lives on WG. Now would be the time to test her on support for local issues. Good luck with that as i find her not very helpful on local issues.

BP1 Thanks for your reply.
I havent finished collecting information yet, but once I do, I plan to gauge support and then work out the best course of action.

I have two questions - Why did they stop (and leave out cab 112 and 124)?
and
Why isnt there a plan to finish the work / roll out to the rest of the estate?

I am hopeful that MPs and councillors can be 'encouraged' to take note with the right approach.

In reply to a post by aimhigh:

BP1 Thanks for your reply.
I havent finished collecting information yet, but once I do, I plan to gauge support and then work out the best course of action.

I have two questions - Why did they stop (and leave out cab 112 and 124)?
and
Why isnt there a plan to finish the work / roll out to the rest of the estate?

I am hopeful that MPs and councillors can be 'encouraged' to take note with the right approach.

In time you will probably notice quite a few cabs have been missed out. That will be more than the two you mention. There could be many reasons why with only BT who can answer this.
The plan for WG is probably finished regarding BT's original plan. I dont think these cabs have been missed out. They probably were not on BT's original program to be served for fibre for reasons only known to them. I no that on our cab there is quite a few biusness lines and also the councillors home address line. Perhaps serving biusness lines carries some weight in decission making at BT?
BTW i do really sympathise with you as this reminds me of the dreaded TPON days. Looking back at that episode the result was a 100% copper overlay.
Good luck with the campain.