How Long To Install A Fibre Cabinet

I've just found out that my exchange is having fibre installed in June this year. A check via BT wholesale adsl checker and via the BT Infinity websites both say 30th June 2011.

The wholesale adsl checker says:

Your cabinet is planned to have WBC FTTC by 30th June 2011.Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a fibre technology with an estimated speed of 29.3 Mbps downstream and upstream line speed of 7 Mbps.

Great news I thought because I've been checking all year and this information wasn't on the checker a few weeks ago.

The only problem is I've not seen any BT Openreach vans around our area and this afternoon I walked all around our estate and could only find 1 BT green cabinet which has been there for years. No signs of the taller green fibre cabinet anywhere to be seen.

Is it possible for BT Openreach to install a fibre cabinet in 1 month.

I've checked the distance between my house and the green cabinet via google maps and it's 0.2 mile (321metres). The checkers say estimated speed of 29.3 Mbps. I found the post code of the street where the BT cabinet is and the checker gave the full 40 Mbps. I'm not sure if I'm connected to this cabinet in question, but it's the only one in the area I could find. I'm not sure how many connections a single cabinet can hold but theres a heck of a lot of streets in our area all with at least 20 houses.

Edited by nickgrant123 (Mon 09-May-11 19:26:40)

Really it all depends. I've heard stories of only 3 weeks from being deployed to being enabled.
The cabinet I'm connected to was installed at end of feb, and I'm still waiting for it to be enabled. Its due 30th of june

Edited by homer79 (Mon 09-May-11 19:38:35)

Dates that are the last day of the month are usually just there for marketing purposes and are rarely kept to. Chances are that the date will change next month., though its posible to install the cabinet in in a few days, getting the fibre to it is often the sticking point, followed by power connection

Edited by Ribble (Mon 09-May-11 19:39:33)

Hi,

Openreach tend to only release availability data about 2 weeks ahead of the go live date, any dates further ahead than that are generally only an estimate based either on when the exchange is due to go live (if it's not enabled yet) or when the cab is expected.

if the exchange is already live then from the ones I've seen it usually takes around a month from when the Openreach engineers turn up to being able to place an order, if it's not live yet then they normally wait for the first 10 cabinets to be ready before an order can be placed so could be a couple of months.

Best thing to do is keep checking every week and see what happens. That date will eventually change.

It's possible, same where I am - 30th June and no new cabinets yet. But, there has been work to lay power to some and Openreach sub-contractors have been out and about putting in new man-holes and ducting etc, so the cabinets could spring up anytime.

To check on which cabinet you're connected to, check out the other post regarding very useful info and look up your postcode on the spreadsheet - if it's 100% connected to a cabinet (the cabinet number should be painted on it) number then you are connected to that cabinet and that's the one to watch.

We have a SCP (small sub-cabinet) at the top of our road, but that spreadsheet confirmed that my house is actually routed to the nearest PCP (main cabinet) which is the one I'm watching out for a mate being installed.

My whole city (Londonderry/Derry) has a go live dates of 30th June, in the last week or two, ive seen 4 or 5 cabinets near me pop up, 1 of which looks finished and sounds to be powered.

Mine however has not had any work started yet but the checker gives me 30th June also

yes the city Derry will be finished end of june 6 cabs have gone up in the last 4 days